Palma rewards a thin wallet. The cathedral's best angle is from a free seafront park, the round Gothic castle costs €4 and nothing on Sundays, and market counters plate up lunch with a caña for about €5. Three days of walking, walls and llonguets.
The seafront park below the old walls, where a saltwater lake mirrors the cathedral's south flank and a ceramic mural by Joan Miró lines the walkway. Open around the clock, never ticketed, and the palm-shaded benches are the cheapest seat in town.
Palma's oldest parish church, begun in 1236, is a soaring three-nave Gothic hall on a quiet square of stone benches. Entry to the nave is free, roughly 09:30-13:00 and 17:00-20:30; only the bell-tower climb carries a charge of about €4.
The 16th-century Renaissance sea bastion above the marina carries a public terrace you can walk without a museum ticket. Cannon platforms look over the port masts, Santa Catalina rooftops and the whole curve of the bay toward Bellver.
A walled bishop's garden hidden behind the Episcopal Palace, reached through a plain gate off Carrer Sant Pere Nolasc: orange trees, clipped hedges, a stone fountain and cathedral buttresses overhead. No ticket desk, almost no crowds.
The city's main covered market since 1951, with more than 100 stalls of fishmongers, cured-meat counters and a first-floor fruit hall. Mon-Sat roughly 07:00-14:30, Friday later; stall bars inside plate up tapas with a caña for about €5.
A wood-panelled bakery working since 1911, selling plain ensaïmadas from around €1.50 alongside coques de patata and savoury cocarrois. Buy at the counter and eat walking, which sidesteps the terrace surcharge charged a block away.
Palma's oldest market, opened in 1920 in a working barri west of the centre and still cheaper than l'Olivar. Mon-Sat about 07:00-15:00; the perimeter bars sell llonguet sandwiches for €3-4 and vermut on tap near €2.50 a glass.
A chocolate and ice-cream house trading since 1700, with marble tables, oil lamps and tiled floors down a lane behind Sant Francesc. Thick hot chocolate with an ensaïmada or a quarto sponge runs about €5 — a full sit-down treat for pocket change.
Europe's only fully circular Gothic castle, built 1300-1311 for Jaume II and ringed by a dry moat 112 metres above the bay. Adults €4, free on Sundays; the roof terrace above the round courtyard sweeps from the port to the Serra de Tramuntana.
A 700-metre municipal beach a 20-minute walk east of the cathedral, backed by the seafront promenade and its cycle path. Free showers, no sunbed obligation, and swimmers get the cathedral and city walls framed across the water.
A flat shoreline path past the old fishing village of Portixol: whitewashed cottages, moored llaüts, a working harbour and swimming ladders straight off the rocks. EMT city bus covers the ride back for a single fare.
Five restored 18th-century flour mills stand on a rocky spur above Santa Catalina, survivors of the dozens that once ground grain for the city. The open terrace beside them faces west over the harbour and costs nothing to occupy at sunset.