Baku rewards a thin wallet: the Caspian boulevard, the funicular hill and most parks cost nothing, metro rides are 0.50 AZN, and a plate of qutab or a bowl of dovga rarely passes 5 AZN. Three days, mostly under 25 AZN a day.
A 6 km seaside promenade along the Caspian, open 24/7 and completely free. Palm alleys, chess pavilions where old men play from 09:00, the Little Venice canals and outdoor gyms. Walk from Azneft Square east toward Crystal Hall for the emptiest stretch.
Rebuilt 1998 on the site of a 13th-century shrine dynamited by the Soviets in 1936. Entry is free, headscarves are lent at the door for free, and the terrace looks over the oil derricks of Bibiheybat Bay. Bus 125 from 20 Yanvar costs 0.50 AZN.
A converted Soviet naval building on the bay at Bayil, showing Azerbaijani and regional contemporary art. Admission is free, exhibitions rotate every few months, and the ground-floor terrace café lets you sit with sea views without ordering.
The memorial to those killed in Black January 1990 and the Karabakh wars, on the ridge above the city. Free and open until late; the terrace beside the eternal flame is the best no-cost panorama of the bay, boulevard and Flame Towers.
Baku's produce market: barrels of pickled garlic, mountain cheese, walnut jam, saffron and dried persimmon. Vendors offer samples freely. A kilo of tomatoes runs 2-3 AZN, a bag of dried fruit 5 AZN. Cash only, haggling expected.
Qutab — thin stuffed flatbread with greens, pumpkin or minced lamb, cooked on a saj griddle in front of you. Two or three pieces with sumac and yoghurt runs 3-5 AZN. Order dovga (cold herb-yoghurt soup) alongside for about 2 AZN.
Soviet-built stations from 1967 with chandeliers, marble reliefs and mosaics of Nizami Ganjavi's poems. A BakiKart costs 2 AZN once, then rides are 0.50 AZN — ride the line end to end and station-hop for under 2 AZN total.
A pot of black tea with thyme, served with lemon and sugar cubes, sits at 2-3 AZN and buys you a table for as long as you like. Backgammon boards are free to borrow. The lanes off Rasul Rza and Zargarpalan have the cheapest, most local rooms.
Some 6,000 rock carvings of hunters, boats and dancers, from 5,000-40,000 years old, UNESCO-listed since 2007. Entry is 10 AZN including the museum. Take bus 195 from 20 Yanvar to Qobustan town (1.30 AZN), then share a taxi up to the reserve.
Grey cones burping cold mud on a lunar plateau south of Qobustan, one of the world's densest concentrations. The site itself is free; only the rough-track transfer costs money. Wear shoes you can hose down afterwards.
Zaha Hadid's white wave completed in 2012. The interior ticket is 15 AZN, but the sloping lawns, reflecting pools and the sculpture park behind it are free and open to anyone — the building's curves photograph best from the outside anyway.
The upland park on the ridge above Martyrs' Lane, with the widest free view over Baku Bay, the port cranes and the Old City walls. Benches, shade trees and no entry gate. Sunset over the Caspian arrives around 20:15 in midsummer.