Central Maryland

This region of Maryland contains both its capital, Annapolis, and its most populous city, Baltimore.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include Baltimore and Annapolis.

Baltimore

Slices of American history are around every corner in Baltimore. Maryland's largest city is a gritty old seaport town that's perhaps most famous as the site of Fort McHenry, where, at the height of the War of 1812, the sight of a tattered but defiant American…

Annapolis

Photo: highlimitstudio, CC BY 2.0.

Annapolis is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland. Annapolis was a thriving, wealthy town in the 1600s and 1700s. Many of the houses and other buildings from the 1800s remain, leaving a thriving, vibrant historic district with shops and restaurants along the waterfront.

Aberdeen

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Aberdeen is a city in Harford County, Maryland, United States, 26 miles northeast of Baltimore. The population was 16,254 at the 2020 United States census.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Baltimore County and Westminster.

Baltimore County

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Baltimore County surrounds the City of Baltimore, in Central Maryland. It is a very populous county, filled with independent suburbs of Baltimore, whose populations surged during the white flight of the 1960s from the city in the face of desegregation and the riots of 1968.

Westminster

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Westminster is a city in and the county seat of Carroll County, Maryland, United States. The city's population was 19,960 at the 2020 census. Westminster is an outlying community in the Baltimore metropolitan area, which is part of the greater Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area.

Havre de Grace

Photo: Ted Kerwin, CC BY 2.0.

Havre de Grace is a small city of approximately 15,000 residents in northeastern Maryland. Named by General Lafayette, it was attacked by the Royal Navy during the War of 1812.

Columbia

Photo: Preservation Maryland, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Columbia is a planned city in Howard County, Central Maryland. It differs strongly from most notions of what constitutes a "city," as the planner divided the densely populated, but decidedly suburban in character, city into ten "villages," each of which are divided into several neighborhoods, leaving the city with a less obvious center.

Severna Park is a census-designated place in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. Severna Park is part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, and is located approximately 8 miles north of Annapolis, 17 miles south of Baltimore and 39 miles east of Washington, D.C. Severna Park's population was 39,933 at the 2020 census.

Savage is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located in Howard County, Maryland, United States, approximately 18 miles south of Baltimore and 21 miles north of Washington, D.C. It is situated close to the city of Laurel and to the planned community of Columbia.