Algiers rewards a thin wallet: most of its drama — sea-wall arcades, terraced gardens, the white city seen from a cable-car cabin — costs nothing or a few dinars. Museums charge under 500 DZD, street food under 200, and the metro is a flat 50.
Algeria's 1832 botanical garden spreads 58 hectares below the Bardo hill: the Allée des Dragonniers, a bamboo grove and some 1,200 plant species. Open 09:00–17:00 daily except Monday, and the cheapest half-day in the capital.
North Africa's largest fine-arts collection sits directly opposite the garden's upper gate: around 8,000 works including Dinet, Delacroix studies and Algerian modernists. Open 10:00–17:00, closed Friday; the marble stairwell alone earns the ticket.
The 1910 neo-Moorish central post office is free to walk into — carved plaster, horseshoe arches and a stained-glass dome hanging over the counters. The square outside is the city's meeting point and the hub of every bus and metro line.
Five kilometres of reclaimed seafront between Hussein Dey and the port, rebuilt in 2013 with open playgrounds, skate ramps and fishermen's jetties. Families arrive after 17:00 and stay until dark; sea air, no entrance gate, no closing time.
Where Algérois actually shop: deglet nour dates from Biskra, merguez by the kilo, olives sold by the scoop and figs at a fraction of shop prices. Loud from 08:00, thinning by 13:00 when traders start cutting prices to clear crates.
Karantika, the baked chickpea-flour flan, and mahjouba, a semolina crêpe folded around tomato and onion, are sold from carts along Rue Bab Azzoun below the old city gate — 60 to 120 DZD a portion, eaten standing with harissa.
The neighbourhood's covered market under a 1930s iron hall: sardines landed that morning, spice sellers weighing ras el hanout by hand, and pastry stalls turning out zlabia. The doorway kiosks grill a sardine sandwich to order.
The colonial-era shopping street ends the day cheaply: qahwa at 40 DZD standing at the counter, kalb el louz and makroud sold by the piece from the pâtisseries, and arcades running the whole way to Place Emir Abdelkader.
Four cable-car lines still work as commuter transport in Algiers. The Madania cabin climbs the escarpment in about six minutes for the price of a bus ticket, with the bay, the port cranes and the Hamma gardens under the window.
A terraced hillside garden above Bab El Oued with benches cut into the slope and an unfenced view over the harbour and the white roofs below. Locals bring bread and cheese and stay an hour; no gate, no ticket, shade after midday.
The metro runs a flat 50 DZD fare anywhere on the line. Place des Martyrs station was dug through Roman and Ottoman layers, and the excavated street level, cisterns and mosque foundations are displayed behind glass in the concourse.
A kilometre of French arcades built into the sea wall from 1860, holding the last sun above the port and free to walk end to end. Stairways drop to the fish quay where crews sell the day's catch straight off the boats.