Cambridge looks expensive and mostly isn't. Eight University museums charge £0, the Backs and Grantchester Meadows are open commons, and Market Hill feeds you for a fiver. Budget £35 a day including a pint at a 16th-century pub.
Public footpath bridge open 24/7, no ticket, no college gate fee. Arrive before 09:30 and you get Clare Bridge, the willows and King's Chapel pinnacles with mist on the Cam and almost no one else on the span.
Free entry, Tue–Sat 10:00–17:00 and Sun 12:00–17:00, closed Mondays. Titian, Monet, Egyptian coffins and a Greek gallery, all with no admission charge; the suggested donation box is genuinely optional.
Britain's oldest geological museum, free, on Downing Street. Two million fossils including Darwin's own Beagle rock specimens and a 4.5m Iguanodon. Weekdays 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–17:00, Saturdays 10:00–16:00.
The free public view of the 1749 Queens' College timber bridge. Stand on Silver Street Bridge at golden hour and watch chauffeured punts queue below — the entertainment is free, the punt is not.
Open-air market running seven days, roughly 10:00–16:00, in the square since the Middle Ages. Hot food stalls do Sri Lankan kottu, halloumi wraps and paella boxes for £6–8 — the cheapest cooked meal in the centre.
Sicilian bakery a door from the Eagle pub selling thick focaccia-base pizza by the slice for around £4.50 and arancini for £4. Standing room only; take it to the churchyard bench at St Bene't's, the oldest building in Cambridge.
Cambridge's cheapest eating street, 15 minutes' walk east of the centre. Bharat Bhavan does thali under £10, Al-Amin sells spices and samosas, and the independent charity shops here are the best-stocked in the county.
One of the largest Wetherspoon conversions in Britain, in a 1930s cinema. Pints from about £3.20 and a burger-and-drink deal near £9 — roughly half what the Eagle charges 200m away for the same volume of ale.
Forty acres, 8,000 plant species and Britain's oldest surviving glasshouse range, laid out by Darwin's mentor John Henslow in 1846. Opens 10:00 daily; the Brookside gate is a 10-minute walk from the centre.
Common grazing land 400m from the colleges where cattle still wander loose between the river channels. Free, unfenced, with the wooden footbridges over the Cam and a wild swimming spot used since Victorian times.
123 steps up the University Church to the only paid viewpoint worth the money: a 360-degree look down on King's Chapel roof, Senate House and the market square. Church nave below is free to enter.
The motte of William the Conqueror's 1068 castle, now a grassy 10m hillock reached by a short path off Castle Street. The highest public point in central Cambridge, always open, never charged, and empty at sunset.