Chefchaouen rewards thin wallets: the medina itself is the attraction and walking it costs nothing. Bissara for ten dirhams, mountain waterfalls reached by a 30 MAD shared taxi, and ridge viewpoints with no gate and no ticket office.
Water spills off the Rif hillside through the eastern gate, where Chaouni women still scrub laundry on the stone slabs. Free at any hour; come before 08:00 and the riverside cafés let you sit for a 10 MAD mint tea.
A tiled fountain square in the Souika quarter where local families outnumber visitors. No entry, no touts — benches, a public tap for refilling bottles, and neighbourhood bakeries selling khobz bread rounds at 1.50 MAD.
Below Bab Onsar a small tannery dyes goat hide in open stone vats, worked by hand as it has been for centuries. Watching from the lane costs nothing and the smell is mild next to Fez, with no ticket booth at all.
A 35-minute dirt path from Bab Onsar climbs to the abandoned 1920s mosque on the ridge. The doorway is never locked and there is no fee — the entire blue town and the Rif ranges spread out below at golden hour.
Farmers from the surrounding Rif villages spread out on the ground beyond Bab Souk every Monday and Thursday from dawn to roughly 14:00: mountain cheese, olives, mint, goat leather. Haggling is normal and expected.
Bissara — thick fava bean soup poured with olive oil, cumin and paprika — is the Chaouni working meal. The hole-in-the-wall counters off Souk el-Hots serve a filling bowl with bread for 8-12 MAD, eaten standing.
The covered municipal market is where the ville nouvelle shops: sardines by the crate, dates, almonds and round Rif goat cheese wrapped in palm leaf. Self-catering from here costs a fraction of any medina menu.
The main medina gate fills at dusk with carts turning msemen flatbread and ladling harira. A stuffed msemen runs 5 MAD, a bowl of harira 6 MAD, and grilled sardine sandwiches about 15 MAD as the crowd walks home.
Shared Mercedes grand taxis leave for Akchour once six passengers fill the car, roughly hourly from 08:00. The 45-minute run through the Talassemtane foothills costs 25-35 MAD per seat depending on the season.
A natural limestone arch 25 metres above the Oued Farda, reached by a 40-minute signposted walk upstream from the Akchour bridge. Talassemtane National Park charges no entry fee and no guide is required on this path.
An hour further up the valley the lower falls drop into a green pool that locals swim in all summer. The trail is marked the whole way, there is no ticket, and the riverside shacks grill a tagine for about 45 MAD.
The track above Camping Azilan on the hillside behind the medina looks straight down onto the blue roofs, with the Spanish Mosque on the opposite ridge. Walking in is free; pitching a tent costs 25 MAD a night.