Santiago on a budget

Santiago has an advantage that is rare among Europe's monumental cities: the most important thing to see is free. The cathedral, the squares, the viewpoints, most of the museums. What does cost money — eating, sleeping, getting around — has a cheap version too, and it is not a second-rate one. It is simply how most of the people who live here do it.

Everything that costs nothing

The cathedral is free to enter, every day from 7:00 to 21:00, through the Praterías door. One practical catch: you cannot go in with a rucksack, so if you have just walked in you will need to leave it somewhere first. The four squares of the old town — Obradoiro, Quintana, Praterías, Inmaculada — and the viewpoints, such as the one in the Alameda park, cost nothing and are, for a lot of people, the most memorable part of the visit. The CGAC contemporary art museum is free every day; so are the exhibitions at the Cidade da Cultura; and the Museo do Pobo Galego is free on Sundays. And there is one plan that costs nothing and moves people as much as any monument: sitting in the Obradoiro around midday to watch pilgrims arrive who have just finished the Camino.

Only the cathedral museum, which is how you see the Pórtico da Gloria and the roofs, charges admission. Everything else inside the building is free.

Eating without emptying your wallet

The menú del día, the set lunch, runs about €10 to €15 in the centre, starter, main and pudding included. It is served at lunchtime only, which is the single biggest saving available to you here. If you would rather graze, Rúa da Raíña charges less than Rúa do Franco for much the same plates — the unwritten rule is that the further you walk from the Obradoiro, the lower the price. A slice of empanada from a neighbourhood bakery costs a couple of euros and is a decent meal standing up. And the Mercado de Abastos is worth an hour whether or not you buy anything: it is the best Galician produce in the city without a restaurant bill attached.

Sleeping cheaply, and the €10 bunk you probably cannot have

This is where most budget guides to Santiago get it wrong, so it is worth being exact. The two public albergues run by the Xunta charge €10 a night — but they are for pilgrims holding a stamped credencial, one night only, and they take no reservations. If you walked or cycled here, that €10 bunk is genuinely yours. If you flew in, it is not, whatever a price-comparison page may suggest.

For everyone else the cheapest honest bed is a private albergue: dorms from about €14, and €20 to €26 for the best-located ones. They are more flexible and generally admit travellers without a credencial, though the atmosphere and the rhythm — shared dorms, curfews — are built around people arriving on foot. Above that, a guesthouse in the old town usually runs €36 to €68. Outside July, Easter week and 25 July, prices fall sharply: travelling in the shoulder or low season is by far the cheapest way to sleep well in the centre.

Getting around free, or nearly

You can cross the whole old town on foot in twenty minutes, so you do not need to spend anything on transport inside the city. To get in from the airport or the station, the city bus costs €1 paying the driver, or €0.36 with a travel card — which only pays off if you are staying a while.

The tourist tax, which budget guides forget

Since 1 October 2025 Santiago charges a municipal surcharge on the Galician tourist stays tax, per person per night, for the first five nights only. For the places in this guide it is €1 in private albergues and €1.50 in guesthouses. It is small, but it is real and your accommodation collects it, so count it in.

Two exemptions worth knowing: under-18s pay nothing, and neither does anyone sleeping in the Xunta's public albergues or in youth hostels. So the pilgrim on the €10 public bunk pays no tax at all.

If you have just walked in and hold a credencial, swap the first two rows for the €10 public bunk and the tax exemption, and the same day comes to about €35. That is the cheapest Santiago can honestly be done for without skipping meals.