9 Days In Baltimore, MD – Here’s What We Did

After spending a month in Ocean City, Shae, Truffles and I moved on to Baltimore for nine days.

This was our first time visiting Baltimore and we really enjoyed it there. We visited in December 2020, so it was during COVID times. Despite the pandemic, there were a lot of fun activities we were able to do in a safe way.

Here’s a recap of everything we did during our nine days in Baltimore – we’ll have more in-depth posts about many of these places over the course of the next couple of weeks.

Where We Stayed

Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor

Our entire time in Baltimore was due to be spent at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. I managed to get us a cheap rate there by submitting a Best Rate Guarantee claim, so it ended up being great value for such a good location in the city.

If you’re not familiar with Best Rate Guarantee claims, that’s where a hotel chain guarantees you’ll find the cheapest rate on their website or they’ll match the competing rate and give you an additional discount or bonus points. Check out this post I wrote on Frequent Miler explaining how the process works for Hyatt from a different stay I booked last year.

The Hyatt Regency was largely a ghost town as it’s presumably booked by business people normally, with that kind of activity not happening right now due to COVID. We enjoyed our time at the hotel, there were some very friendly staff members and it’s a very short walk to the Inner Harbor. Here’s a full review of our stay.

Hotel Revival

Despite booking all nine nights there, we ended up spending a night at the Hotel Revival which is a Joie de Vivre property – another of Hyatt’s brands. The NFL subsequently booked the entire Hyatt Regency for one night as the Dallas Cowboys were in town for their game against the Baltimore Ravens and they needed to keep the players in a bubble.

That meant they had to move us for a night which was no bad thing as the Hotel Revival was one of the properties we’d originally considered booking. It was a lovely boutique hotel in Mount Vernon, a cute neighborhood – here’s my full review.

What Shae And I Both Did

National Aquarium

I think my favorite activity in Baltimore was visiting the National Aquarium which was only a few minutes walk from our hotel. It wasn’t at all busy and they had a lot of COVID-related precautions, so it seemed about as safe an indoor activity as you can get. Tickets aren’t cheap, but it’s definitely worth visiting – check out my review for why I loved it so much.

Star-Spangled Banner Flag House

The huge flag which flew over Fort McHenry was made at what is now the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. It was seeing that flag fly during the battle which prompted Francis Scott Key to write the poem which is now known as The Star-Spangled Banner.

You can take an audio tour of the Flag House, with the visitor center next door providing even more history and context of its history. We learned a lot during our visit, so find out more about it here.

Exploring Baltimore

We spent a little time just wandering around the city, mainly the Inner Harbor (as that was by our hotel) and the Mount Vernon neighborhood (as that was where the Hotel Revival was).

What Shae Did

Although I wasn’t as busy as I was in Ocean City, I still had to work on stuff during our time in Baltimore. As a result, Shae visited a couple of other places without me.

Reginald F. Lewis Museum

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum is the largest African-American museum in Maryland and features exhibits highlighting the challenges and accomplishments of African-Americans in culture, academics and throughout history, particularly focusing on those from Maryland.

The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum

Shae also visited The National Great Blacks In Wax Museum. It’s a powerful and unique look at the history of African-Americans from ancient Egypt through to today.

One thing to be aware of if visiting with young children is that there are two exhibits in the museum which have age restrictions due to content relating to the history of slavery and lynching in America.

Where We Ate

Thai Mekong

My favorite meal in Baltimore was the som tum I ordered from Thai Mekong, a short walk from the Hotel Revival. We lived in Thailand for six months a decade ago and I fell in love with som tum (spicy papaya salad) while we were there – this was some of the best I’ve eaten in the US.

Kumari Restaurant & Bar

Another night we ordered tasty Indian food from Kumari Restaurant & Bar. I ordered chicken jalfrezi while Shae got chicken tikka masala, with sides of garlic naan and poppadums.

San Pablo Street Tacos

While wandering around the Mount Vernon neighborhood, Shae and I stopped for lunch at San Pablo Street Tacos. Their food was delicious and we meant to return at least one more time while in Baltimore as there were other types of taco I wanted to try, but we never made it back – hopefully next time.

What We Did On Our Way To Baltimore

While driving from Ocean City to Baltimore, we stopped off at St Michaels Winery for a quick wine tasting. They had a dry wine flight and sweet wine flight, so we ordered one of each to have a little sip of each kind.

Seeing as we were moving that day, we had our dog Truffles with us. Thankfully they were fine with Truffles coming in, so she got dressed in her Drinking Squad t-shirt to join us.

Eastern Shore Brewing was next door, so we picked up some Oreo Cookie Stout to go which was much tastier than you might expect it to be.

Final Thoughts

Baltimore doesn’t always have the best reputation, but we really enjoyed our time there. There are lots of attractions worth visiting, nice hotels, great food, fun neighborhoods to walk around and more, so it’s definitely worth a visit.