San Francisco has a reputation as America's priciest city, yet the fog, the hills and the views are free. Three days of free museum days, $3 bakery lunches, public stairways and a $2.50 ferry-style transfer prove the best of the city is the cheapest.
The 55-acre San Francisco Botanical Garden is free daily 07:30-09:00 for everyone, and free all day for SF residents with ID. Beyond it, the whole 1,017-acre park — bison paddock, Stow Lake, Dutch windmill — costs nothing to roam.
The Richmond's real Chinatown. Wing Lee Bakery sells pork buns and egg tarts for $1.50-$2.50 each, Good Luck Dim Sum does three items for about $6, and Green Apple Books next door is free browsing for hours.
163 steps in Golden Gate Heights covered in a mosaic of 75,000 tiles, laid by 300 neighbours in 2005. Climb them, then continue up to Grand View Park (Turtle Hill) for a 360-degree sweep from the ocean to downtown.
A 2.5 km coastal path through cypress on the site of an 1890s cliff railway, ending at the concrete shell of the Sutro Baths — a 1896 saltwater pool complex that burned in 1966. Part of the free Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
A 1953 tortilleria where women still press masa by hand behind the counter. Handmade tortillas run about $6 a dozen, a chicharrón pupusa $4, and the taqueria plates land under $12 — half what the Mission's trendier corners charge.
Balmy Alley has held continuous mural production since 1984, when the Mujeres Muralistas painted against US intervention in Central America. Clarion Alley, running since 1992, repaints constantly — both are open-air, unticketed and free.
Stockton Street is where residents actually shop — produce at a third of supermarket prices. In Ross Alley, the 1962 fortune cookie factory folds cookies by hand; entry is free, a bag costs about $6, photos $1.
A hofbrau open since 1947, carving buffalo brisket and turkey to order. A sandwich plate runs $13-16, the beef stew about $12, and there are roughly 100 beers. Cafeteria line, communal tables, no tipping culture.
The cheapest boat ride under the bridge's sightlines: Golden Gate Ferry from the Ferry Building to Sausalito is about $14.75 one way with a Clipper card, versus $40+ for a bay cruise. Same water, same skyline, 30 minutes.
377 wooden steps down Telegraph Hill's east face, flanked by a garden one resident built from a rubbish dump starting in 1949. Wild cherry-headed conures — escaped pets gone feral — screech through the fig trees. Free, always open.
The 33-Ashbury/18th is the city's best-value sightseeing: $2.75 a ride, or $5.50 all day, climbing through Haight, Buena Vista and the Castro's ridge. Get off near Bernal Heights and walk up its grassy, dog-filled summit for free.
A brick Civil War fort built 1853-1861, sitting directly beneath the bridge's southern anchorage — free entry, open Friday to Sunday. The flat Crissy Field promenade behind it is a free 3 km walk on reclaimed marshland with beach fires allowed.