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Getting to Camden Yards

Getting to Camden Yards

The quick read

Camden Yards sits right in downtown Baltimore, which gives you more ways in than most parks. Rideshare drops you a short walk from the gates. Driving works, and the official lots plus a wall of downtown garages mean you can usually find a spot. And the rail is genuinely strong here: a train station sits at the gate, with a line up from Washington, DC that lets a whole carload of DC fans skip the car entirely.

So the order we recommend is rideshare first, then driving and parking, then rail. We put rail third only because it depends most on where you start. If you are coming from the Maryland suburbs, from BWI Airport, or from DC, read the rail section first, because it might be the easiest trip you can make.

Parking rates, Light Rail and MARC fares, and gate times shift year to year. Give anything time-sensitive below a quick check against mlb.com/orioles or mta.maryland.gov before you build a plan around it.

Check your own trip in the maps app

Start here: type “Camden Yards” into Apple Maps or Google Maps, set your hotel as the start, and toggle through the modes: transit, rideshare, drive. The apps have the Maryland Transit Administration schedules built in, so they will tell you the real time and cost for each option from your exact starting point.

The right answer changes a lot by where you sleep. From an Inner Harbor hotel it is a flat ten-minute walk and you do not need any of this. The suburbs are Light Rail territory. DC means the MARC train. If the rail does not reach your hotel well, rideshare or the lot wins. Let the app sort your specific case, then use the sections below for the detail.

Rideshare

If you are not within walking distance and the rail does not line up cleanly from where you are staying, rideshare is the simplest call. Uber and Lyft drop off and pick up in zones near the park downtown. The appeal is the usual one: you skip the parking math and the slow crawl out of the lots.

The ride in is easy. The ride home is the part that catches people. When the park empties at once, the apps surge for the first stretch after the final out, and downtown traffic around the park bunches up at the same time. The fix is to walk a few blocks away from the stadium before you request. You will usually get a faster pickup and a lower fare than standing right at the gates with everyone else. With the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill right there, walking off the surge is no hardship.

Driving and parking

Driving is a real option here, and we are not going to talk you out of it. A downtown park surrounded by 30,000-plus garage and lot spaces is a different animal than the car-only parks ringed by one giant lot. Driving makes the most sense for a group of three or more where per-person rail fares add up, for anyone already in a rental car for the rest of a trip, or if you are staying somewhere the trains do not reach well.

A few things to know.

  • The official lots are A through H. General day-of parking is usually in Lots F, G, and H. Lot F, off Hamburg Street, is the popular one, about a 5 to 8 minute walk to the gates.
  • Most lots want a pre-purchased pass. Buy ahead through the official parking page rather than counting on a drive-up spot. If you do pay on the day, plan on roughly $10 to $15 or more, cash.
  • The lots open 1 hour before gates open.
  • There are 30,000-plus garage and lot spaces across downtown and the Inner Harbor, most within a short walk. On a normal midweek game you are not going to be stranded for a spot; the question is price and how far you want to walk.

SpotHero for a downtown garage

For a spot reserved ahead of time, SpotHero is the way to lock in one of the downtown garages near the park. SpotHero is a parking-reservation app: you book a garage in advance, prepay in the app, and drive straight to it on game day. ParkWhiz does the same thing if you prefer it. Prices climb on higher-demand dates, the Yankees and Red Sox weekends especially, so check live and book early.

How it works:

  1. Open the SpotHero app or the Camden Yards parking page.
  2. Enter your game date and time.
  3. Filter by walking distance, price, or covered versus open.
  4. Reserve and pay in the app.
  5. Show the digital pass at the garage entrance.

When driving is the right call

  • You are a group of three or more, where the parking cost beats per-person rail fares.
  • You are staying somewhere the Light Rail and MARC do not reach well.
  • You want full flexibility on when you leave after the game, and you are fine with the lot crawl as the price of it.
  • You already have a rental car for the rest of your trip.

Rail: Camden Station at the gate

This is the part that makes Camden Yards easy to reach without a car. Camden Station, at South Howard and West Camden Streets, sits right at the ballpark. Three different rail services run through or near it, and one of them comes up from Washington, DC.

Light Rail

The Light Rail (Maryland’s light-rail line, run by the Maryland Transit Administration) runs straight through Camden Station. Trains come about every 15 to 30 minutes, with 32 stops along the Hunt Valley to BWI Airport line, plus the Glen Burnie and Cromwell branches. For fans coming from the northern suburbs, from points south, or straight from BWI Airport, it is the easiest no-parking option, and it drops you at the gate.

MARC Camden Line from DC

If you are coming up from Washington, the MARC train (Maryland Area Regional Commuter, the state’s commuter rail) runs its Camden Line from DC’s Union Station to Camden Station, right at the park. There is weekday service plus special event and game-day trains on some dates. This is the “come up from DC without a car” option, and for a group splitting from the District it is hard to beat: one fare each, no parking, no driving the BW Parkway home after a night game.

Metro Subway

Baltimore’s Metro Subway (the city’s single subway line, also run by the Maryland Transit Administration) does not stop at the park, but it gets you close. Ride to Lexington Market or Charles Center, then walk a short distance to the gates. It is the right call if you are starting near a Metro stop on the west side.

When rail is the right call

  • You are coming from the Maryland suburbs north or south of the city, where the Light Rail runs direct.
  • You are flying into BWI and would rather skip a rental car.
  • You are coming up from Washington, DC, and the MARC Camden Line runs on your game date.
  • You want to skip parking and the post-game car crawl out of downtown.

Gates and getting in

Go to whichever gate is closest to where you arrived. If you came by rail to Camden Station, Gate A by the Eutaw Street corridor and the team store is right there, and it is worth walking in this way to see Eutaw Street and the home-run plaques even if your seats are elsewhere. If you parked in one of the Hamburg Street lots, head for the gate on that side. There is rarely a reason to hike around the stadium for a different entrance.

Gates open on a sliding scale by day: about 60 minutes before first pitch Monday through Thursday, 90 minutes on Friday, 120 minutes on Saturday, and 90 minutes on Sunday. The lots open about an hour before that.