Bored? Restless? Camden offers a cure

CAMDEN, Maine - When the kids go stir crazy from being cooped up in winter, consider this cure for boredom: Pack them into the car and drive to Camden.

Needing a midwinter getaway last year, my wife and I arranged for a long weekend here with our three children. Our main point of interest: the Camden Snow Bowl, which had been a regular day trip for the two of us and our friends when we lived in Maine. Now that we have kids, we understand its allure more completely: It's the ideal place for enjoying the cold and the snow with the little ones.

Just a few miles off Route 1, the Snow Bowl has it all: small-scale ski slopes, trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, a tubing hill, a pond for ice-skating, and a wooden-toboggan run. If that's not enough, Camden Hills State Park is just around the corner, and its pristine environs are open in the winter to Nordic skiers and snowshoers.

For our kids - twin boys who were 8 last winter and a girl who was 5 - the tubing hill was the star attraction. For $5 an hour, you can slide down the hill as many times as you're able to climb back up. There's no tow rope, but the trek up isn't as laborious as it might appear.

The toboggan run - the only one in New England - offers a unique thrill. As many as five adults sit on the wooden sled, linking arms and legs so that no one falls off, and scream down the chute at speeds approaching 50 miles an hour. At the bottom, the toboggan shoots out onto a frozen pond. (This is where the tongue-in-cheek National Toboggan Championships are held every February.) The downside is the same as at the tubing hill: You have to lug your heavy sled back up the hill. Same price too: $5 an hour.

For a change of scenery, we decided to snowshoe in the state park. Camden Hills was the perfect spot to begin. Many of the trails are flat, smooth, and wide, and if the kids don't feel like climbing up Mount Battie or Mount Megunticook, there are enough trails closer to sea level. An Audubon group was arriving as we were leaving, but we didn't see another soul on the trails.

We lucked out when it came to lodging. The obvious choice for a family of five might have been the famous Samoset Resort, but a little searching online turned up a family-friendly inn that was a better bargain. The Country Inn, on Route 1 just over the Rockport line, is about three minutes from downtown Camden.

For $94 a night, we got two queen beds, a sofa bed, two televisions, a food-prep area with a sink, and a kitchen table with chairs. Included in the price was a buffet breakfast and an afternoon snack of coffee, tea, juice, and pastries. The common area was stocked with board games and a library of movies free for the borrowing. And we had access to an indoor swimming pool that was quite popular when we were there, since a youth hockey team was staying in the building.

The one drawback to winter in Camden is that some restaurants are closed. Cappy's Chowder House, a local institution, had excellent fish and chips with sweet potato fries and exceptionally slow service. We had better luck at Habanero, a friendly Mexican place next door to our hotel. For lunch, it was hard to beat the Camden Deli's huge menu of creative sandwiches, and Boynton-McKay Food Co. is as good a cafe as you'll find anywhere, with its fine selection of organic coffees and teas. Just stay away from the decaf if you're planning to ascend the tubing and tobogganing hills more than a few times.

Steve Greenlee can be reached at greenlee@globe.com.