Sightseeing Tours

Sightseeing Tours

Tours of Baltimore, on foot or four wheels, run from traditional surveys of historic buildings and sites to quirkier explorations such as the Fells Point Ghost Tour. The Baltimore Shuttle offers a 90-minute narrated trolley tour of the city; tours are $18 and depart daily at 11 and 2 from the visitor center at the Inner Harbor.

For a general overview of Baltimore, energetic, irrepressible Zippy Larson offers many different walking tours with historic, cultural, and architectural themes. Zippy's witty, well-researched tours start at $60 per person (which includes a restaurant meal) and take you outside the tourist bubble.

A particularly fascinating experience is local historian Wayne Schaumburg's guided tour to Greenmount Cemetery. Baltimore's largest and most prestigious burial ground is the final resting place of John Wilkes Booth, Johns Hopkins, and other native sons and daughters. Tours take place Saturday mornings in May and October and are $10 per person.

The Fells Point Ghost Tour interweaves narrative about the maritime neighborhood's colorful past with tales of its spectral inhabitants. Tours, which are suitable for children, run every Friday and Saturday evening at 7 PM from July to October, and Saturday only March to June and November; the cost is $12 per adult; reservations are recommended. The Fells Point Visitors Center also offers a Fells Point Ghost Walk as well as tours focusing on such topics as maritime history and immigration.

For building buffs, the Baltimore Architectural Foundation sponsors walking tours of the historic and architecturally significant neighborhood of Mount Vernon; reservations are required and the cost is $10. The Mount Vernon Cultural District also organizes tours of Mount Vernon and other nearby neighborhoods.

Most cruise and tour boats depart from docks in the Inner Harbor. The tall ship Clipper City offers excursions around the harbor aboard a 158-foot replica of an 1850s topsail schooner. The two-hour tours depart twice a day from May to October from the pier in front of Harbor place's Light Street Pavilion. Harbor Cruises, Ltd. and Pintail Yachts present lunch, dinner, and evening cruises around the harbor. Ride the Ducks of Baltimore provides a tour of the city by both land and water.

Trolley Tours

The Baltimore Shuttle (410/732-5098).

Walking Tours

Baltimore Architectural Foundation (410/962-0241. www.baltimorearchitecture.org). Fells Point Ghost Walk (410/522-7400. www.fellspointghost.com). Fells Point Visitors Center Tours (410/675-6750. www.preservationsociety.com). Greenmount Cemetery Tours (410/256-2180. home.earthlink.net/~wschaumburg). Mount Vernon Cultural District (217 N. Charles St., Mount Vernon. 410/605-0462. www.mvcd.org). Zippy Larson's Shoe Leather Safaris (410/817-4141. www.bcpl.net/~zipbooks).

Water Tours

Clipper City (800 Light St., Inner Harbor. 410/837-6700. www.sailingship.com). Harbor Cruises, Ltd (410/727-3113 or 800/695-2628. www.harborcruises.com). Pintail Yachts (Pier 5, Inner Harbor. 410/539-3485). Ride the Ducks of Baltimore (25 Light St., Inner Harbor. 410/727-3825).