Baltimanual :: Tourist Attractions

The Inner Harbor is the most obvious place to sightsee, though many residents tend to avoid the area because of all the sightseers. To get a sense of the surrounding neighborhoods and see the city from the water, take a Baltimore Water Taxi ([410] 563-3901, thewatertaxi.com, $4-$9). If you have an overwhelming need for structure, smaller themed walking tours such as the Baltimore Ghost Tours ([410] 522-7400, fellspointghost.com, $8-$15) are available and explore neighborhoods near the water such as Fells Point and Mount Vernon.

Top: The view from the Top of the World observation level at the World Trade Center; Left: The American Visionary Arts Museum

Charm City is inarguably more charming when viewed from above. The Top of the World Observation Level (401 E. Pratt St., [410] 837-8439, viewbaltimore.org, $3-$5) of Baltimore's World Trade Center offers the opportunity to escape panhandlers and hordes of tourists, and the view is beautiful. The 13th Floor (1 E. Chase St., [410] 347-0888, 13thFloorBaltimore.com) in the historic Belvedere Hotel (now condos) offers the best view of the skyline at night. This assessment may be influenced by the fact that it's also a nice bar with heavy-handed bartenders. With each additional measure of vodka, the lights of the city below become more dazzling.

Equally impressive is the delusional nostalgia inspired by trains: Most of us fantasize about times in which we never lived and would likely have died of cholera. You can take those feelings for a ride at the B&O Railroad Museum (901 W. Pratt St., [410] 752-2490, borail.org, $8-$14) and Baltimore Streetcar Museum (1901 Falls Road, [410] 547-0264, baltimorestreetcar.org, $5-$7). The Streetcar Museum holds tours about the ghost of public transport past, and you can usually scam a free ride on a car mid-tour (don't get excited, it only goes, like, two blocks). It's also a great place to hate on the auto industry for its destruction of cheap and reliable public transportation in our car-besieged city. The soaring Roundhouse at the B&O makes the Streetcar Museum look kind of pitiful, though. Large enough to fit multiple engines and train cars, it used to be the turnaround stop for the once-great railroad line.

If you're into arcane vessels in general, it might be worth paying the $16 admission to see the four Harbor boats included in the Baltimore Maritime Museum (301 E. Pratt St., [410] 396-3453, baltomaritimemuseum.org). Otherwise, save money by observing the boats' best features from solid ground. The exteriors of the U.S.S. Torsk and U.S.S. Constellation are way more impressive than touring the boats' cramped interiors—one's painted like a huge shark and the other looks like a pirate ship.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture's (830 E. Pratt St., [443] 263-1800, africanamericanculture.org, $6-$8) permanent collection focuses on African-Americans in the state and offers thought-provoking personal histories, though the rotating exhibitions that take up much of the museum are hit or miss.

While trash collection and water treatment don't seem like scintillating topics, the recently renovated Baltimore Public Works Museum (751 Eastern Ave., [410] 396-5565, baltimorepublicworksmuseum.org, $2.50-$3) reveals the unseen infrastructure responsible for a civil city experience, demonstrating what life was like before public works (without the retch-invoking smells, of course). The most interesting installations include an outdoor two-story, full-sized city street with exposed wiring and pipes on the ground floor, and Water Works (ironically not always running) where you can participate in a water-testing experiment.

Within walking distance of the harbor are the homes of our winged sporting franchises and Geppi's Entertainment Museum (301 W. Camden St., [410] 625-7060, geppismuseum.com, $7-$10). It should probably be called the comic-book museum, since it's mostly capes and cowls. But you can make hilarious discoveries like a LBJ bio-comic, featuring a dreary cover shot of the dog-faced president, or check out exhibits with whimsical themes such as I Love Lucy and Barbie.

Right around the corner is the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum (216 Emory St., [410] 727-1539, baberuthmuseum.com). Here you can check out the Bambino's personal effects, including his well-worn glove and jersey, and find out a thing or two about his early days in Baltimore.

An easy walk brings you to Lexington Market (400 W. Lexington St., [410] 685-6169, lexingtonmarket.com). Fresh produce, meat, and seafood and cheap and tasty prepared food, as well as knock-off designer purses, are for sale in this lively indoor market. Five fried-chicken stands may be enough to get some there, but there's also tons of baked goods (including the iconic Berger cookie), Faidley's famous crab cakes, and every imaginable nationality of cuisine from Japanese to Greek.

For a more serene afternoon, the Enoch Pratt Free Library (400 Cathedral St., [410] 396-5430, prattlibrary.org, free) is nearby. The library may sound like a bore, but the Pratt is surprisingly cool and, thankfully, free. The 1930s building is a populist amalgamation of art-deco, neo-classical, and department-store influences that somehow comes together. The Pratt has free internet usage, film screenings, classes, talks by famous types, and a large audio-visual department from which to rent movies and CDs. Plus on any given day something strange is going on, like, say, a life-sized game of chess.

Further afield (so plan on driving or cabbing it), the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum (1601-03 East North Ave., [410] 563-3404, ngbiwm.com, $10-$12) is, like all wax museums, a bit unnerving. A notable difference, other than the focus on African-Americans, is the inclusion of lesser knowns. This makes the audio tour worthwhile, so you don't spend the better part of the visit wondering who the Rev. Andrew Bryan was. Slave ship and lynching exhibits provide graphic depictions of harrowing times in African-American history that can be unsettling, but impact visitors in a way other presentations don't.

The Baltimore Museum of Industry (1415 Key Highway, [410] 727-4808, thebmi.org, $6-$10) in Locust Point is surprising—it's hard to believe Baltimore is the birthplace of so many industrial innovations. Don't even try to pretend you knew that this was the home of the world's first typesetting machine. Revelations aside, the retro storefronts and machinery exhibits are transfixing and make it easy to overlook the tacked-on Wire installation.