• Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes at Calle Mayor 48 is free, and groups of up to 8 walk in without booking
• Torre de Santa María: 109 steps and 34 meters up to a lookout, with an audio guide in Spanish and English, open Thursday to Sunday mornings plus Saturday afternoons
• Free kids' guide and stork game: the tourism office publishes an Alcalá para niños guide and a Juego de la Cigüeña as PDFs to print before you go

Alcalá de Henares is the university town where Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, was born in 1547. Kids can sit on the bench with the bronze Don Quixote and Sancho Panza outside his birth house, now a free museum, spot white storks nesting on the church towers, and climb the 109 steps of the Torre de Santa María for a bird's-eye view of Plaza de Cervantes.