Dunes on the Waterfront

Character and identity

A reimagined 1940s seaside resort on 12 acres at the edge of Ogunquit, the Dunes comprises 21 white-clapboard cottages with green shutters, copper-topped cupolas, and working gas fireplaces, set across lawns and pollinator gardens that slope down to a tidal river. A 2024 top-to-bottom redo by the Kennebunkport Resort Collection's Tim Harrington layers Portugal-made custom furniture, beadboard, cabana stripes, and foraged-shell vignettes over the old bones. There's no restaurant or bar (a light breakfast tote, afternoon cookies, and Veuve in the Lodge fill the gap), a 25-by-50 pool, a cabana boat, and a famously low-key, long-tenured staff.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What you're really paying for is the setting and the inclusions: a stretch of beach almost no one else can reach, a cabana-boat shuttle, breakfast and afternoon spreads built into the rate, and cottages that feel genuinely considered rather than catalogue-styled. Book a river-facing cottage with a screened porch (13 of the 21 have them), and aim for shoulder season in June or late September to dodge peak-summer pricing.