Damascus rewards a thin wallet: its mosques, gates and shrines cost nothing, a shared microbus crosses town for pocket change, and a falafel sandwich costs less than the ride home. Three days of free courtyards, spice-souq grazing and the Qasioun ridge.
Mimar Sinan's 1554 Ottoman complex beside the Barada, with black-and-white ablaq striped walls, twin pencil minarets and a long courtyard pool. The mosque and arcades cost nothing; the attached Artisanat craft stalls open around 09:00–17:00.
The 1193 tomb of Salah ad-Din sits in a walled garden off the Umayyad Mosque's north wall, under a red-ribbed dome. Entry is free or a token donation, and two cenotaphs stand side by side: the original walnut one and a marble gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II.
An Iranian-built shrine over the grave of Husayn's infant daughter, lined floor to dome in mirror mosaic and blue Isfahani tilework. Free and open almost round the clock; women borrow a chador at the door and shoes go on the wooden racks.
The Roman east gate still carries its triple arch and Corinthian columns. From it, Hanania Street runs into the Christian quarter to the underground Chapel of Saint Ananias, a cellar church five metres below today's street, open on a small donation.
The spice and seed souq running south from the Umayyad Mosque: burlap sacks of sumac, Aleppo pepper, dried limes and rose buds, plus sweet shops selling halawet el-jibn by weight. Small bags start around 3,000 SYP and haggling is expected.
Stretched mastic-and-sahlab ice cream pounded by hand with wooden mallets in chilled copper tubs, then rolled in crushed Aleppo pistachios. Serving Damascus since 1885, one bowl runs a few thousand pounds and you eat it standing at the counter.
The Ottoman quarter north of the Citadel, once nicknamed little Istanbul, with timber-framed overhanging houses and the cheapest guesthouse beds in the city around Bahsa. Foul, falafel and shawarma stands feed office workers all afternoon.
The storyteller's café on the steps behind the Umayyad Mosque's east gate, where a hakawati in tarboush reads a serialised epic aloud most evenings after sunset, tapping a sword on the table. Tea and a nargileh cost less than a Western coffee.
The bare limestone ridge north of the city, where the Old City, the Ghouta orchards and the whole basin lie flat below you. Reach it on a shared microbus toward Rabweh or Muhajireen plus a climb; the viewpoint terraces themselves are free.
The 1913 Ottoman terminus of the pilgrim line toward Medina, with a carved stone facade and a painted wooden ceiling over the hall. The through trains stopped long ago, but the building, platforms and a parked steam locomotive are open to wander.
The largest public park in Damascus, in the northwest of the city: pine avenues, fountains, playgrounds and the ground used for the annual book fair. Families picnic here on Fridays and carts sell corn, salted tirmis lupini and glass-cup tea.
The blocked-up southern gate where tradition holds the disciples lowered Paul over the ramparts in a basket to escape the city. It now frames a small chapel, and the best-preserved stretch of Roman-era wall runs east from it toward Bab Sharqi.