Yes, this is a tourist trap - but its a great place to go and do some local shopping and eat at the water front restaurants. The harbor area is very clean, safe and extremely friendly. Every person I interacted with from wait staff, to employees at the stores to the police on the street were so friendly and helpful. Where else do you have a police officer actualy stop you and ask if you are enjoying yourself? Certainly not where I come from.. So enjoy this beautiful part of Charm City.. they have truly earned their name from the friendly experience I had. read more

First off, I have lived around here my entire life. The inner harbor is alright of course i have been to all the attractions. The bums that stroll around asking people for money are rude and annoying, especially when you refuse. The aquarium has always been good, but the prices for attractions and parking keep me away today, not to mention the ambiance of the people who usually make up the majority. The food establishments are junk and over priced. The surveillance and police presents though necessary for the out of control youths is a bit much for a relaxed atmosphere. Today it more resembles a third world nation, not exactly what i would call fun... read more

The Inner Harbor is really what is Spearheading (that's a fancy government term that leads to more promotion credit) the transformation in Baltimore. Yes, it can be a tourist trap, and I don't believe us locals actually eat there, but it is a great environment with lots to do. Countless restaurants for people to pig out at (the American past time), but they are a little pricier than in the neighborhoods of Baltimore. Lots of activities you can accomplish (Science Museum, Paddle Boats, Water Taxi, Aquarium, etc...), and even some sporting events with the Volleyball courts, and probably the best area around for jogging (or is it pronounced yogging? Might be a soft J). I am a huge fan of the Inner Harbor, and it is what is connecting the city, and leading the way for Baltimore to be a safe and friendly city. If all you have heard about Baltimore is from the Wire, it's time to change your opinion and spend some safe quality time at the Harbor! read more

My husband brought me here when I first moved to Maryland. It's actually just about the only part of the city that he's familiar with. We just went back with an out-of-town guest and she commented how clean the Inner Harbor area is, which is actually a reminder to myself San Francisco is really trashy. Inner Harbor is very tourist-oriented but it's good for a day trip for guests. On the other hand, I'd really like to explore more of the city based on my positive experience in the Inner Harbor. read more

My bike got stolen at the Inner Harbor today around 4pm. I left it attached with a cable lock to the bike rack outside Barnes & Noble, in a matter of 45 minutes, the time I spent in the bookstore, my bike was stolen. Such a disgrace I will never trust leaving a bike anywhere in the city. Beware of the thieves!!! read more

Waste of time old and worn out. Inner Harbor needs a face lift out dated stores most of them are closed. Not much to see it has turned into a Tourist Trap. Restaurants are ok not great but very $$$$$ read more

super cool place to chill on a spring or summer day. so much to see and do during the day time. tourist place? id say so. but im a tourist so woohoo! restaurants like cheesecake factory, uno grill, dicks last resort, hard rock cafe. paddle boat rides for $11 for up to 4 people. umm AQUARIUM! second biggest in the country. barnes and noble. a few shops like h&m and urban outfitters. then the gallery is right across the street. street performers doing their thang (juggling on unsteady things). this place is a lot safer than downtown baltimore. id say that for sure. maybe the safest area of the whole city? this is where you bring you family on a nice weekend. just take the orange circular! read more

Inner Harbor is really awesome, it's clean and there's many activities to enjoy in the area. We came down for the book show which was super cool, and they had some great local foods available all organic and healthy!!! Parking is also not so bad in town too!! read more

The heart of Baltimore Maryland has something for everyone. Two shopping pavilions are located on the water front: the Light Street pavilion and the Pratt Street pavilion, each with a selection of gift shops and restaurants Many restaurants offer outdoor seating, and there is public open seating on top of the Light Street pavilion for everyone to enjoy the view. There is a nice path to walk the entire Harbor from one end to the other enjoying the scenic views from all angles, but you have to turn around at some point. The activities that line the Harbor are almost endless, and include the National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, Ships of Baltimore, Top of the World Trade Center observation deck, Ripley's Believe It or Not, and paddle boats. There is a free stage where street performers put on their act and a carousel for kids. A volleyball court is also close. Several ships offer rides, everything from a speed boat to a dinner cruise. At times different ships, such as military ships, will dock and be open for tours. This is truly a place to please everyone. read more

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Fun place to walk around when the weather is good! Lots of shopping, places to eat, coffee and fun.

Probably the safest part of Baltimore. I think Ray Lewis has been banned here.

Without anyone telling you that it's a tourist trap, you arrive in this area and it's evident. The crowd is mostly wearing sneakers and cameras around their necks, but it's a nice crowd all appreciative of the spectacular harbor views of Baltimore. During our stay here, we walked through the area both in the evening and day time. It was nice, but what I love most about this area is the great Dominos Sugar sign. It's a constant reminder of my beloved HBO series The Wire. Although, we spent most of our time here just walking, I didn't not mind the touristy vibe at all. read more

Beautiful area to visit. Sunshine bouncing off the water as you walk in the breeze. There are shops and restaurants nearby, but many were not open. The aquarium is here along with the World Trade Center. A nice place to visit. read more

Really a beautiful area in downtown Baltimore. However, it is in no way representative of the tough city that Baltimore is. Drive down Fayette, Vine, or Fremont streets and you will recognize very quickly that the IH is an over-touristy place that is totally disconnected from Real Baltimore life. read more

I adore Inner Harbor! We went here every year as kids as part of our vacation and I have returned many times as an adult. There's always something new to discover! read more

What's not to like here? You have a great view a chill place to relax and just 'be' as well as some store to shop and you're foot steps away from anywhere you'd want to be in downtown Baltimore. read more

Always have a nice time in the Inner Harbor shops. I do miss the Phillips buffet but the McCormick spice shop is a welcome addition.

Great layout, plenty of entertainment options, clean public restrooms, and excellent water-oriented attractions. Downside is that the food selections are mostly chains. read more

Baltimore Inner Harbor Offers Much to Visitors!!! The Inner Harbor has a special Maryland charm to offer the visitors. It is important to note that there is so much to do with many different types of activities that it can keep a family or couple very busy with everyone content for more than a day. We flew in for a wedding and did not need a rental car. If we had known for sure that we would not be going outside the immediate area, a cab would have worked fine. There is minimal parking and what there is, is expensive. We just left the car in the hotel and walked everywhere. We had been there two days before we were made aware of the water taxis that take you from one location in the harbor to the other. Oh well, after eating the great foods and caloric crabs, we needed the walking. The entertainment in the plaza square was a treat. From magicians, to jugglers, etc., every time we walked by, there was some other group. Beside the Visitors Welcome Center there is a water splash park for the kids and the grass area, they offer various activities in the morning for anyone FREE. We actually got up and did Yoga from our hotel room at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. That was Pretty cool! The Inner Harbor is a TREAT for all ages. read more

Do yourself a favor and spend a weekend in the Inner Harbor. I highly recommend booking a hotel in the area, so that you can walk everywhere and see all the amazing things Bmore has to offer! read more

We went to Inner Harbor on a Thursday afternoon when it was very hot and humid. Due to construction it was very hard to find a parking. We parked by Rusty Scupper and walked all the way around. The area was very clean. The place was very quiet and empty. It was an okay place to visit but nothing special. read more

A favorite place in the summer. Lots of great shops and restaurants. Sitting on the crab deck at Phillips enjoying steamed blue crabs. I recommend taking a water taxi around the harbor to Fell's Point! read more

Beautiful! Love coming here with the family. So many restaurants and shops to choose from!

Love the Inner Harbor! There is so much going on these days. From regular shopping, eating and watching the beautiful harbor itself to fleet week, Oyster festival, the Ice Rink and even a Christmas Village. It's great to see how the area becomes more and more attractive and appreciated. read more

Populated with chain stores and restaruants by the water front; lots of things to do and option to eat. Happy place to relax, enjoy the weekends. So why drugged yourself to go to DC when Baltimoreans have its own. read more

The Baltimore's Inner Harbor was good minus that thing that was suppose to be a couch. Jacuzzi was in the regular room. Flat screen TV. Best Chinese food in the area. read more

It's a childhood place of mine where my brother, sister, mom and I used to go. We go every now and again but it's too expensive to really do anything. Even the boat rides are too expensive. You're better off bringing more money and your own food. We always manage to have fun down here somehow even with the pricey stuff so it's overall a nice tourist place and to bring your friends or to go on a date. read more

Definitely a good place for a tourist to find an activity, or a business traveler to kill some time, or for a run. In a 4 day stay I found myself down here several times, in each of these categories. The historic ship tour was not something I planned on doing, but ended up being my favorite thing in Baltimore. I also enjoyed doing the water taxi ride, and just walking around the area. This is definitely more along the lines of Navy Pier in Chicago than what I would normally think of as a harbor, but that's not a bad thing. No specific desire to go back, but if I was back for work I'm sure I would get down here again. read more

A lot of items to do in the inner harbor. A good place to visit for a lot of different activities to do in Baltimore

The Inner Harbor is my favorite part of Baltimore City. Sure, there are a lot of places in Baltimore that are very cool, but they're sprinkled randomly throughout the city and there are scary people between these interesting points. And if you're scared of crackheads and other crazies, like I am, then you'll do best to stick to the three to four block radius of the Inner Harbor, lest you be snatched up and taken into a secret world of crackeries. The aquarium is very expensive, I can't say it's worth it, either. Maybe if you're bringing kids, they'll somehow enjoy it more than you will. The Science center is very cool. My favorite is the ESPN zone, because I'm a big kid at heart. It's just a great place to walk around, maybe do a little shopping, paddle boating, etc. Again, though, if you wander too far from the Inner Harbor and the sun is setting, you better get back home soon! I mean it! read more

Although the sights are pretty and there is a public restroom in the "mall", it is really a large tourist trap. Please, vacationers, explore the real Baltimore outside of the Inner Harbor, it's not that bad. Really. The restaurants are expensive and the food isn't that great (even the few non-chains). I recommend taking a trek over to Federal Hill or even, if you have to stick in yuppy-ville, Fell's Point. At least there is better offerings there. I do admit, however, that Inner Harbor does at time offer some good people watching and the aquarium and science center are quite good. It's just not a good representative of what the city is really like and yes, I think that is a bad thing. I love Baltimore and have heard one too many people state that they wouldn't explore the city outside of the inner Harbor or Fell's Point which I think is rediculous. So yes, visit the Inner Harbor. It really is a must do when in Baltimore, but please don't let that be your main destination. read more

Watch out for parking fees. We stopped at the Inner Harbor on our way through town for a meal parking about a half block from the north entrance. We returned in about an hour and a half and the parking fee was $22.00, a pretty big hit to the cost of a meal. I'll have to admit I did not ask the restaurant if they stamp the parking ticket, but they did not mention it either and normally a business that authenticates parking vouchers will offer to do so. read more

Great place for food drinks and fun. There is a lot of energy and excitement there but still room to roam. Take a walk around the whole harbor. The brick sidewalk will give you amazing views of the downtown area and some space to relax away from the crowds. It is a bit of a tourist trap but the prices for most things are surprisingly reasonable and comparable to any big city. read more

We hung out at the harbor for the 4th weekend. We had a great time. There are a lot of things to do. We hit the dragon boat in the middle of the harbor. We wanted to catch the taxi boat but never made it to it. We walked everywhere as you definitely need to bring your tennis shoes. Everything is in good walking distance from the hotels near the harbor. The fireworks were great. The ones at the harbor need some work. They only went halfway in the air... yea!! They had two going at the same time. The other firework show was out in the actual harbor away from the shops. This one was the best. The only thing was they had 2 displays going on at the same time. I thought I was watching a tennis match. We stood near McCormick and Schmidt restaurant. We were able to watch both of them and had a great view. We visited the Ripley's believe it or not, the national aquarium, the galleria mall and checked out many of the restaurants in the area. We had a great time. The harbor needs to step it up on the shops. There are more eateries then shops which takes away from being there for the tourist. We had a great time all in all. The weather was the bomb.... yes. The breeze was flowing every day we were there. The sun was definitely out but we had the breeze blowing therefore, it made it much better. The area itself was family friendly and safe. Now on our way out we drove through some other areas of b-more. OMG... stay close to the harbor. If you go over too many blocks you definitely see a different look. :-) read more

Dropped relatives off at John Hopkins Hospital for two appointments for that day. We thought we would kill time by going to Inner Harbor for those hours. Nice to see area but parking is a trap. We were in a parking deck for a little over 4 hours and paid $30.00 for parking. I about freaked out. Ridiculous. No wonder some of the places there look like they are about to die. read more

Ever time I come to this place, I love it more & more. Great mini getaway for couples!! Very cozy, intimate setting...