Sanaa runs on cash and habit: gates, alleys and walled garden plots cost nothing, and a plate of saltah rarely tops 1,500 YER. Carry small rial notes, and check your government's travel advisory first — Yemen remains an active conflict zone.
The southern gate in Sanaa's mud-brick city wall, rebuilt by the Ottomans in the 1870s over far older foundations. Open around the clock and free to walk through; the plaza outside fills with sellers of jambiya belts, honey and roasted seeds.
The dry seasonal watercourse cutting straight through the walled city, paved in the 1990s and used as a road most of the year. Walking its length gives a free ground-level view of tower-house foundations, alley bridges and stepped side entrances.
One of the sunken maqashim, the walled vegetable gardens irrigated by mosque ablution water that have fed the old city for centuries. Gardeners work them through the afternoon and generally allow a quiet look from the wall for nothing.
The Ottoman-era garden suburb west of the walls and the adjoining former Jewish quarter, where low two-storey houses break sharply from the tall old-city pattern. Streets are public, walkable and cost nothing to explore on foot.
Sanaa's northern wholesale produce and qat market, busiest from sunrise to midday. Highland tomatoes, grapes from Bani Hushaysh and flatbread go for a fraction of shop prices; a kilo of fruit typically runs 400-900 YER.
A long-running Sanaani canteen where the midday saltah arrives still boiling in its stone bowl with a fenugreek froth on top, served with tannour bread. Sit at the shared floor tables upstairs where portions and prices favour groups.
The sprawling wholesale ground in southwest Sanaa handling grain, dates and Red Sea fish trucked overnight from Hodeidah. Fish is sold by the whole piece and grilled to order at stalls along the edge for roughly 1,500-3,000 YER.
The central square's evening tea carts pour shahi bil-haleeb and cardamom-heavy qishr, the Yemeni drink brewed from coffee husks rather than beans. A glass costs about 150-300 YER and comes with a plastic stool on the pavement.
A near-abandoned fortified village on a rock outcrop about 8 km south of the centre, once home to a Jewish community and largely empty since the 1960s. The climb up the stone stairway is free; a dabab minibus out costs around 200 YER.
The large public park south of the centre, with shade trees, walking paths and families picnicking on mats through the afternoon. Entry is free or a nominal few hundred rial, making it the cheapest sit-down break in the city.
The five-storey rock palace built for Imam Yahya in the 1930s atop a sandstone pillar in the Dhahr valley, 15 km northwest. Shared taxis leave from Bab Shu'ub for roughly 500-800 YER each way; entry runs a few hundred rial.
A restored caravanserai in the walled city, once a storehouse for traders and now used for craft workshops and exhibitions. The upper terrace looks straight across the qamariya-windowed skyline as the call to maghrib starts.