Regensburg packs 2,000 years into 500 metres, and most of it is free: Roman gate arches on public streets, riverside islands with no fences, and beer gardens where a Maß costs less than a museum ticket. Three days here rarely tops €25 a day.
A 19th-century English landscape park west of the Altstadt with a sunken rose garden, 200-year-old plane trees and the neo-Gothic Dörnberg palace facade. Unfenced, open dawn to dusk daily, no ticket booth at any entrance.
The north gate of the Roman legionary fortress Castra Regina, built in 179 AD under Marcus Aurelius and now embedded in the Bischofshof wall. The two-storey limestone arch and tower stub sit on a public lane, lit at night.
Regensburg's oldest square holds the Herzogshof, the ducal palace hall of the Bavarian dukes, and the Römerturm, a Carolingian watchtower of reused Roman stone. Both are viewed from the open square with no entry charge.
A car-free Danube island reached by footbridge, with gravel beaches, willow shade and the classic postcard angle back onto the Altstadt skyline. Locals swim off the western tip and grill on the grass in summer.
Regensburg's daily produce market runs Monday to Saturday roughly 07:00-14:00 on the square, with Bavarian apples, smoked fish rolls and cheese stalls. A filled Fischsemmel runs about €4, a bag of fruit €2-3.
A cramped Gothic ground-floor room serving one dish: a steamed Bavarian dumpling with vanilla sauce, around €6, eaten at shared tables under vaulted stone. Open Tuesday to Saturday, cash only, closed most of August.
The Katharinenspital brewery garden on the north bank has poured beer since 1226 and stays self-service under chestnut trees. A Maß sits near €5.20 and a Bratwurst plate near €8, with river and bridge views included.
The student-heavy hillside cellar garden south of the station, seating around 1,200 under old chestnuts. Bring your own food to the self-service benches — Bavarian beer garden law permits it, and only drinks must be bought here.
Ludwig I's Doric marble hall of fame above the Danube, finished 1842, holds 130 busts of German-speaking notables. Entry is about €4.50, and RVV bus 5 from Regensburg Hauptbahnhof costs a few euros each way.
The ruined hilltop castle of the Regensburg bishops, destroyed in the Thirty Years' War, sits a 20-minute climb above the village. Walls, gate arch and courtyard are open around the clock with no fence and no fee.
The Protestant church on the Ölberg opens its wooden bell tower in the warm months for roughly €2, giving the only paid-for-pennies rooftop view over the Old Town's tower houses, cathedral spires and the Danube bend.
A free cliff-edge footpath from Großprüfening along the Danube gorge to the pilgrimage chapel at Mariaort, about 5 km one way past limestone crags and river bends, with a return train from Etterzhausen for a couple of euros.