Santiago runs on pilgrim economics: parks and museums that charge nothing, tortilla thrown in free with a €1.50 caña, and menús del día under €13. Three days of granite terraces, student bars in the Ensanche and hill views for a €1.30 bus ticket.
Álvaro Siza's 1994 park reuses the Dominican friary's terraced orchard and old cemetery — granite water channels, oak groves and open stone tombs. Gates open dawn to dusk, no ticket, and the upper terrace frames the cathedral spires.
Siza's white-granite art museum sits right beside Bonaval and charges nothing, ever. Two floors of Galician and international shows, open Tuesday to Sunday 11:00–20:00, plus a free roof terrace looking over the convent roofs and old town.
Santiago's 19th-century public garden costs nothing and holds the postcard view: from the Paseo da Ferradura the entire cathedral façade lines up above the rooftops. The Carballeira de Santa Susana oaks and the As Marías statue are here too.
The university's 1532 Renaissance college opens its arcaded cloister and the Sala Xeral exhibition hall free of charge, Tuesday to Saturday 11:00–14:00 and 16:00–20:00. Plateresque doorway, orange trees, and almost no queue.
The final stretch of the Camino Francés into the city, lined with bakeries and bars priced for arriving pilgrims rather than tourists: empanada de zorza by the slice from about €2.50, tarta de Santiago wedges around €2.50–3.
A Santiago institution since 1969 serving one thing: a fixed menú del día — starter, main, dessert and bread — for around €12, drinks extra. No reservations, no menu decisions, and the dining room turns over fast at lunchtime.
The university quarter south of the old town, where a caña or a glass of Ribeiro runs €1.20–1.80 and arrives with a free tapa — tortilla, croquetas or empanada. Prices sit at roughly half the old-town rate all afternoon.
A standing-room bar known for exactly one thing: a thick wedge of tortilla de patata handed over free with every drink, no ordering required. Beer or wine about €1.50, so two rounds effectively covers dinner.
The 431m hill west of the city is a free 90-minute climb from Ponte Sarela, on a marked track through eucalyptus to the wind turbines at the top and a 360° view over the cathedral, the Ulla valley and the coastal hills beyond.
A signed riverside path leaves Ponte Sarela below Monte Pedroso and follows old stone washhouses, tanneries and mill weirs back into town. Free, flat and roughly 4km, ending with the classic view of the cathedral over the Sarela meadows.
Peter Eisenman's hilltop complex of wave-shaped stone buildings east of the centre. Entry to the halls, the Gaiás library and every temporary exhibition is free, Tuesday to Sunday, and the curved roofs are walkable in dry weather.
The low ridge 4.5km out on the Camino Francés where pilgrims catch their first sight of the cathedral towers. Free to walk, with the 1993 monument, the Capela de San Marcos and a municipal albergue with beds from about €10.