Dreamweaver is anything but free
Its about $400 (if you get it legally)
Notepad is free - but you might need to learn (GOD!! LEARN!!!) HTML (and preferably CSS).
http://www.w3schools.com/html/
I used dreamweaver for a while but just got fed up with it trying to be helpfull. I now use UltraEdit (its an advanced text editor).
It all depends on what you wanna do - if you just want a nice looking site you can plonk content into, look for HTML templates. If you want a site you make yourself and learn something from, code it yourself. HTML is the easiest language on earth. If you can manage DBP then you can do HTML.