Most travel writers recommend that visitors stop in Portland for a meal at a buzzy restaurant or a stroll through the shops of the Old Port.

National Geographic, however, wants tourists to consider destinations farther afield.

“You haven’t been to Maine until you’ve visited these small towns,” the publication declared this week.

“The state’s true character can be found down dirt roads without traffic lights and inside warmly lit farmhouse inns,” the magazine wrote.

The list includes Bar Harbor and Camden — two towns often pictured on postcards. Ten miles off the mainland, Monhegan Island is well known to painters and naturalists. Skiers know Rangeley, of course. But the list includes some destinations Mainers might know and out-of-towners might not, such as Brooklin, Brunswick and Greenville.

The publication recommended the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, a storied spot for writers and boat builders and artists on Deer Isle. The tips in Brunswick included sampling oysters from local farmers, including Mere Point Oyster Company, and taking in a show at the Maine State Music Theatre. In Greenville, outdoor activities are on the itinerary, from a cruise on Moosehead Lake to a moose tour.

“Anyone lining up in traffic to get into the most northeasterly state is never just passing through. People come here intentionally, and if you make it past southern Maine’s border towns and thriving Portland, you’ll get to know another side of Maine: The lobstermen hauling traps along the rocky coast and the blueberry pickers raking the last low-bush barrens,” the story said. “You’ll canoe rivers through the country’s densest forests like the Wabanaki did before anyone, and ferry to your choice of islands (there are more here than in Alaska).”

Will the traffic extend further north of Portland as a result? We’ll bait our lines and wait.