Kabul rewards a thin wallet: most of its shrines, hilltop tombs and river bazaars cost nothing, park gates ask 20 afghanis, and a metre of tandoor naan is 15. Three days of free viewpoints, wholesale markets and 60-AFN kebab, all reached by shared taxi.
Timur Shah's octagonal brick mausoleum (1817) stands alone on the Kabul River's south bank, restored by the Aga Khan Trust in 2006. Entry is free, the lawns open dawn to dusk, and the domed interior echoes under its ribbed vault.
Down a covered alley beside Pul-e Khishti Mosque, this two-century-old bird bazaar packs canaries, partridges and fighting quail into hundreds of hanging wooden cages. Browsing costs nothing; green tea in the alley chai khana is 20 AFN.
Kabul's largest public park spreads 12.5 hectares of walnut and mulberry terraces below a rebuilt 19th-century palace, reopened by AKTC in 2018. Entry is 20 AFN, families picnic on the grass, and the top terrace overlooks the southern valley.
Locals name it Swimming Pool Hill for the empty Soviet-built Olympic pool on the summit. The walk up from Wazir Akbar Khan takes about 20 minutes, costs nothing, and opens a 360-degree panorama of mudbrick hillsides going gold.
Kabul's wholesale bazaar sprawls along the riverbed in the Old City: sacks of Herat saffron, Kandahar pomegranates, dried mulberries and pine nuts sold by weight. Entry is free and a kilo of raisins goes for roughly 150 AFN.
Bakeries beside Pul-e Khishti Mosque fire their tandoors all morning: a metre-long naan-e Afghani slapped onto the clay wall costs 10-20 AFN, and neighbouring carts fry bolani stuffed with potato or leek for about 30 AFN.
Named after the US president, this Kart-e Char lane resells surplus left by former foreign bases — sleeping bags, camp stoves, boots, thermoses and headtorches at a fraction of import prices. Haggling is expected on every item.
Charcoal skewer stalls line the pavements around Shahr-e-Naw's Cinema Zainab, grilling seekh kebab for 60-80 AFN with naan included. Afterwards hand-churned sheer yakh ice cream with rosewater and pistachio sells for 40 AFN a cup.
A dammed reservoir 9km west of the city under the Paghman ridge, ringed with picnic shelters, tea platforms and rowing boats. Shared taxis from Company Bazaar are about 50 AFN each way and walking the shoreline takes two hours.
The black-and-white marble tomb of Nadir Shah crowns Tepe Maranjan, a bare ridge east of the centre. Free to climb, it draws kite-flyers on Friday afternoons, and the terrace looks straight down onto the ramparts of Bala Hissar.
Founded in 1967 and rebuilt from 2002 with Chinese and German help, the zoo on the river's south bank keeps roughly 200 animals, including the leopards, wolves and the lion enclosure that made one-eyed Marjan a city legend.
A concrete stairway of some 800 steps climbs Koh-e Asamai, the shrine-topped ridge locals call TV Hill after its transmitter masts. It costs nothing, fills with schoolchildren after 16:00, and gives the sharpest view over the Kabul basin.