The Best Hotels in Baltimore, According to a Local

After living in Baltimore for over five years, I’m delighted to spotlight the city’s very best hotels! Baltimore has some fantastic places to stay. They’re filled with history and personality, much like Charm City itself.

The Ivy Hotel is the most exclusive luxury hotel in Baltimore. It’s Black-owned with two MICHELIN Keys (the hotel equivalent of a MICHELIN Star for restaurants) and set inside a 19th-century mansion in historic, culturally-rich Mount Vernon. The hotel offers an intimate experience with 17 lavishly decorated rooms, a small full-service spa, and the Maryland bistro Magdalena. Guests can relax in the courtyard, library, conservatory, music room, tea room, and other beautifully designed communal spaces. The room rate includes breakfast, afternoon tea, evening cocktails, midnight snacks, and private car service.

Hotel Ulysses in Mount Vernon is a bold and eccentric boutique hotel that, of all the hotels on this list, exemplifies Baltimore’s unique and quirky personality. The hotel stylishly blends old-world decadence with avant-garde flair. Every inch is saturated with rich colors, moody lighting, and dramatic textures. Plus, there are two great bars on-site. The Coral Wig, a cocktail bar inspired by the clubs of 1980s-era Manila, recently opened and was rated one of the best new bars in the U.S. There is also funky Bloom’s for craft cocktails, filled with mirrors and bright purple velvet couches. Ulysses is a block away from one of the city’s best restaurants, the Afghan eatery The Helmand, and a 15-minute walk to Penn Station.

Rachael’s Dowry B&B is set in a restored 18th-century mansion in Camden Yards near Oriole Park, M&T Stadium, and the Convention Center. The home originally belonged to a brick baron when George Washington was said to have been a guest there in the 1790s! With six impeccably decorated suites, the B&B offers an elegant and intimate stay in a historic setting with a lovely courtyard, library, and parlor.

I was walking around Mount Vernon when I first came across Thomas’ absolutely exquisite, historic guesthouse available through Airbnb. Housed in a mansion built in 1874, Thomas and his widow Larry painstakingly restored this beautiful home into the stunning and elegant, museum-like space it is today. Thomas’ guesthouse is a 10-minute walk from Penn Station and the edgy arts district Station North.

Sagamore Pendry is a lively waterfront hotel inside a restored 1914 pier building. It has one MICHELIN Key and is in Fells Point, a vibrant and historic district with the city’s greatest concentration of restaurants and bars. The hotel has a modern, luxurious, and industrial feel, with an infinity pool overlooking the harbor, a whiskey bar, and a steakhouse. Because the hotel’s communal spaces are often crowded with guests and locals, especially on sunny days, I recommend Sagamore Pendry more for social travelers and groups rather than people looking for an intimate, romantic, or relaxing hotel away from the crowds.