enlarge Greg Burke/For The Maine Sunday Telegram

The Cliff House Resort and Spa is dramatically perched above Bald Head Cliffs in Ogunquit. Views from the rooms include the sunset, Ogunquit Beach, the cliffs and the town of York. The cliffs are lighted at night.

enlarge Greg Burke/For The Maine Sunday Telegram

Ogunquit Beach is one of the best in Maine, providing three miles of clean sand.

enlarge Greg Burke/For The Maine Sunday Telegram

Watching boats leave Ogunquit Harbor at sunset is part of the joy of staying at the Cliff House.

enlarge Greg Burke/For The Maine Sunday Telegram

The Cliff House spa pool is for adults only. The resort also offers a separate oceanview family pool.

IF YOU GO

THE CLIFF HOUSE Resort and Spa in York can be reached at www.cliffhousemaine.com or at 361-1000

SPA SERVICES are available to non-hotel guests and include use of the resort spa pool and facilities for the day. Saturday appointments are available 24 hours in advance.

It felt familiar but fanciful driving through the vacation town of Ogunquit, just minutes from our home. Day one of our "staycation," we packed up our car with bikes and bags, and in just 10 miles (less than a gallon of gas, no TSA hassles) we were tourists in our neighboring town.

We passed brightly painted boutiques and cafes with a new appreciation, admiring gardens spilling onto the sidewalks along famous Shore Road on our way to the Cliff House – our destination for a few nights.

Within a half hour of leaving home, we were sitting by the vanishing edge pool perched on the resort's spectacular Bald Head Cliff. With drinks in hand, we watched lobster boats ply the Atlantic below the dramatic rocky cliffs. Spa appointments had been arranged and ocean-view dinner reservations were made, all part of the spa package.

While downtown Ogunquit and Perkins Cove had seemed bursting with beach-attired tourists, the Cliff House was quiet. After some sun and a soak in the outdoor whirlpool, we returned to our spacious room in the Cliff Spa building, which offered us a sunset and distant views of Ogunquit Beach. (Other rooms orient toward the cliffs and York.)

The Cliff House's formal dining room (business casual attire is required) is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Maine, and one of the most scenic. Our five-course dinner was delicious, and the live piano from the Cliff Lounge drifted to our waterfront-window table.

The chef's locally inspired creations of creamy pink lobster bisque, halibut with blueberries and Maine rock shrimp risotto were served slowly as we watched the waves crash into the cliffs, which are illuminated come nightfall.

We brought our bikes, and started the next morning with a coastal ride to Nubble Light in Cape Neddick. Shore Road is hilly and narrow in spots. A bountiful buffet breakfast back at the Cliff House tasted all the better after touring the salt-aired shoreline.

A walk of the 70-acre grounds of the resort reveals several lodges of different vintages. The Cliff Spa, which opened in 2002, is the newest, and includes 32 guest rooms, an extensive spa and a 75-foot indoor lap pool.

The resort has been in the Weare family since 1872, when train service started bringing summer guests from the city. A room with three meals a day was $6 a week per person, and the family formula was "clean rooms, fine food, fresh air, personable hospitality, all in an incomparable scenic location atop Bald Head Cliff."

Fourth-generation Kathryn Weare operates the Cliff House today with the same mantra, and while the rates have multiplied (try $360 a night) and guests now drive Mercedes and Maseratis, the views from every spot on the property have not changed – whether you are in Cliff Spa, or the connected Cliffscape, or the older buildings of Ledges and Clifftop. Rates are lower in the older but equally scenic buildings.

The trolley will take you the three miles to town for shopping or drop you at Perkins Cove to catch a tour boat or walk the mile-long Marginal Way. You should also ride to Ogunquit Beach, because parking is tight.

Being natives, we knew low tide was the time to walk the three miles of wide, flat sandy beach all the way to famous Footbridge Beach, and back to the sandbar where the Ogunquit River flows into the sea. We wished we'd brought a boogie board or an inner tube to float along this fresh-water lazy raft ride. Those who did were having a blast on this balmy beach day.

A mid-afternoon stop in Perkins Cove for a little boutique browsing and a picnic was perfect. There are ice cream shops and seafood take-out windows, as well as sit-down restaurants – whatever suits your mood.

We returned to the Cliff House in time for a dip in the ocean-side pool before our spa appointments. We donned our fluffy robes and waited in the serenely scented spa reception room. Choosing a treatment from the...