Medan Travel Guide — Sumatra's Food City and Gateway

See & Do

The Maimoon Palace and the Great Mosque

The Deli Malay sultanate left the city its two best-known buildings, a five-minute walk apart. Istana Maimun, the Maimoon Palace, is still a working royal residence, and the Great Mosque of Medan next door opened in 1909 to a Dutch architect's mix of Moroccan, European, Middle Eastern and Malay styles. Both are free, and during Ramadan the street in front closes for a night market.

Colonial Medan and the temple trail

The Dutch left a genuine Art Deco stock: the Old City Hall, the post office and the blocks around Jalan Ahmad Yani, some restored and some not. The religious architecture runs wider than the mosques: Vihara Gunung Timur is a Taoist temple of real scale, the Shri Mariamman Tamil Hindu temple sits 500 metres away, the Tjong A Fie Mansion was the Chinese community's nerve centre a century ago, and Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni near Little India is the one locals send visitors to see.

Lake Toba, Bukit Lawang and Berastagi

Medan earns its keep as a base. Lake Toba, a volcanic lake with Samosir island in the middle, holds Batak culture on its shores about four hours out. Bukit Lawang, on the edge of Gunung Leuser National Park, is three hours on a rough road and still runs orangutan feeding sessions. Berastagi, 90 minutes away, is the weekend mountain escape under two volcanoes.

Eat

This is the reason to come. Each community cooks, and they all cook well and cheaply.

What to order

Start with the Medan-only dishes: soto medan, mie sop, mie balap and bihun bebek. Then the borrowed ones, done better here than at home: Batak grilled pork, nasi padang and sate padang from the west, Chinese kwetiau and mie pangsit, Tamil curry in Little India. Kedai Kopi Apek on Jalan Hindu has poured Lintong coffee since 1922, and the local invention to order anywhere is the Sanger, espresso with milk and sugar.

What it costs

nomads.com prices a dinner at $2, a coffee at $2 and a beer at $2 (live page, 14 October 2026). Numbeo, updated 2 October 2026, puts an inexpensive meal at Rp30,000 (about $1.67) and a three-course dinner for two at Rp150,000 ($8.37), with a cappuccino at Rp27,000 ($1.51), at 17,918 rupiah to the dollar.

Where to Stay

Medan is low-rise and spread out, with open sewers in places and heavy traffic, so distance matters more than it looks on a map.

Where to base

The centre around Merdeka Square and the main train station puts you beside Centre Point mall and the colonial grid. Little India and the Sun Plaza area is where budget hostels cluster, with street food outside the door. Kesawan, the old commercial quarter, is the nicest walking.

What a room costs

nomads.com lists a one-bedroom studio in the centre at $231 a month and a median hotel room at $11 a night. Numbeo puts a one-bedroom in the centre at Rp4,125,000 ($230) and outside at Rp1,600,000 ($89). Apartment stock is thin, so short stays default to hotels and guesthouses.

Logistics

Kualanamu International Airport (KNO) is about 45 minutes out, and the Railink airport train gets you in in 31 to 41 minutes for Rp55,000 to Rp70,000, card only; a taxi runs Rp130,000 to Rp150,000 plus a Rp10,000 airport surcharge. Round town it is becak motor, pedal becak or Bajaj three-wheelers on the Maxride app, all Rp5,000 to Rp30,000, and the documented becak scam quotes one price then demands ten times it at the other end. Grab works, tips run about 7.5%, and cash is still expected almost everywhere. Sibling base: Jakarta.

Humidity sits near 90% all year and only 9% of buildings have air conditioning. Tap water is not drinkable; buy bottled.