Baltimore Travel Forum

Would appreciate if anyone can suggest a decent hotel near Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus? Any nice place to eat or places to avoid. Heard about the crime rates in Baltimore, are there any particular areas to avoid? What is the most convenient public transport.
Thanks.
Andy

Except for a few neighborhoods, Baltimore proper (not the suburbs) is one big slum. On the abandoned buildings, the boarded-up windows have obviously-fake windows painted over them! I've been there 3 times in the late 90s/early 00's. It's the city with the highest per capita population of heroin addicts. The downtown harbor district, with the aquarium and Camden Yards baseball park, is a nice area. 2 or 3 miles to the east, you have the upscale Fells Point (or Fells Cove) area, with its well-preserved town houses, cobble stoned streets, and plethora of restaurants (hope you like crab cakes!). The Zoo is cute. I suppose you are considering attending Johns Hopkins? That area, the northwest part of town where the art museum is, has indeed enjoyed gentrification-- but the last time I was there was before the Recession.
There is 1 subway line, maybe 16 stops, which serves not to move people around the inner city, but merely to bring the suburbanites into, and out of, downtown Baltimore. I believe it shuts down around midnight.

Wow, I think that's really overdoing it. Baltimore has plenty of very livable neighborhoods. I've spent quite a bit of time there in the last 12 years (several very good friends live in the city--NOT the suburbs). My best friend attended JHU for two years and lived in Charles Village, just south of the Homewood campus--everything between there and the Inner Harbor is very nice. VTer ellielou is also a good friend, and I've spent plenty of time at her place near Patterson Park (the Butchers Hill neighborhood). The Canton and Fells Point neighborhoods are also nice. And there are plenty of less dense neighborhoods all over the place, still in the city, that are not slums at all. Baltimore is working class, for the most part, but that does not euqal slum. You just need to drive around.

Baltimore is one of my very favorite cities in the US, in fact. It's got a great, funky character and a ton of good restaurants and bars. The city is home to tremendous numbers of immigrant communities, both long-term and more recent, and that really makes it an interesting place.

I'm sorry I can't be helpful on a hotel--I've always stayed with friends in Baltimore--but our Baltimore-based VT members should be able to help out. Write to ellielou and littlesam1 (they are both native Baltimoreans and have excellent VT pages on the city, as does frankcanfly). They'll tell you what you need to know.

ALWAYS check the school's website first.

Lo and behold, they have a webpage about accomodations.

http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/visitor_information/how_to_get_here/hotels_near_JHU/index.cfm

Travelmad, while I haven't been to Baltimore for a couple of years, I wouldn't have made the trek there, 3 or 4 times, if I hadn't thought it had its own charm.
And I do intend to visit there again (maybe in conjunction with a trip to DC). I enjoyed the cute little zoo, with a raven, of course!, and the red brick pavement in the parking lot. As a lifelong New York City resident, I find Baltimore to be refreshlingly small town -- why, it's the home town of Edgar Allan Poe AND John Waters. That doesn't mean that I would LIVE there, of course, and that's what the OP was inquiring about. See you soon.

HI guys, thanks very much for the info. What,s the best way to get around, esp. from JHU Homewood to downtown if I don't have my own transport? Is the subway safe?

as I recall, the "Subway" is just 1 line, with around 16 stops, which serves the purpose of transporting suburban commuters to and from the downtown area.

As for hotels I recommend Radisson Cross Keys. I think there is a hotel directly across the street from Homewood campus also.
There is no subway or Light Rail near JHU Homewood. Your only option would be bus or taxi.
http://www.mtamaryland.com