15 Free Things to Do in America’s Best Cities

I’ll let you in on something the travel industry would rather you didn’t know: some of my favorite days out have cost me exactly nothing. The best things a great city has to offer, the ones people fly across the world to see, often ask nothing at the gate.

That’s the best-kept secret of American travel. The list below gathers fifteen genuinely free attractions scattered across the country’s best cities, one to a city, each worth building a trip around. Here’s where to point the car, and what you’ll find when you get there.

1. Central Park, New York City, New York

You can spend a whole day inside these 843 acres and never once reach for your wallet. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won the design competition in 1858, dreaming up a stretch of countryside for everyone, rich or poor, in the middle of Manhattan.

My favorite corner is Bethesda Terrace, where the grand staircase drops you to the fountain and the lake beyond. Rowboats, buskers, a sea of green hemmed in by skyline. Come in autumn and the whole park turns copper and gold.

Where: Central Park, Manhattan, New York, NY 10024. Easiest entrance is at 5th Avenue and 59th Street.

2. The National Mall, Washington, DC

They call it America’s front yard, and it earns the name. The Mall runs from the Lincoln Memorial to the steps of the Capitol, and every monument, memorial, and Smithsonian museum lining it is free to enter. You could spend three days here and not spend a dime.

Come at dawn if you can. The reflecting pool goes glassy, the crowds haven’t arrived, and Lincoln sits alone in his marble chair. Pro tip: the Smithsonian museums open at ten, so start outside with the memorials first.

Where: National Mall, Washington, DC 20565. Stretches between the Lincoln Memorial and the U.S. Capitol.

3. Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles, California

Here’s a fact that still surprises people: one of the most famous buildings in Los Angeles has never charged a cent to walk through its doors. When Colonel Griffith J. Griffith gifted the observatory to the city, opened in 1935, he wrote free public access right into the deal.

Wander the exhibits, put your eye to the telescopes on a clear night, then step onto the rooftop terrace. Below you, the whole basin glittering. Above you, the Hollywood Sign perched on the ridge. The sunset view alone is worth the drive.

Where: 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, CA 90027, on the south slope of Mt. Hollywood in Griffith Park.

4. Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois

Everybody calls it the Bean, and everybody is right to. Anish Kapoor named the mirrored sculpture Cloud Gate, dedicated it in 2006, and gave Chicago the most photographed object in the city. The skyline wraps around its polished belly, and so does your own grinning reflection.

The whole park around it costs nothing. Fountains, gardens, and a Frank Gehry band shell that hosts free summer concerts. On a hot day, kids splash in the Crown Fountain while faces spout water from two glass towers. Come winter, the same plaza turns into a free outdoor ice rink.

Where: Millennium Park, 201 East Randolph Street, Chicago, IL 60602.

5. Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington

Pike Place has been feeding Seattle since August 1907, which makes it one of the oldest continuously running public markets in the country. Walking in costs nothing, and you’ll want to, if only to watch the fishmongers hurl salmon over the counter to a chorus of whoops.

Flower stalls, produce piled high, the original Starbucks, and a labyrinth of shops tucked below. Nine acres of noise and color on the waterfront. Follow your nose to a fresh piroshky and eat it looking out over Elliott Bay. The old neon market clock is a landmark all its own.

Where: Pike Place Market, 85 Pike Street, Seattle, WA 98101.

6. The Freedom Trail, Boston, Massachusetts

There’s a two-and-a-half-mile line of red brick set into the sidewalks of Boston, and following it is a free walk through the American Revolution. Sixteen historic sites strung together since 1951: meeting houses, burying grounds, the Old State House, Paul Revere’s home.

You don’t need a ticket or a guide. Just find the red line at Boston Common and start walking. The city tells the story for you. Wear comfortable shoes and give yourself half a day to reach Bunker Hill at the far end.

Where: The Freedom Trail begins at Boston Common, 139 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02111.

7. Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

This is the beating heart of the French Quarter, and it belongs to everyone. The manicured square sits in the shadow of St. Louis Cathedral, its three spires among the most recognized in the South, with a bronze Andrew Jackson rearing on his horse at the center.

Artists hang their canvases on the iron fence. A brass band sets up on the flagstones, and a tarot reader waits under an umbrella. Street musicians play into the evening, and the sound drifts across the whole Quarter. Come and you’ll get some of the best free people-watching in America.

Where: Jackson Square, 701 Decatur Street, New Orleans, LA 70116.

8. Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Since February 1893 this cavernous hall has sat beneath an old train shed in Center City, and it may be the best free hour of browsing you’ll ever do on an empty stomach. You pay only for what you taste, and entry is wide open.

More than a hundred vendors under one roof: Pennsylvania Dutch soft pretzels, roast pork sandwiches, cheeses, spices, and whoopie pies. Go hungry, and go early on a Saturday before the lunch crowd fills every aisle. The Amish stalls tend to sell out of shoofly pie first.

Where: Reading Terminal Market, 51 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

9. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

A world-class art museum in the Ozarks, and admission to the permanent collection is always free, thanks to founder Alice Walton, who opened it in 2011. The Moshe Safdie building bridges a spring-fed ravine, glass and wood curving over the water.

Inside hang works by Norman Rockwell, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Andy Warhol. Outside wind miles of wooded trails with sculpture tucked among the trees. Did you know a restored Frank Lloyd Wright house sits on the grounds, free to tour?

Where: 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, AR 72712.

10. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

You’ll spot it before you reach the door: four giant badminton shuttlecocks flung across the lawn, an Oldenburg and van Bruggen piece installed in 1994 that Kansas City adopted as its own. General admission has been free since the museum opened in 1933.

The collection runs from Caravaggio to a celebrated Asian art wing. My advice is to save an hour for the lawn itself, where the shuttlecocks make the whole building look like a badminton net dropped by giants mid-game.

Where: 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, MO 64111.

11. Forsyth Park, Savannah, Georgia

Thirty acres of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, laid out in the 1840s at the southern edge of Savannah’s historic district. It costs nothing, and the white cast-iron fountain at its heart, raised in 1858, is one of the most photographed spots in the South.

Bring a book and claim a bench. The light filtering through those old oaks turns an ordinary afternoon into something you’ll remember. On Saturday mornings a farmers market sets up along the northern end. Film crews love it too; you have probably seen this fountain on screen.

Where: Forsyth Park, bordered by Gaston Street, Drayton Street, Park Avenue, and Whitaker Street, Savannah, GA 31401.

12. International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon

Portland didn’t earn the nickname City of Roses by accident. This hillside garden, founded in 1917, is the oldest continuously operating public rose test garden in the country, and stepping in is free every single day. Portland’s mild, rainy climate is exactly what roses love.

More than 10,000 rose bushes across some 650 varieties spill down the slope, and on a clear day Mount Hood floats above the blooms. Come in June when the whole hill is in riot, and follow the scent from row to row.

Where: 400 SW Kingston Avenue, Portland, OR 97205, inside Washington Park.

13. Fountains of Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada

The best show on the Las Vegas Strip doesn’t cost a thing. Steve Wynn opened the Fountains of Bellagio with his resort in 1998, and ever since, 1,200 water jets have danced across an 8.5-acre lake to everything from Sinatra to opera.

Find a spot along the railing as the light fades. The water climbs hundreds of feet, the music swells, and for a few minutes the whole crowd forgets to reach for the slot machines. Shows run every half hour in the evening.

Where: Bellagio, 3600 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109.

14. Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Next door to the Walker Art Center sits one of the country’s great open-air galleries, free and open from morning to midnight. Its signature is Spoonbridge and Cherry, a giant spoon cradling a bright red cherry over a pond, unveiled with the garden in 1988.

Dozens of sculptures dot the lawns, with the Minneapolis skyline as a backdrop. It’s a museum you stroll through in your sneakers, and the footbridge over the highway makes a fine spot to watch the city light up at dusk.

Where: 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, MN 55403.

15. San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio, Texas

One story below the downtown streets runs a green ribbon of water lined with cypress and stone, and strolling it costs nothing. Architect Robert Hugman dreamed it up after the flood of 1921, and WPA crews brought his cobblestone paths and arched bridges to life in the late 1930s.

The downtown loop winds about two and a half miles past cafes, gardens, and stone bridges. You can walk every foot of it for free, and it’s proof the best of Texas isn’t always the biggest. Come at dusk when the lights flicker on the water.

Where: San Antonio River Walk, downtown along the San Antonio River, San Antonio, TX 78205. Enter near 849 East Commerce Street.

Start Planning Your Free Day Out

The next time someone tells you a good trip has to drain the bank account, send them this list. Pick a city, find the free thing at the center of it, and let it show you what the place is really made of.

Then go do it, before you talk yourself into paying for something you’d have enjoyed less. So make a list, clear a weekend, and start with whichever city is closest to home. The best of America has been standing there, gates wide open, the whole time.

Featured image: Ruben Orozco via Griffith Observatory