Lucknow rewards thin wallets: its greatest gateways cost nothing to walk through, its most famous kitchens serve you for under ₹200, and its state museum charges ₹20. Three days here can run on the price of a single restaurant meal in Delhi.
The 18th-century gateway modelled on Constantinople's Sublime Porte stands 60 feet high on Husainabad Road, free to walk through at any hour. The 221-foot clock tower beside it, India's tallest, costs nothing to photograph.
Wajid Ali Shah's white 1854 mourning hall sits in the Kaiserbagh quadrangle, now ringed by government offices. The courtyard, twin gateways and crumbling Nawabi kothis around it are open to wander for nothing at all.
A 1957 white marble obelisk on the Gomti bank commemorating the 1857 uprising, standing in an unfenced lawn opposite the Residency. Benches, shade trees and river views, no ticket counter, and rarely any crowd.
Eight kilometres of landscaped promenade between Hanuman Setu and Gomti Nagar, with musical fountains, cycle tracks and free entry from sunrise until 22:00. Locals turn up at dusk for ₹10 roasted corn and flasks of chai.
The walled-city lane from Gol Darwaza to Akbari Gate is the cheapest breakfast run in Lucknow: nihari-kulcha, ₹30 malai makkhan in winter, Ram Asrey's malai gilori at ₹25 a piece, and chikan seconds at wholesale rates.
A doorway kitchen behind Chowk that has served one thing since the 1960s: mutton pulao cooked in a copper deg over coal, ladled onto a leaf plate for around ₹200. Cash only, no seating, and the deg empties by mid-afternoon.
Lucknow's oldest bazaar packs chikan kurtas from ₹250, glass bangles and Prakash ki Kulfi's rabri-topped falooda at ₹80 into a grid of pedestrian lanes. Sunday it half-closes, which makes browsing far easier.
A 1950s tea counter opposite Lalbagh church where politicians and rickshaw drivers queue for the same ₹15 glass of chai with bun-makkhan and samosa. Standing room only, and a full order rarely tops ₹60 a head.
Shell-scarred 1857 siege buildings scattered across 33 acres of quiet lawn, open sunrise to sunset. Entry is ₹25 on an Indian ticket and ₹300 for foreign passports, and the 1857 Memorial Museum is included in it.
The 1926 railway station is a Rajput-Mughal fantasy of domes and minarets, free to walk around, and the Lucknow Metro runs directly beneath it: air-conditioned trains north to Munshipulia for ₹10-60 a journey.
Uttar Pradesh's oldest museum stands inside the zoo grounds with Gupta sculpture, an Egyptian mummy and Awadhi coinage. Tickets run about ₹20 for Indians and ₹100 for foreigners; open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30 to 16:30.
At 376 acres this is among Asia's largest parks, with two lakes, 10 km of cycle track and free entry until 21:00. Sunset over the western lake pulls in joggers, kite flyers and families around ₹20 chai carts.