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Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

We visited Baltimore for a two-day mini-vacation over the labor day weekend. When we booked our trip we did not realize that the Grand Prix was taking place during the weekend. It was both a blessing and a curse. There were lots of people out, which gave the city a festive atmosphere and made it feel safer, but the constant buzzing of the race cars could be heard almost everywhere. Overall, Baltimore was an OK city to visit. It felt fairly similar to any other American city with a lot of big box stores and globally-recognized chains. We felt that spending two days in Baltimore was a perfect amount of time to see what we wanted to see.

Fell's Point

Fell's Point is a historic district located just east of Little Italy. It seems to be where the nightlife is in Baltimore, but is fun to visit during the day, too. Fell's Point has cobblestone streets and is lined with bars, restaurants, and shops.

Little Italy

Like the Little Italy in NYC, Little Italy in Baltimore provides overpriced American-style Italian food that is shockingly average. We ate at Germano's Trattoria. It wasn't bad, but there wasn't anything good about it either.

Heritage Walking Tour

A Heritage Walk walking tour is usually available a couple times a day from the Visitors Center in the Inner Harbor. The tour wasn't running when we visited, but we were able to get a brochure used on the tour anyway and followed the walk ourselves.

The Inner Harbor

The Inner Harbor is among the most beautiful and well-developed waterfronts I have seen. Although Baltimore has a lot of poverty, run-down buildings, and homeless people, they were kept mostly outside of the waterfront and a heavy police presence made the touristy areas feel reasonably safe.

Federal Hill

Federal Hill is a small hill located on the south side of the Inner Harbor. It takes about 20 minutes to walk to the top of the hill from the Visitor's Center, and it provides some very nice views of the Inner Harbor.

Getting Around

Baltimore has a bus system, at least two water-taxi networks, a metro line, and a light rail line. As a tourist, the most convenient way to get around is almost certainly the Charm City Circulator. The Charm City Circulator is a free bus network that runs on three lines orange, purple, and green). The stops are clearly marked, and maps are readily available. The busses go through all the major tourist stops and close to many of the hotels. Practically anywhere you want to go in Baltimore can be reached by the Charm City Circulator - all for free! Busses run approximately every 15 minutes.

Other Things to See

On our visit we also visited the National Aquarium. It was a decent aquarium with a dolphin show (extra cost), a rainforest, rays, and a large tank housing a couple sharks. The B&O railroad museum provided some history of railroads and had a lot of old trains on display. The George Washington Monument (pictured here) was on our way to Penn Station, but otherwise was not worth a stop. You can see it just as well from the road, and there are many homeless people that hang out and sleep in the park next to it. There is also a science center located in the Inner Harbor that we did not visit.