A Mother-Son Trip to Baltimore. Plane, Train, Bus, Oh My!

Ok, yes, it might seem over the top to take a nearly 8 year old kid on an overnight trip to Baltimore for the specific purpose of experiencing flight. For quite awhile our youngest son has been begging to go on an airplane. He didn’t really seem to care too much where the airplane was headed, he just wanted to experience flying. An early conversation went something like this.

Me: You have been asking about going on an airplane for awhile now. Tell me what you think you would like to do.

Son: We can get on a plane, fly for a few days, stay in a hotel overnight, and then come home.

Me: Days? Maybe we could just be on a plane for a couple of hours, would that be ok?

Son: Sure.

Me: Do you want to do anything while we’re there?

Son: Maybe have something to eat.

OK then.

My husband and older sons are inclined to think that anyone choosing to fly somewhere if there is an alternative on the ground is crazy. I, on the other hand, don’t have any particular aversion to air travel. With my youngest son’s 8th birthday coming up we determined that giving an experience instead of a toy would be a great idea. Nobody else in the family was interested in joining on this adventure and we had enough travel rewards saved up to allow for a 2 person, low budget, overnight trip.

Why Baltimore?

The Regional Airport is conveniently located only 15 minutes from our home but the list of places we can travel to inexpensively are limited. We can, however, get to Baltimore for very little in terms of both time and money/points.

In the process of planning this trip we found that we could build in a transportation theme even without actually seeing any of the sights of Baltimore( Can you say educational opportunity!?!) That said, there is plenty to do and see in Baltimore much more than we could fit into two days. I can’t think of many places where you can move from place to place in so many unique ways in a short time as in Baltimore(see below.)

Where we stayed:

Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel

What we saw:

Where we ate:

How we got around:

Other transportation options:

Metro Subway (Train)
Amtrak (Train)
Baltimore Water Taxi (Boat)

I’m sure that not many people would choose Baltimore as a winning destination but there is actually enough to do to keep our family busy for a solid week. We plan to get back again as a family but this trip, with just the two of us was a great success.

Trip Recap:

This trip was a smashing success. The weather was nice enough, considering the early February dates. The cost of the trip was extremely reasonable. Since we were there in the off-season the crowds were non-existent. I’m very happy with my hotel choice so close to the harbor since we were walking back from the Aquarium after dark. There are so many ways to get around this city without a car. Even so, we did a significant amount of walking(for us.)

One word of caution. The Inner Harbor area is outstanding and seemed quite safe but I was left with the feeling that it was somewhat of a bubble surrounded by a lot of areas that I would not have wanted to venture into alone or with a child in tow.