The Mason-Dixon line ran through Maryland during the Civil War, and it’s not surprising that Baltimore sometimes feels like a Mid-Atlantic city with a Southern soul. It’s easy to like and chock-full of fun things to do with kids, including a few things you wouldn’t expect.
It’s a great destination for an easy weekend getaway or as an add-on to a trip to Washington, DC.
Here are eight things you shouldn’t miss if you visit the Charm City with kids; they’ll easily keep you busy during a 48-hour visit.
You might also like
• Family-Friendly Baltimore Restaurants Parents Will Love
• 17 Great Things To Do in Washington, DC with Tots, Kids or Teens
• My Review of the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel & Resort
8 Can’t Miss Things To Do With Kids in Baltimore
1. Port Discovery
This children’s museum was easily Tiny Traveler’s favorite activity of our two visits to the city and she could have spent a full day immersed in pretend play, arts & crafts and climbing.
She loved “cooking” in a classic Baltimore diner and couldn’t get enough of a rope-guided ferry in the Egypt-themed Expedition room. Once she worked up the nerve to head into a 3-story tall climbing structure, it was hard to get her out.
My favorite thing was the working jukebox in the diner. While Tiny Traveler flipped faux flapjacks, I grooved to Nancy Sinatra and Dion.
The museum is clean and well-maintained if a little worn-in. The craft projects it does are easy and pretty cool; a tough balance. It was more of a rainy day fallback than a must-see for me, though my child would clearly disagree.
But the museum announced a huge capital project in 2024, though, so look for a major expansion and upgrade in the next couple of years.
2. The American Visionary Art Museum
If there’s such a thing as a kid-friendly art museum, AVAM is it. Tiny Traveler got a big kick out its several colorful and quirky pieces, such as a foot-powered car that looked like a giant poodle and a large ball made out of several thousand bras, which she dubbed “the dirty laundry ball.”
Did I mention the fart machine in the basement? Or the bus parked out front that’s covered in mirrored mosaic tiles?
The museum picks a new theme each year and brings in art and artists that fit. Often, the themes lend themselves to kid-friendly art (the year we visited it was “Storytelling”).
But it is modern art and some of it is edgy. For example, with a 5YO along I bypassed the room that had embroidered pictures depicting Holocaust stories. Come with an open mind and be prepared to adapt your visit to your child’s age and sensibilities.
But I am all for an art museum that can engage my 5-year-old and me for nearly two hours.
3. The B&O Railroad Museum
This is a cool train museum a short drive from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, where you’ll spend most of your visit.
The building dates to the 1820s and was the home station for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. It’s enormous and round. It had a turntable that would allow workers to turn the trains and direct them into stalls for repairs and maintenance. It’s a square acre in size and designed to maximize natural light.
To me it looked like a large, wooden circus tent.
My 5 YO loved an outdoor kids’ area that has a small train-themed carousel, a train-themed playground, a model train and a small ride-on train.
I preferred the cavernous exhibit hall with trains from just about every era, including horse-drawn cars and an exhibit on how important trains were in the Civil War.
You can guess where we spent more time, but I managed a quick walk-through of the historical stuff and returned to see it more properly on a subsequent visit to the city.
Tip: Around the corner from the Train Museum, a series of row houses that have been turned into the Irish Railroad Workers Museum, where you can learn about the Baltimore citizens who fled Ireland’s great famine and used railroad jobs to get a leg up into the American middle class.
I love small museums, especially with kids. And homes that show how real families lived have usually been a hit with my child. Consider adding this small detour to your visit to the larger museum.
Baltimore has about a dozen more small museums that explore, among other things, immigrant, Jewish and African-American history in Baltimore, plus local heroes like Babe Ruth and Edgar Allan Poe.
4. Federal Hill Park
We headed to Federal Hill Park in search of space to run around. We found a playground that somehow has both ship and fort themes. It’s one of those playgrounds that has a lot of colorful details but not as much to do as you might think. It could use more climbing structures for Tiny Traveler’s taste.
She was still happy to play there for a while, but was more enthralled by running up and down the hill on the least steep side of this one-square-block park that’s tiered like a wedding cake.
While she romped in the playground I took in the bird’s-eye views of the Inner Harbor and the city that made it worth climbing up that steep hill.
Situated behind AVAM and catty-corner to the Science Museum, the park is handy for picnicking or if you need green space for running around.
5. The Maryland Science Center
I’ve been to a lot of science museums and they all have a lot of the same things, to be honest. This one stood out to me because it’s a bright space, easy to navigate and less overwhelming than other science museums we’ve been to.
It isn’t too big, the exhibits were all a manageable size and they all had elements that were engaging for a wide age range of kids.
Tiny Traveler explored everything, but spent most of the time doing simple hands-on activities, like blowing giant bubbles on the plaza, using a pressurized pump to shoot a soda bottle into the air, playing a laser harp that had no strings and watching her mom lie down on a bed of nails (yup, you call me the Sideshow Mom).
6. Urban Pirates
Urban Pirates was a new kind of interactive attraction when we tried it out, but it’s grown popular and has occasional special events in addition to its regular family sailings.
Tiny Traveler was actually afraid of pirates when she was small and, with no prospect of donning a princess dress, she was reluctant to come aboard.
But once she had her pirate name, a tattoo and pirate costume she found acceptable, she was into it. A chance to shoot water cannons at people in pedal boats, do the limbo on deck and share in a chest of pirate booty sealed the deal.
There are probably great views of the city to be had from the water, but we were way too busy learning the pirate oath, shooting water cannons at tourists and tossing coconuts around to notice.
There is absolutely nothing historical or educational about this excursion. It’s silly and surprisingly fun, even for the grown-ups. Kids from ages 4 to 12 will love you for booking it. They can wear their own pirate costumes if they have them.
7. National Aquarium
This is one of the nicest aquariums on the East Coast, possibly in the country, with lots of light, Inner Harbor views and nicely organized, fun exhibits. But it’s huge. We saw only a small portion of it. If you don’t have a whole day to devote to it, choosing a few exhibits to seek out is a good strategy.
Start at Blacktip Reef, an Indo-Pacific-style that has all the crowd-pleasers of the aquarium world: blacktip reef sharks, giant rays, turtles and lots of the colorful fish you find in warmer climes.
Tiny Traveler most loved Australia: Wild Extremes, where she discovered critters she’d never come across before. Many also have wonderful, fun names, like the pig-nosed turtle and the kookaburra bird.
8. Fort McHenry
This is the Fort that the British were bombarding during the War of 1812, when Francis Scott Key was being held prisoner in one of their ships. Its giant flag inspired the poem of his that became our National Anthem.
If you visit the Fort, go for the daily flag-raising at 9:30 am. There is something quite exciting about seeing a 30-by-43-foot flag being lofted skyward. Tiny Traveler thought this was very impressive. Once it was over, she was ready to leave.
I have said many times that National Park Rangers are national treasures. The rangers that roam the fort are no exception. They’re very knowledgeable about Maryland’s history, which is interesting not just because of the 1812 war, but because this state’s people were more split than any other during the Civil War.
If you can’t catch a ranger talk, stop any of the rangers you see around the fort to talk and ask questions.
The Visitors’ Center shows a film about the battle that Key witnessed. It’s loud with a lot of flashing lights and explosions. If your kids are sensitive to noise or very little, you might want to skip it, or sit in a spot where you can make a quick exit if you have to.
Tip: To see the actual American Flag that Key saw, you have to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
9. A Few More Ideas
I was with a 5-year-old girl with no interest in sports. If you have older kids who are baseball fans, definitely head to Camden Yards for an Orioles game. It’s the ideal of what a modern stadium can be, with great sightlines, even from the cheap seats.
The Babe Ruth Museum, in the historic batter’s first childhood home, is mostly about the Sultan of Swat himself. But exhibits also touches on the history of baseball and of working-class Baltimore.
Book-loving families will want to stop by the Ivy Bookshop, probably the most unusual bookshop I’ve come across. Housed in a 19th century building away from downtown, it has a charming children’s section, great selection of books, frequent author events and three acres of gardens.
Buy some new books, then head out to the garden to relax and dive into them. You’re even welcome to bring a picnic if you like!
If you love either books or great architecture, stop into the George Peabody Library, a Johns Hopkins University building in the Mount Vernon neighborhood.
Its soaring atrium, built in the 1870s, rivals any library and some cathedrals. Plus, it houses 300,000 books. Don’t look for the latest Elephant & Piggy, though; Most are from the 19th century.
Pin it for later!
All photos by Eileen Gunn© except the National Aquarium (care of the Aquarium).