Douala runs on 300 FCFA shared taxis, grilled fish lifted straight off the pirogues at Youpwe, and monumental street sculpture nobody charges to see. This three-day route sticks to free colonial-quarter walks, market haggling and neighbourhood beer terraces.
Joseph-Francis Sumégné's 12-metre scrap-metal giant has stood over the Deido roundabout since 1996, welded from car parts, cooking pots and bicycle frames. It sits in open traffic, so viewing is permanently free.
The 1905 palace built for King Rudolf Douala Manga Bell, its curved pagoda roof an odd German-colonial fantasy in concrete. The grounds are walk-in; the family caretaker keeps informal hours and asks a token contribution.
A single-room museum inside the port complex at Bonanjo, holding ship models, anchors, navigation instruments and photographs of the Wouri quays from the 1900s onward. Rarely more than a handful of visitors.
Douala's red-brick cathedral, consecrated in 1936, with tall louvred windows built for the heat and stained glass that catches the late light. Open daily roughly 06:30-18:30 and free to enter between services.
Akwa's everyday food market, tighter and less touristed than the big central halls: plantain, njangsa, smoked fish, palm oil sold from basins. Entry is free and vendors expect you to counter-offer at least twice.
Pirogues unload bar, machoiron and shrimp straight onto the concrete, and the braising stands behind the quay grill whatever you point at with a plantain side. A whole fish with miondo runs roughly 1,500-3,000 FCFA.
Central Africa's largest cheap-clothing market, block after block of friperie bales opened on the spot. Shirts start near 500 FCFA, jeans around 2,000, and the wholesale alleys near the rear go cheaper again.
Douala's busiest junction turns into a smoke line after dark: soya beef skewers rubbed with pepper-peanut spice at 100-200 FCFA each, beignets-haricots-bouillie stands, and grilled plantain sold by the piece.
A riverside Sawa village upstream of the city where sculptors, painters and dancers keep open workshops in family compounds. Studios welcome drop-ins, and the walk between them along the mangrove edge costs nothing.
The 1,800-metre bridge opened in 1955 has a narrow walkway on each side, giving the widest free view in Douala: container cranes downstream, pirogues below, mangrove flats stretching toward Bonabéri.
The city's old league ground, home to Union Douala and neighbourhood matches most weekends. Terrace tickets are sold at the gate on the day and the crowd noise is the main event, drums included.
The old administrative waterfront empties out after office hours, leaving a long free stretch of riverbank where the sun drops behind the Bonabéri mangroves and hawkers sell roasted maize for 200 FCFA.