Downtown Baltimore is awash with attractions and experiences, leading visitors from charming markets to award-winning museums and fabulous views across the harbour. Five diverse and distinguishable neighbourhoods make up this urban city core and most visitors centre their visit on Inner Harbor, where restaurants and museums line up along the waterside. High rising buildings mark the Central Business District, also known as City Centre, while bohemian bars and gentrified neighbourhoods can be found in Westside, Mount Vernon and Camden Yards.
Much of the Downtown Baltimore experience is about the contrasts between the tightly packed areas. Inner Harbor is home to many iconic tourist attractions, like Maryland Art Place, Holocaust Memorial Park, National Aquarium and many promenades and piers. Mount Vernon and Westside offer a more local feel, along with excellent options for dining and art. The Central Business District is both an economic hub and a vibrant place to go out after dark, its architecture a baffling mix of modern tower blocks, gritty industrial yards and the neo-classical Baltimore Basilica. The markets in Downtown Baltimore are great for finding bargains, from jewellery to imported clothes.
A light rail service connects Downtown Baltimore with Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the intercity Penn Train Station. It’s relatively easy to explore Inner Harbor and the Central Business District on foot, with local buses and trams connecting the outlying attractions. With such a mishmash of colourful architecture and character, exploring on foot is a great way to get immersed in the diverse styles of Downtown Baltimore.
Various crime-centred dramas have come out of Baltimore, most recently the popular TV series The Wire. These shows offer a characterful representation of the city’s quirky sides, from marble stoops to beautiful docklands and intriguing alleyways strewed with graffiti.