99 Reasons to Visit

It wasn’t that hard to come up with a list of 99 Reasons to Visit Talbot County. We simply asked our visitors. We also polled our friends and family. We even posted it on Facebook, and this is what our people had to say. Drop us a line if you want to add to the list!

1. Eat steamed Chesapeake Bay blue crabs or fried soft crabs
2. View a Rembrandt at the Academy Art Museum
3. See Chesapeake Bay lighthouses on a water tour
4. Tour a winery, brewery or distillery in St. Michaels
5. Take a swing on one of our championship golf courses.
6. Search for sea glass on The Strand in Oxford
7. Watch the sunset over the water at Lowe’s Wharf
8. Greet a waterman at Dogwood Harbor on Tilghman Island
9. Take in a show at the historic Avalon Theatre
10. Trace the Frederick Douglass path to freedom
11. Ride in a hot air balloon at the Great Chesapeake Balloon Festival
12. Swing high overlooking the Tred Avon River in Oxford Park
13. Watch world-class carvers at work at the Waterfowl Festival
14. Learn to sail at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
15. Stay in a charming bed and breakfast
16. Explore the Children’s Garden at Idlewild Park
17. Expand your horizons at the Chesapeake Film Festival
18. Say thank you to a waterman at Waterman’s Appreciation Day
19. Go antiquing in historic villages
20. See painters capture nature at the Plein Air Easton competition
21. Remember the War of 1812 in St. Michaels
22. Shuck an oyster
23. Hear world-class artists at the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival
24. Race your Jack Russell Terrier for charity at Fall Into St. Michaels
25. Learn about country living at Trappe’s Rural Life Museum
26. Have a pancake breakfast with the Oxford Fire Company
27. Take a Chesapeake Ghost Walk through Easton or St. Michaels
28. Enjoy a cone of homemade ice cream
29. Line the streets for a hometown parade
30. Check out the gingerbread houses at Christmastime in St. Michaels
31. Spend the night in an 1879 lighthouse at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
32. Celebrate African-American culture at the annual Juneteenth Celebration
33. Find a new fishing spot
34. Visit the hidden gardens at the Historical Society of Talbot County
35. Hear young musicians at the international Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition
36. Watch the potato races before Easton’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade
37. Sail aboard a skipjack
38. Buy a painting from a world-class artist
39. Watch a tractor pull at the Tuckahoe Steam and Gas Show
40. Bird watch at Pickering Creek Audubon Center
41. Horse around at the St. Josephs Jousting Tournament and Horse Show
42. Take yoga class
43. Watch the New Year’s crab drop at First Night Talbot
44. Visit the Amish Farmers Market
45. Bike scenic back roads
46. Visit the Wye Grist Mill, Maryland’s oldest working mill
47. Indulge at the Tilghman Island Seafood Festival
48. Ride the family-owned Oxford-Bellevue Ferry
49. Worship at the oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the country
50. Take in a play by the Tred Avon Players at the Oxford Community Center
51. Explore African-American history through an archeological dig
52. Hire a professional guide and hunt for ducks or geese
53. Taste a new dish at Easton’s Multicultural Festival
54. Shop at the annual Academy Art Museum Craft Show
55. See the Nace’s Day Parade in Trappe, honoring Maryland Emancipation Day
56. Jet ski or water-ski on our rivers
57. Listen to local musicians
58. Fish or crab on the Choptank River at Bill Burton Fishing Pier State Park
59. Watch the 4th of July fireworks in Oxford, Easton and St. Michaels
60. Scale the climbing wall at the Easton YMCA
61. Attend a Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra concert
62. Visit Storytime for Children at the Talbot County Free Library
63. Picnic on Bolingbroke Creek at the Izaak Walton League’s Bolingbroke Park
64. Meet artists and see their work at Easton’s Friday Night Gallery Walk
65. Enjoy an intimate concert at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival
66. Bask in the holiday spirit at the Friends of Hospice Festival of Trees
67. Get a move on at the St. Michaels Running Festival
68. Bid on a unique painted fence at the Oxford Picket Fence Auction
69. See the Phillips Wharf Environmental Center’s traveling Fishmobile aquarium
70. Visit the Frederick Douglass Monument on the Talbot County Courthouse Green
71. Hire a sportfishing charter for rockfish, bluefish, croaker or spot
72. Take a self-guided walking tour of the Easton and St. Michaels historic districts
73. Cruise Talbot County’s waterways
74. See master furniture makers at work at McMartin & Beggins in McDaniel
75. Eat a funnel cake at Easton’s Independence Day carnival
76. See nautical artifacts at the Tilghman Island Waterman’s Museum
77. Read a book by the Bay on a quiet afternoon
78. Buy cantaloupes, sweet corn, tomatoes and peaches at a produce stand
79. Let Fido frolic at Easton’s dog park
80. Tour Longwoods Elementary School, a.k.a. the Little Red Schoolhouse (c. 1865)
81. Salute the 18 U.S. Colored Troops veterans buried in Unionville
82. Saunter through the Oxford Museum
83. Look up and admire the art banners in Easton and St. Michaels
84. Talk to Rudolph in the Talbottown Shopping Center at Christmastime
85. Wade a grass shoreline to dip net softshell crabs
86. Visit a farmers market on Saturday morning
87. Watch a log canoe race
88. Stroll around town after dining at one of Talbot County’s award-winning restaurants
89. Rent a paddle board, kayak or canoe and explore sheltered waters teeming with wildlife
90. Take a walk on Easton’s or St. Michaels’ Rails to Trails
91. Eat breakfast while watching planes land at the Easton Airport
92. See a Little League game at a park named for Baseball Hall of Famer Frank “Home Run” Baker
93. Sample oyster stew at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum’s OysterFest
94. Work out the kinks in one of our spas
95. Experience small town life
96. Make new friends or visit with old ones
97. Move a little slower
98. Rest and rejuvenate
99. Enjoy the hospitality of the Eastern Shore!