Rio hands out its best assets for free: the granite viewpoints, the beaches, an 1887 reading room, the sunset applause at Arpoador. Three days on a small budget means botecos instead of beach clubs, trails instead of cable cars, and R$4.30 bus fares.
Free-entry botanical estate at the foot of Corcovado: a 1920s Italianate mansion with a courtyard pool, jungle trails to a cave and aqueduct, and Christ the Redeemer framed above the arches. Open 08:00–17:00 daily.
The 215 steps Chilean artist Jorge Selarón covered with 2,000 tiles sent from 60 countries, linking Lapa to Santa Teresa. Free and open around the clock, but the tilework is only visible when the crowd thins.
A neo-Manueline reading room from 1887 holding 350,000 Portuguese volumes on carved jacaranda shelves beneath a stained-glass skylight. Entry costs nothing, Monday to Friday 10:00–17:00, near Uruguaiana metro.
The granite outcrop between Ipanema and Copacabana where the whole crowd applauds the sun dropping behind the Dois Irmãos peaks. No ticket and no gate — walk up the ramp from Praia do Arpoador beforehand.
Rio's wholesale market: a warehouse of flower stalls, spice sellers and Portuguese-Brazilian canteens upstairs where grilled sardines or bacalhau cost a fraction of Zona Sul prices. Busiest before noon.
A 1906 grocery-turned-bar in Centro with the original wooden cabinets still stocked floor to ceiling, serving bolinho de bacalhau and cold chope to office workers. Salgados stay in single digits; open weekdays.
Eleven pedestrian streets of Levantine-founded wholesale shops behind Praça Tiradentes — hammocks, Havaianas, carnival costumes and Syrian sweets. Haggling is expected and esfihas from the counters cost pocket change.
Copacabana's all-night sandwich counter since 1955, where the roast pork with a slab of grilled pineapple is the only order that matters. Standing at the bar is cheaper than sitting at a table on the terrace.
A paved seaside path at the base of Sugarloaf, free and open 06:00–18:00, with a marked dirt trail branching upward to Morro da Urca: 40 minutes of scrambling to the first cable-car station and the identical view.
A 250-metre pocket of coarse red sand wedged between the Urca and Babilônia hills, calm enough to swim and free of the vendor gauntlet on Copacabana. Municipal showers and a kiosk selling água de coco for about R$8.
The roofless shell of heiress Laurinda Santos Lobo's mansion in Santa Teresa, rebuilt with steel staircases into a belvedere over Guanabara Bay and the centre. Free entry Tuesday to Sunday, 08:00–18:00.
A road-end platform at 360 metres on Morro Dona Marta giving Botafogo's bay, Sugarloaf and Corcovado in a single frame — the shot most guidebook covers use. No entrance fee and no queue at any hour.