We asked, you answered.
In The Baltimore Sun’s Best: Readers’ Choice 2025 poll, our readers voted on what’s best in the region, from wedding venues and roofers to pediatricians and hair salons. This year’s winners highlight people and businesses recognized for outstanding service and customer satisfaction over the last year.
The poll includes more than 550 winners in nearly 200 categories in six areas — Arts & Entertainment, Home & Garden, Food & Drink, Lifestyles & Shopping, Personal Services and People & Media.
More than 47,000 ballots were cast, cultivating a list of your favorite museums, pizza joints, boutiques, TV anchors, radio hosts and so much more.
Best Tourist attraction: National Aquarium
501 E. Pratt St. 410-576-3800. aqua.org
There’s something fishy about the numbers. Last year, 1.3 million people visited the National Aquarium, eager to see the sharks, dolphins and other critters that call it home. In August, the venue logged its 60 millionth guest as one of America’s foremost displays of marine exhibits — from the barramundi, an Asian sea bass that changes sex as it grows, to the Australian lungfish, whose ancestral DNA harks back more than 400 million years.
Here, visitors with otherwise short attention spans may gaze at the watery offerings for hours, giggling at the antics of Atlantic puffins, gasping at the sight of blacktip reef sharks and basking in the biodiversity of the 13,000 organisms that have captivated crowds for 44 years.
“We’re always wiping nose prints and fingerprints off the glass, and not just from kids,” said Emma Wesoloski, the Aquarium’s vice president of marketing. “That speaks to the power of water, and to the animals that live there. People use [their visit] as a time to slow down, to not be on their phones. They have ‘zen moments’ here.”
Routinely, Wesoloski said, the aquarium draws out-of-towners, in Baltimore on business, seeking respites from their work.
“They take time away from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives,” she said. 80% of visitors hail from outside the Baltimore area, and their habitats are as far-reaching as those of the animals and plants themselves.
A favorite attraction is the jellyfish exhibit, a hands-on display of nine alien-like jellies swimming in a touch pool, along with sting rays and horseshoe crabs.
“People come and fall in love with our animals,” Wesoloski said. Also, with each other. Couples hold engagement parties at the aquarium where, in a tank at the Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit, amid the eels, sharks and turtles, a diver will tap on the glass and hold up a sign from the groom-to-be asking, “Will you marry me?”
Have a news tip? Contact Mike Klingaman at jklingaman@baltsun.com and 410-332-6456.
Bowling: Greenmount Bowl
Honorable mentions:
Parkville Lanes
Perry Hall Lanes
Casino: Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland
Honorable mention:
Horseshoe Casino Baltimore
Charity/nonprofit: Greater North Point Association
Honorable mentions:
Chesapeake Bay Association
Meals on Wheels
Helping Up Mission
College/university: Towson University
Honorable mentions:
University of Maryland, College Park
Loyola University Maryland
Harford Community College
Dog park: Locust Point Dog Park at Latrobe Park
Gallery: Baltimore Museum of Art
Honorable mentions:
Walter’s Art Museum
American Visionary Arts
The Baltimore Art Gallery
Golf course: Mountain Branch Golf Club
Honorable mentions:
Eagle’s Nest Country Club
Bay Hills Golf Club
Museum: B&O Railroad Museum
Honorable mentions:
Baltimore Museum of Art
American Visionary Arts
The Walters Art Museum
Park: Sherwood Gardens
Honorable mentions:
Patterson Park
Cromwell Valley Park
Riverside Park
Private school: Loyola Blakefield
Honorable mentions:
Calvert Hall College High School
Mount Saint Joseph High School
The John Carroll School
Public school: Hereford High School
Honorable mentions:
George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology
Baltimore School for the Arts
Centennial High School
Suburb: Columbia
Honorable mentions:
Parkville
Bowleys Quarters
Pasadena
Theater company: Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center
Honorable mentions:
Baltimore Center Stage
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Everyman Theatre
Tourist attraction: The National Aquarium
Honorable mentions:
Fort McHenry
CFG Bank Arena
Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland
Wedding venue: GreyRock Mansion and The Liriodendron Mansion (tie)
Honorable mentions:
Rockfield Manor
Padonia Park
Overhills Mansion (tie)
The Hall at Live! Casino (tie)
Editor’s note: Winners and honorable mentions were determined by popular vote. Readers were invited to nominate and vote online from April to May. The ballot and results are generated solely by readers’ votes. The Baltimore Sun does not take responsibility for the services offered or advertised by those listed.
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