Maryland Official Visitors Guide - 2018 Maryland Official Visitors Guide
Family Adventures
2017-11-28 06:24:19
Making Memories
Round up the kids for a family adventure you’ll always remember.
Maryland has tons of perfect spots for family fun. Ride some of the country’s most thrilling roller coasters and waterslides, spend a day at the National Aquarium or zoo, visit our great children’s museums, go on an outdoor adventure, and hit the beach for some super sandcastle construction.
Rides for All Ages
Six Flags America in Upper Marlboro is Maryland’s undisputed king of coasters with Apocalypse, BATWING, and the SUPERMAN: Ride of Steel hypercoaster, with its 205-foot drop and virtual reality that takes you into the skies of Metropolis. The newest addition to the park is the WONDER WOMAN Lasso of Truth, an elevated swinging thrill ride.
Trimper’s Rides on the boardwalk in Ocean City has been a Maryland family staple since 1893, and while they’ve got their own coasters and great thrill rides, this is the place for your little ones to make that unforgettable first ride on the beautiful 1912 carousel.
When the mercury rises, Jolly Roger has a bit of welcome chill to go with their thrills. Rightfully famous for theme park rides in both of its Ocean City locations and the biggest go-cart track on the East Coast, Jolly Roger’s Splash Mountain waterpark will quench your family’s thirst for fun.
Animal Adventures
The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is home to more than 2,000 animals in naturalistic exhibits such as the African penguin exhibit, where these best-dressed birds glide through currents and leap through waves. You can even whiz down a tree slide. At the Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun you can hand feed Jimmie the Giraffe. The Salisbury Zoo makes for a perfect break on the way to the beach or an adventure all its own. Don’t miss the Catoctin Wildlilfe Preserve and Zoo in Thurmont and the Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun.
Kiddie Cousteaus will love the Calvert Marine Museum with its giant megalodon shark skeleton and frolicsome river otters, Bubbles and Squeak. And don’t miss Baltimore’s National Aquarium: with dolphins, sharks and an immersive coral reef, this stunning facility at the Inner Harbor welcomes visitors to a world of water.
Top Places for Tiny Tarzans and Junior Janes
Tighten those family ties at Upward Enterprises in Frederick and Go Ape in Sandy Spring—both are world-class zip line courses. Or try the Flying Squirrel Canopy Tour and the Chipmunk Challenge Course at Wisp Resort and Terrapin Adventures in Savage Mill.
Family-Friendly Museums
The Maryland Science Center in Baltimore offers a mind-blowing look through the eye of the Hubble Space Telescope and features massive dinosaur skeletons. There’s even a dino-dig so you can feel what it’s like to be a paleontologist.
Also in Baltimore, Port Discovery Children’s Museum is like a world unto itself with a fabulous water room, KidWorks, an enormous four-story jungle gym, a toddler room for tykes two and under, and even a kid-scale diner. Kid conductors and would-be firefighters will love the trains at the B&O Railroad Museum and the displays at The Fire Museum of Maryland.
Beach Bonanza
Deep Creek Lake has great freshwater swimming beaches, as do the swimming holes at the Beaver Dam Swim Club in Cockeysville and Cascade Lake in Hampstead. On the bay, North Point State Park, Hammerman Beach, Sandy Point and the aptly named Chesapeake Beach offer sand, sun and plenty of fun. Oh, and did we mention Ocean City? Between the emerald Atlantic Ocean and the iconic boardwalk lies a stretch of white sandy beach absolutely perfect for castle construction.
Go Out and Play
Looking to ease into the outdoors? Start with a weekend at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park in Hagerstown. Cabins have screened porches and all the essentials of home, and the park’s organized activities for the wee ones will let mom and dad get some down time. Looking to get a little closer to nature? Gunpowder State Park offers kid-friendly hiking. Reserve a cabin at New Germany State Park and create a one-of-a-kind memory. Drop a line in Lake Habeeb at Rocky Gap State Park or at Cambridge’s Bill Burton Fishing Pier State Park where the locals may offer advice on how to catch “the big one,” or pitch a tent at Assateague State Park where the sounds of crashing waves and the whinnies of the island’s famous wild beach horses will thrill children of all ages.
Finally, after all that family fun, you deserve a reward, so head out on the awesome Ice Cream Trail. Fill up your Trail passport, available to download at marylandsbest.net, by hitting all nine cow-to-cone creameries. If there was ever a good reason to get the family into the car, it’s knowing when they get out, there’s going to be ice cream.
High-Flying Fun
If you’re feeling the need for speed, Maryland is your top gun vacation destination.
In 2018, see the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels over Annapolis May 23-25 and at Pax River Air Expo June 2-3. See if you’ve got “the right stuff” flying an actual F-14 Tomcat simulator at Patuxent River Naval Air Museum in St. Mary’s. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will be pushing the envelope at the Ocean City Air Show June 16-17 and searing the skies over Fort McHenry for Maryland Fleet Week & Air Show Baltimore October 3-8. View from the Ocean City boardwalk and other Eastern Shore vantage points, when rockets launch from NASA’s facility at Wallops Island.
Explore the first 50 years of flight at the College Park and Hagerstown Aviation Museums. Experience the dawn of the jet-age at Baltimore County’s Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum. Or slip into a kid-sized space suit at NASA’s Goddard Visitor Center in Greenbelt.
Top it all off with a breathtaking helicopter tour of Baltimore’s soaring skyline or the historic streets of Annapolis aboard one of Charm City Helicopters’ luxury choppers.
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