Chat Plus: Ideas for a Weekend Trip to Baltimore

During our online chat (most Mondays at 2 p.m.), you ask and we answer your travel questions -- mostly. Here's one we couldn't get to last week.

Any ideas for a weekend trip to Baltimore in January? The aquarium is a definite, but what else is there to do for two 20-somethings?

Depends on your interests, of course, but I'd make the American Visionary Art Museum (410-244-1900, http://www.avam.org) my first stop. Superlatives fail me here, but trust me that the place is fantastic, with room after room of impressive, offbeat works by self-taught or "outsider" artists. Killer gift shop, too. Then check out one of the city's funky municipal markets; Cross Street and Lexington are particularly wonderful. Discover a neighborhood: Federal Hill for its bar scene, Fell's Point for cobblestones and waterfront boutiques, Hampden for painted screens and beehived waitresses. Details on all of the above: Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, http://www.baltimore.org.

-- K.C.S.