Brussels is the cheapest capital in Western Europe if you know where to stand: comic murals, cathedral naves and hilltop viewpoints cost nothing, fries come in under €4, and every first Wednesday the city's museums drop to zero.
A Napoleon-scale triumphal arch built for Belgium's 1880 jubilee, set in 30 hectares of free public park. Gates open dawn to dusk and there is no ticket, ever. Joggers, Turkish families picnicking, and almost no tourists before 10:00.
Brussels's Gothic cathedral, begun in 1226 and finished five centuries later. The nave, the 16th-century Habsburg stained glass and the baroque pulpit cost nothing; only the Romanesque crypt and treasury charge admission.
More than sixty wall-sized comic murals painted across the centre since 1991 — Tintin on Rue de l'Étuve, Broussaille beside Plattesteen, Le Chat near Boulevard du Midi. An open-air museum with no entrance and no closing time.
The terrace beside the Palais de Justice looks straight over the Marolles rooftops to the Atomium, and it is the best free sunset in the city. The glass Marolles lift drops you 30 metres to Place Breughel — also free.
Brussels's largest market: roughly 450 stalls strung along the railway viaduct every Sunday from 06:00 to 13:00. Moroccan and Turkish traders sell olives, dates and mint by the kilo, and a rotisserie chicken with bread feeds two.
The frites kiosk on Place Jourdan has been double-frying in beef fat since 1948 and still charges under €4 for a large cone with sauce. The surrounding cafés let you eat them at their tables provided you order a drink.
The Vieux Marché has run every single morning since 1873, 07:00–14:00 and until 15:00 at weekends. Enamel signs, Congolese masks and 1950s Belgian glassware; prices collapse near closing when sellers would rather dump stock.
A 1928 café with mirrored walls, long communal tables and aproned waiters who have not changed their manner in a century. A draught Gueuze runs about €4.50 — roughly half what the Rue des Bouchers strip charges a few streets away.
STIB's 24-hour pass costs €8 and tram 92 is the scenic line, climbing from Place Louise past the Royal Palace and the Botanique gardens up to Schaerbeek. Ride the full length from a front seat for a moving tour of the city.
Skip the €16 ticket. From the lawns of Parc d'Osseghem the nine steel spheres — 102 metres tall, built for Expo 58 — fill the whole sky, and the adjoining Parc de Laeken with its Chinese Pavilion is open and free all day.
The last surviving gate of the 14th-century second city wall, now a museum of armour and guild banners with a rooftop walkway looking over Saint-Gilles. Free on the first Wednesday of every month from 13:00 onwards.
A working square with a morning food market and a ring of cafés where a beer stays near €3.50 and a plate of croquettes or tapas costs less than a coffee on the Grand-Place. Students, Portuguese grocers, no tour groups.