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Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
929
Location
Spencer, MA
I am stopping in Baltimore on my way home next Spring so I can catch the Vermonter instead of taking the LSL a zillion times. :huh: Wonder where is the best place to stay and what not to miss in the inner harbor area.
 
If you like trains you can't miss the B&O rail museum. Also, Fort McHenry is cool, there is a industrial museum off the beaten path that I liked, the ships in the harbor are cool to go through, and just riding around the harbor on the water taxi is fun. Other things I haven't been to but have heard good things are the science museum and the aquarium. Where to stay I am not sure. We stayed in a Day's Inn that was OK becuase we didn't want to drive home from a concert.
 
Bumping this up to give a bit of an update, as the last post was in 2012. Unless you're visiting people you know or you're working, you probably don't want to come here until the spring -- the winter weather, while not particularly cold, can be wet and dreary, like it is today. We can also get our share of snow and ice, too.

As pointed out above, you can visit the Inner harbor, but be sure to walk the Harbor promenade over to Fells Point and Canton. It's a little lest plasticky, and those neighborhoods have more historic charm. When you get to Canton, you can walk north up to Patterson Park. At the top of the hill there's a pagoda, and it's the place where the local militia stopped the British invaders in 1814. There's a nice coffee place on Eastern Avenue called "Patterson Perk." You can return to Fells Point by walking west on Eastern Avenue, where there are a number of Mexican restaurants along the way. Turn left at Broadway to get back to Fell's Point, or stay on Eastern Avenue, and you will get to Little Italy.

There's a free circulator bus (Charm City Circulator) that goes up Charles St. from the Inner Harbor as far as Penn Station. This gives access to the Mt. Vernon Neighborhood, which includes the Washington Monument and the Walters Art Museum (well worth the visit.) If you want to go further up Charles St. to the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus and the Baltimore Museum of Art, you'll have to take a regular MTA bus (not sure of the route numbers).

There's water taxi service (expensive) that will take you around the harbor, connecting to Fells Point, Canton, and Fort McHenry. I think they have harbor tours, too that take you way out by the Key Bridge and let you see the working harbor.

If you're hankering for some nature, you can take the light rail north to the Falls Road Station where there's a boardwalk at the north end that connects to Lake Roland Park, which has a scenic lake, and lots of hiking trails. Parts of it have an amazing wilderness-like feel, even though it's right outside the city. You can get off the light rail at Woodberry and take the Jones Falls Trail up into Druid Hill Park, which also contains the Zoo. The zoo can also be accessed from the Mondawmin Station of the Baltimore Metro. It's a bit of a walk through a semi-sketchy neighborhood, but it should be perfectly fine during the day. You would only want to be in Druid Hill Park during the day, anyway.

Beyond that stuff, you'll need to rent a car to get around. MTA does have a lot of buses, but they may not run very frequently and they may not go to where you want to go. The light rail and metro extend pretty far into the suburbs, but they don't go to anything of touristic interest. With a car, Catoctin Mountain Park, Gettysburg, and places along Chesapeake Bay are an easy day trip.
 
"The zoo can also be accessed from the Mondawmin Station of the Baltimore Metro. It's a bit of a walk through a semi-sketchy neighborhood, but it should be perfectly fine during the day." It's only about 2-3 blocks from the station to the park (then another block or two through the park to the zoo). I felt comfortable walking it when I visited the zoo last year.
 
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