It very much depends on where you're located, what sort of climate the place has, even what sort of neighbors you have.

I have a relatively small front yard and am located in a temperate region with reasonably good rainfall. So I planted a bunch of perennial flowers and clover in the existing grass of my lawn, laid down some decorative stone pathways weaving through it, and some shrubs around the edges. Bought a sign that reads "Meadow Habitat Restoration - Please Do Not Mow or Spray" to make it clear that I wasn't just neglecting my front yard but was deliberately turning it into a patch of pseudo-wilderness. Now I can basically leave my front yard completely untouched all summer (occasionally pulling a few thistles because I personally hate them) and it looks lovely and has plenty of bees and whatnot visiting it. There's no such thing as "weeds", just wildflowers.

My back yard is much larger and I wanted to keep the lawn because it's a nice space for activities. But I got a pushmower, and the lawn doesn't grow fast because I've allowed trees to grow all around the edges and that makes it quite shady. The trees make for a nice privacy screen once the leaves come in, it's like my back yard is a forest clearing. I scattered clover seed among the grass there too, you can mow clover just like grass so I figure whatever survives best gets the territory.

Personally, I'm not fond of gravel because it's an unnecessary dead zone. There's already plenty of bare concrete everywhere, we don't need more of that. But if you're in a dry environment that doesn't support greenery without watering or fertilizer then some hardscrabble landscaping could look quite nice. Maybe plant a few sagebrushes or even cacti (cacti can put out some very nice flowers) with some interesting piles of larger rocks to add visual interest.

Maybe take a wander around your neighborhood to see if other folks have set up interesting alternatives to lawns and get some ideas off of them, they'll have done the testing to see if it works.