Medan Travel Guide

Medan is not a real tourist destination. If I didn't have family there, I wouldn't visit the place. It can be used as a startpoint. You can go to lake Toba from Medan. You have the Orang Utang reserve as well, but they are all a few hours drive outside of the city. There is a crocodile farm in the city but it is quite shocking. Greenpeace or Gaia would get a fit, if they would see it. Once outside the city it is very nice but the traffice everywhere is hectic and the roads are less than perfect. It is really for the hardcore backpacker to do this.

Medan, the third largest city in Indonesia, is the capital of the province of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The city is Indonesia's third most populous after Jakarta and Surabaya, with approximately 2.5 million people. Medan did not enjoy significant development until the 1860s, when the Dutch colonialists began clearing the land for tobacco plantations. Medan quickly became a center of government and commercial activity, dominating development of Indonesia's western region.