Medan: the vibe
Videos from people who went, played right here, with what viewers said underneath. Not part of the score.
The verdict
Mixed · 55Genuinely mixed: commenters praise Medan's food, diversity, affordability and friendly locals, but warn about safety reputation, pollution, bureaucracy and a lonely expat experience.
- food
- affordability
- diversity
- friendly locals
- colonial heritage
- safety reputation
- air pollution
- limited English
- bureaucracy
- isolation for foreigners
- Cheaper than Jakarta for living costs, especially housing and food
- Reputation for danger is seen as exaggerated by some locals but acknowledged by others
- Expats who relocated there sometimes left after about a year over costs and safety
- Locals say English is limited, so foreigners may find daily life harder
- Food scene is repeatedly called a major draw
Read from 8 videos, 36 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
Medan, Sumatra: The Most Dangerous City in Indonesia? | Travel Vlog
The Biology Bloke · 10K views · 2025
What viewers said
“Medanese here, yeah people in Medan are super friendly and definitely not racist. If a Medanese person avoids you, it’s not because we hate you , we’re just scared you’ll speak English to us. A lot of us aren’t that fluent, and yeah, Medan’”
♥ 13 likes
“Welcome to Medan! Just a quick note: it’s the capital of North Sumatra province (there’s no such thing as a “capital of Sumatra”). The city gets a bad rap (honestly deserved), but Medan does have its charms… you just have to look a little c”
♥ 7 likes
“Yo yo I’m going bail in next weekend😅”
♥ 6 likes
“In the city of Medan, the people are very diverse, ranging from Batak ethnicity, Chinese ethnicity and Malay ethnicity as well as migrants from other regions.”
♥ 3 likes
“You made it to Medan a.k.a Gotham City of Indonesia What a brave dude”
♥ 3 likes
“Im grab driver here in medan...suddenly ur video pop up in my youtube,and i remember i saw "bule" walking around with camera..i surely its you...rarely seeing foreigner come to my city 😅”
♥ 4 likes
“This video opened my eyes to how foreigners view Medan. I live just an hour away from Medan but I'm still bewildered by how much vast and rich Medan actually is by just going around with motorcycle, non-Asian people will definitely get the ”
♥ 2 likes
“Love these vids bro keep on going love the vlogs❤”
♥ 1 likes
“as long as no have a lot of iron.....you save in medan”
♥ 1 likes
“Woi ... Woi 😮😮 !! Hotel yang tersedia untuk bersihkan Indonesia banget ya good luck for bang 💪😎👍 bule tampan sekali Hotel dan mall Indonesia yang indah !! ???? 👏😳👏😳👍”
Found with a YouTube search for the city and “digital nomad”, fetched 2026-11-07; titles, descriptions and comments belong to their authors and link to the originals.