PADANG TRAVEL GUIDE AND TOURIST ATTRACTIONS FOR 2024

Padang is the capital city of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Padang is said to be the main access point used by travellers heading to other popular tourist hotspots such as surfing sites of the Mentawai islands, the cooling inland hills of Bukittinggi and the Kerinci Seblat National Park.

The main gateway to Sumatra is located at Minangkabau International Airport (Bandara Internasional Minangkabau - BIM) (PDG).

The airport is located north-west of Padang, about 23 km away and serves many frequent flight destinations all over the Sumatra and Java.

Tiger Airways and Silk Air flies to Singapore while Air Asia flies to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

If you want to travel from the airport to the city, the cheapest way to do that is by taking a Damri which is a bus and the price fare is Rp15,000 per person.

On the way, you will pass by the major hotels in Padang.

If you do not feel comfortable taking a bus, then other more expensive alternatives will be taxis or pre-arranged rental cars.

There are several places for you to see while in Padang. There are the Museum Adityawarman located at Jl. Diponegoro, Taman Budaya (Cultural Park), Pantai Air Manis (Sweet Water Beach). Pantai Air Manis is well known for Batu Malin Kundang (Stone of Malin Kundang) which is actually a stone shaped like a prostrating man. Legend says that the stone is a person by the name of Malin Kundang.

Malin Kundang is an ungrateful son who disowned his poor mother after returning home as a rich man from his travels.

His mother then cursed him which he is turned into stone together with the remains of his ship, which can also be seen near his stone. There is a tidal island from the beach here.

Other nice and interesting places for you to explore will be Pantai Padang (Padang Beach) where you can go for a bendi ride (a horse-drawn carriage), visit the beautiful Siti Nurbaya Bridge and go down south of Teluk Bayur, up and through steep hills.