Experiences

A great blue heron just steps from the Patterson Park boat lake perimeter sidewalk.

Would you like a guided tour of Baltimore or Annapolis? We can sit down at the dining room harvest table and design your custom tour in great detail to mesh with your interests. We can enjoy freeform explorations as part of your tour.

TRASH PICKING IN PATTERSON PARK

Let’s go pick up trash in Patterson Park, a 15-minute walk away. It’s like a Disney movie in the spring and fall, given its usefulness to migrating birds on the Atlantic flyway, and 214 species have been spotted there (Ebird.org: Patterson Park hotspot). You have a chance of seeing a red fox, a great blue heron, Northern pintails, redtailed hawks, warblers and more. Our ramble will partake of the historic site of the Pagoda the boat lake boardwalk and environs, as well as picking up trash along the way! We can loop briefly out of the southern edge of the park for coffee and a bagel at Patterson Perk or ice cream at wow-factor BmoreLicks.

$20 includes binoculars, coffee

Guests from Taiwan, Brazil, Shanghai and Roanoke enjoy traditional Brazilian and Chinese food at the harvest table.

COOKING WITH JB: MARYLAND CRAB CAKES

Want to dine in? With a cooking lesson thrown in? Learn how to make Maryland crab cakes as good as those in our restaurants, and take the recipe home. Or just sit down to a great meal with good people. We can even order in amazing Chicken Rico — Peruvian chicken that has WOW’d our guests from China to California!

 $20 plus ingredient costs

BILLIE HOLIDAY’S HOME

Our most popular tour, a MUST for jazz and blues fans. Only steps away from Charm City Homestay is the block where the blues great grew up. We can take a cup of tea or glasses of wine and look at her house, as well as five locally produced murals and a pretty mosaic.

FREE, on foot

BAD@$$ BALTIMORE

Our next-most-popular tour, which visitors term unforgettable. Visit the oldest housing project in Maryland, as well as a second project with a fascinating public statue. We’ll look at the two epicenters of the riots, including the location where Toya Graham smacked her son, Michael, for being on the streets. See the moving mural to Freddie Grey. We can finish with a visit to a soul food kitchen and play basketball at one of the most striking filming locations used in “The Wire.”

 $50 for two-hour tour. Plus transportation costs if we need a vehicle.

WALKING TOUR, FELLS POINT

The oldest house in Baltimore, the “police station” in “Homicide,” sites that appear in the movie “When Harry Met Sally,” shopping at a bakery outlet and a scratch and dent store; you can finish with crab cakes at one of our top dive bars or sublime, Florentine-quality gelato.

$10, on foot

EDGAR ALLEN POE SITES

Where he lived, where he collapsed (for real, and where he didn’t), where he died and his interesting burial site.

$25 includes bicycle. Plus transportation costs if we need a vehicle to get to his house.

JOHN WATERS TOUR

Includes the bookstore with signed copies of Waters’ books, sites in the movie “Pecker,” vintage clothing shops, the amazing Marylandia shop Trohv, and Cafe Hon, as well as a truly unique boots-and-chocolate shop.

$30, by bicycle.

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND’S LITTLE GEM

See the giant boats in Ego Alley, the beautiful building that served as U.S. capital for almost two years, the Alex “Roots” Haley statue and Quiet Waters Park. Shop at fantastic loose tea and spice shops in historic buildings. Drinks at Armadillo’s.

$70, plus transportation costs if we need a vehicle.