Baltimore's Top 10 for Kids

Take the kids around the harbor on the Urban Pirates ship. Photo © Larry Lamsa, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.

From interactive museums to fun crab dinners, here are the top sights and activities to keep kids entertained during your family’s visit to Baltimore:

• At the B&O Railroad Museum, little ones can play on huge iron locomotives, and even board a train for a three-mile trip.
• Climb aboard the Chessie dragon boats and paddle around the Inner Harbor.
• Check out Fort McHenry National Monument, where, in 1814, U.S. troops held off a British invasion—and a flag above the fort inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
• The Maryland Science Center has plenty of experiments, dinosaurs, and gizmos for kids to energetically embrace.
• Dive in to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where options range from breakfast with the dolphins to overnight sleepovers.
• Burn off some energy in Pierce’s Park, where kids can tap out a melody on the musical fence, run through a tunnel made of branches, or slide down a stainless steel cornucopia.
• Have a fun, crab-smashing dinner at Bo Brooks in Canton.
• Unleash your kids in the Port Discovery Children’s Museum, where they can climb and crawl through a three-story tree house and immerse themselves in exhibits about everything from nature to robots.
• At Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, kids can feel their way through a mirror maze, take a ride in the 4-D moving theater, and gawk at all the strange but true oddities in the museum.
• Dress up like a swashbuckling pirate, play games, and discover treasure while sailing around the harbor aboard the Urban Pirates ship.

Excerpted from the Second Edition of Moon Baltimore.