Things to do in Baltimore
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Baltimore
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best overall: late April to early June and September to mid October, with mild harbour weather and peak crab in fall.
Spring brings baseball, Preakness, tulips and mild weather, with rain possible and temperatures in the 50s to 70s F.
Summer is hot and humid, 85 to 95 F, and is crab, sailing, pool and festival season.
Fall brings the fattest crabs, lower humidity, Ravens games and the best walking temperatures of the year.
Winter is cold, quiet and cheapest for hotels, with strong free museums and December lights and events.
Worst time plainly: a random late July or August weekend with no festival gives peak heat for off peak charm.
What's on
- Orioles Opening Day late March/early April
A civic holiday in all but name, opening the baseball season at Camden Yards.
- Kinetic Sculpture Race early May
Human powered amphibious sculptures race land, mud and harbour from AVAM.
- Maryland Film Festival May
Baltimore's own film festival, centred on the Parkway Theatre in Station North.
- Flower Mart May
Mount Vernon's spring street fair of flowers, food and the city's lemon sticks.
- Preakness Stakes third Saturday in May
Second jewel of the Triple Crown and the city's biggest party weekend, with citywide price spikes.
- Baltimore Pride June
Pride celebrations listed among the summer festival peak.
- HonFest June
Hampden celebration of beehives and hon culture.
- Fourth of July harbour fireworks 4 July
Harbour fireworks listed among the summer highlights.
- Artscape mid-summer
America's largest free outdoor arts festival. Check current dates and site for your year.
- Fells Point Fun Festival October
Fall festival in Fells Point, in the connoisseurs season.
Best things to do in Baltimore
National Aquarium
One of the best aquariums in the US, stacked from rainforest to Shark Alley. Go early and work top down.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
The retro classic ballpark that changed stadium design, with Eutaw Street and the warehouse inside the park.
Baltimore Museum of Art
Free museum holding the Cone Collection, the largest public holding of Matisse in the world.
The Walters Art Museum
Free museum of 36,000 objects from ancient Egypt to 19th century Europe in a palazzo style building.
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
The star shaped fort that inspired the national anthem, with ramparts, ranger talks and harbour views.
Fells Point
Old sailors quarter of cobblestones, taverns and indie shops on the water, made for a two hour wander.
American Visionary Art Museum
Joyful national museum of self taught art, unlike any other museum in the city.
Historic Ships in Baltimore
Four historic vessels and a lighthouse on one ticket, with the submarine Torsk as the highlight.
Where to stay in Baltimore
Harbor East and Fells Point
first trip, all round base
Best hotels, best restaurants and most walkable evening streets, on the waterfront east of the Inner Harbor.
Inner Harbor
first time sightseers and families
Densest hotel stock with the Aquarium, Science Center and Historic Ships on the doorstep and Camden Yards nearby.
Mount Vernon
culture trips and a local feel
Grand rowhouses, the Walters, Peabody Library and North Charles restaurants in a quiet residential quarter.
Federal Hill and Locust Point
games and neighbourhood stays
Skyline views, Cross Street Market, AVAM and Fort McHenry, with the most live like a local feel.
Think twice about
- Lexington Market and west downtown
Blocks around the Howard Street corridor and west toward Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd have visible street homelessness, open drug use and vacant storefronts and feel unsafe at night.
- East Baltimore around Johns Hopkins Hospital
Surrounding blocks beyond Patterson Park are high deprivation, high crime residential areas with no visitor infrastructure, despite the famous hospital.
- West Baltimore and the US-40 corridor
Sandtown Winchester, Mondawmin surrounds and Penn North have the city's most serious violent crime concentration and no reason for a visitor to overnight.
- BWI area and I-95 corridor hotels
Airport and highway stock strands you without a car in places with no neighbourhood at all, fine only for a flight stopover.
Best restaurants in Baltimore
Faidley's Seafood
Family stall since 1886 selling a softball sized jumbo lump crab cake with almost no filler.
Charleston
Fine dining flagship for over 25 years, with a tasting format menu built on Chesapeake seasons.
Woodberry Kitchen
The restaurant that defined Chesapeake farm to table, in a converted 19th century mill complex.
Thames Street Oyster House
Best sit down seafood dinner in Fells Point, with a raw bar, crab cake and lobster roll.
Clavel
Family run mezcaleria and taqueria with handmade tortillas and a deep mezcal list, at mid prices.
LP Steamers
The whole crab feast done the local way, crabs by the dozen on paper with mallets and Old Bay.
Ekiben
Beloved cheap eats legend for steamed bao and rice bowls built around Taiwanese style fried chicken.
The Helmand
Afghan institution since 1989, famous for pan fried pumpkin with garlic yoghurt and meat sauce.
Best bars in Baltimore
The Elk Room
Moody speakeasy style sibling to Tagliata, and one of the best bars in the country.
Outdoor things to do in Baltimore
Baltimore Harbor Cruise
Harbour cruises and sailing charters show the city as it was built to be seen, from a working port.
Waterfront Promenade
The best run, ride or long walk in the city, hugging the harbour from Canton to Federal Hill.
Bulle Rock Golf Club
Pete Dye championship course on old farm land, the headline golf day trip from Baltimore.
Mount Pleasant Golf Course
Historic, affordable and walkable city municipal course where Arnold Palmer won in 1956.
Baltimore Country Club
Tillinghast East Course at Five Farms, private and playable only with a member connection or at events.
Baltimore Rowing & Water Resource Center
Kayak and paddleboard access on the calmer Middle Branch, with harbour views and guided sunset paddles.
Druid Hill Park
One of America's oldest landscaped parks, with the Druid Lake loop, woodland paths and 745 acres.
Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory and Botanic Gardens
An 1888 glass palace of orchid, palm and desert houses, ideal on a cold or wet day.
Best hotels in Baltimore
Sagamore Pendry Baltimore
The splash luxury stay, a 1914 pier building on Thames Street with a harbour pool deck.
Four Seasons Hotel Baltimore
Reliable luxury flagship with harbour view rooms, a rooftop infinity pool and Harbor East dining.
The Ivy Hotel
Eighteen room mansion stay with breakfast, tea, cocktails and a house car included in the rate.
Hotel Revival
Art filled boutique in the old Mount Vernon Hotel, with rooftop Topside and the best value for character.
Ulysses
Maximalist boutique in a historic Latrobe building, with Blooms cocktail bar as a destination itself.
Canopy by Hilton Harbor Point
Newer mid tier waterfront hotel on the quiet Harbor Point peninsula between Harbor East and Fells.
Inn at Henderson's Wharf
Ex tobacco warehouse in Fells Point for a quieter, more residential feeling waterfront stay.
Hampton Inn Baltimore-Downtown-Convention Center
Strongest value chain pick near Camden Yards, with free breakfast and predictable rooms.
Is Baltimore expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | $110 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | $180 a person |
| Splurge | $350 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- National Aquarium: a few days ahead
- Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum: a few days ahead
- Hippodrome Theatre: weeks ahead
- Baltimore Harbor Cruise: a few days ahead
- Bulle Rock Golf Club: weeks ahead
- Mount Pleasant Golf Course: a few days ahead
- Baltimore Rowing & Water Resource Center: a few days ahead
- Gettysburg National Military Park: a few days ahead
- National Aquarium timed tickets are essential at weekends and holidays. Look for Friday evening discount sessions.
- Charleston, Woodberry Kitchen, Thames Street Oyster House and Tagliata need reservations for Friday and Saturday.
- Preakness needs hotels and tickets months out. Ravens home weekends spike hotel prices citywide.
Is Baltimore safe?
- Baltimore is block by block. After dark walk busy lit waterfront or main streets, or take a rideshare.
- Keep cars visibly empty. Smash and grab from parked cars is the visitor crime locals warn about most.
- Use daylight for Lexington Market, Druid Hill Park and Poe visits. Expect visible homelessness and panhandling downtown.
Baltimore travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Phillips Seafood on Pratt Street and the Pratt Street chain strip. Walk to Harbor East or Fells and eat twice as well.
- Do not swim in the Inner Harbor. Paddle only with an operator running, especially not after rain.
- There is no official Wire tour worth paying for, and Harborplace pavilions are in long decline, not the heart of the Harbor.
Getting around Baltimore: public transport and more
- Walk within your base and along the Waterfront Promenade between Harbor East, Fells, the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill.
- Use the free Charm City Circulator Purple and Orange routes for Harbor, Mount Vernon and Federal Hill.
- Use the Water Taxi in season and rideshare for the BMA, Hampden, Woodberry, Fort McHenry and LP Steamers.
- Light Rail links BWI to downtown and Camden Yards. MARC and Amtrak at Penn Station link Baltimore to DC in about an hour.
Who Baltimore suits
| Solo travellers | Good |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Great |
| Couples | Great |
| Bachelor parties | Great |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Great |
Make Baltimore your trip
Swearby drafts the days from places people swear by. Swap any stop, then invite the crew by text, even friends without the app. Vote on dates, track costs as you go, and everyone gets one number at the end.
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