offwegooo.com
Travel guide
Baltimore
4 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: April to June and September to October
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Welcome
Baltimore, in a few days
A great port on Chesapeake Bay where blue crab is eaten with a mallet on newspaper, and where the fort that held out against the British in 1814 gave the United States its national anthem. Between the cobbled quays of Fells Point, one of the largest aquariums in the country, two free art museums and the birthplace of the American railway, the city can be explored on foot and costs less than its neighbours Washington and Philadelphia.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 2 things
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Inner Harbor and historic ships free · 2 to 3 hThe old harbour ringed by a brick promenade, with four museum ships including the USS Constellation of 1854 and the Taney, the last ship afloat that fought at Pearl Harbor, overlooked by Federal Hill Park.
- Afternoon · National Aquarium · about 3 hUnder the glass pyramid on Pier 3, spiral ramps climb around an Indo-Pacific coral reef with blacktip sharks up to a rainforest under the roof, where sloths, tamarins and birds roam free.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Pier 5 Hotel ↗ · All places to stay by budget →€170 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · American Visionary Art Museum · about 2 hA museum unique in the United States, devoted to self-taught artists, with matchstick sculptures, embroidered dresses and giant models in mirror-mosaic rooms, and a 17-metre whirligig by Vollis Simpson outside.
- Afternoon · Fells Point free · 2 to 3 hThe 1763 waterfront district that built the Baltimore clippers, with cobbled streets, narrow brick houses and dozens of bars open since the 19th century, where the young Frederick Douglass once worked as a caulker.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Pier 5 Hotel ↗€170 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Fort McHenry · about 2 hThe star-shaped fort that withstood 25 hours of British bombardment in 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner, with barracks, powder magazine and ramparts facing the water.
- Afternoon · Walters Art Museum and Mount Vernon free · 2 to 3 hA free museum spanning five thousand years of art, from Egyptian mummies to Manet and Monet, beside Mount Vernon Place and the first monument raised to George Washington, a marble column of 1829.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Pier 5 Hotel ↗€170 a night
D4
Day 4
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · National Museum of Railroad History & Innovation · 2 to 3 hThe former B&O Railroad Museum, in the Mount Clare workshops where America's first commercial railway began, with an 1884 roundhouse full of 19th-century locomotives around a turntable.
- Afternoon · Baltimore Museum of Art free · 2 to 3 hThe city's great free museum, famous for the Cone collection of more than a thousand works by Matisse, bought directly from the artist by two Baltimore sisters, with sculpture gardens featuring Rodin and Calder.
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
Some links are partner links: we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Burgers and barbecue: brisket and ribs cooked low and slow, done differently in every state.
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl: the classic lunch on the San Francisco waterfront.
- Mexican food: tacos from a truck in Los Angeles, a Mission burrito in San Francisco.
- Pancakes and weekend brunch: a national habit, generous to the point of excess.
- Craft beer, and California wine from Napa and Sonoma.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Tipping is not optional: add 15 to 20% in restaurants and bars.
- Prices on menus and in shops exclude sales tax, which is added at the till.
- Do not plan more than four or five hours of driving a day: the distances are larger than they look on the map.
- Never travel without health insurance. A night in hospital can cost thousands of dollars.
- In summer, do not hike down into the Grand Canyon in the heat of the day: the climb back out is where people get into trouble.
Getting by
Words that help
🗣️ English is the main language here, so there is nothing to learn by heart.
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencyUS dollar (USD, $)
BudgetAbout €150 a day, mid-range
Best seasonApril to June and September to October
PlugA/B · 120V
Tap waterSafe to drink
Tipping15 to 20%, expected
Emergency911
EntryUK, Australian and most EU passports need an ESTA, applied for online before departure, for stays of up to 90 days; a few EU countries sit outside the Visa Waiver Program and need a full visa. Canadians need neither, only a passport. Anyone who has been to Cuba since January 2021 cannot use an ESTA and must apply for a visa.
HealthNo vaccination required. Keep tetanus, diphtheria and polio up to date; hepatitis A is worth considering if you eat well off the tourist trail. In the desert parks, the heat is the real risk.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/baltimore
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.