Baltimore

I love Baltimore. I’ve loved Baltimore since the first time I was there in the early 90s, through grad school in the mid 90s and has continued with each visit since then. Yeah, I know… My love of the area is limited to the area around the Inner Harbor and Fells Point… and maybe up to the area around a few of the colleges. So no, I’m not a native and maybe I’m a bit of a tourist, but I still love going to the city.
Like I said, I’ve always loved the Inner Harbor, but my last visit was a bit disconcerting. We walked through the shopping galleria today and it was so different than just over a year ago. No more Vaccaro’s, no more Phillips, no more of a lot of places. It looked like they’ve either priced out the little guys or the little guys just gave up. Very sad… especially the loss of Vaccarro’s…they make the best cannoli-​seriously, I’ve travelled to Baltimore on a day trip so we could have lunch and have a Vaccarro’s cannoli (I think I said the same thing in my Inner Harbor review).
The bars in the area can be touristy… unless you know where to go-​Wharf Rat was pretty cool, so were Sidebar and Pickles (Near Camden Yards). Sadly I don’t go to the great bars in Baltimore anymore as I always have the kids in tow, but there are still a TON of great places to eat.
Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, great hotels and restaurants, and a great tourist area around the Inner Harbor. I know most people would love to visit NYC, it IS the city that never sleeps, but these days I’ll take a trip to Baltimore to watch a baseball or football game and then find a place to eat a pile of crabs over another trip into the city for no parking, the super high prices, and a lot less kid-​friendly visit. NYC DEFINITELY has a billion things to do and is an awesome city, but Baltimore is a little more my speed these days.

Baltimore is a city in the Mid-​Atlantic region of the United States of America, South-​West of Philadelphia and New York and North-​East of Washington, DC. Rather a good distance from Los Angeles and Miami, depending on how you measure distance.
An old ship building center, Baltimore, like many places in the US, lost their prime manufacturing sector after World War II, as ship building became an industry of Far East Asia or migrated to the larger harbor cities down the coast, especially Norfolk. What remains is a combination of small industry, high tech firms, government contractors, and banks, as well as a port and a rather large steel mill with a recently resettled ownership.
If visiting, the inner harbor is the primary area of interest, it being a hub of restaurants, tourist attractions, hotels, and bars set up in the late 70’s and 80’s to revitalize the city. It is also quite close to the sports stadiums catering to the town’s primary teams, the Ravens and the Orioles (football and baseball, respectively), as well as the 1^st Mariner Arena, site of most concerts, secondary sports, and, interestingly enough, a lingerie football team (you learn new things every day…)
The city, while nice, is truly nothing fancy. It does not boast the shopping of New York, the overt history of Philadelphia or the swanky (and to Baldimorians at times arrogant) faux-​fancy of Washington, DC. It is, quite simply, an old manufacturing town. People are stubborn, a little rude at times, and there are parts that would classify as dangerous, but overall a visitor will be greeted friendly enough and the place is mostly harmless.
For transport, if visiting, taxis are your best option. Driving can be painful during the main times or, as they are wont to do, random construction closure periods (a tourist attraction of its own), and public transport is a little one the unreliable side.
Enjoy your visit!