A comprehensive guide to the free activities that make budget travel in major cities viable.

In most major tourist cities, the best experiences are free or nearly free. The museums that charge are offset by public parks, markets, religious sites, architectural walks, and viewpoints that cost nothing. Here is the inventory by city type.

Coastal cities: the beach is free everywhere in the world except private beach concession chairs. Walking coastal paths (Nice, Dubrovnik, Auckland, Cape Town, Colombo) is free and often the best way to see the city. Harbor watch at dawn or sunset costs nothing.

Historic cities: the street architecture in Kraków, Tallinn, Seville, and Cartagena (Colombia) is the main attraction and entirely free. Walk the Jewish quarters, the Ottoman bazaars, the Portuguese tiles. Religious sites (mosques, cathedrals, temples) charge variable fees — many have free entry or donation-based entry. The Sagrada Familia is €26; the Barcelona Gothic Cathedral is free.

Capital cities: national museums in many countries are free as a matter of cultural policy. The Smithsonian museums (all 19 of them) in Washington DC are entirely free. The British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, V&A — all free permanent collections. The Louvre is €22 but free for under-26 EU residents and on the first Friday evening of each month.

The most underused free activity: spending an afternoon in a local public park watching how people in a city actually spend their leisure time. Every city has one — the Tuileries, the Retiro, Gorky Park, Lumpini — and none of them cost anything.