Bandung is the cheapest highland city in Java: a Rp 3,000 minaret lift, a forest park with Dutch war tunnels for Rp 17,000, and night alleys where dinner rarely passes Rp 30,000. Angkot minivans cross town for Rp 5,000.
The central square is carpeted in synthetic grass where families sprawl barefoot from dawn, shoes left at the edge. Entry costs nothing, and the Masjid Raya twin minarets charge about Rp 3,000 for the lift to the 81m viewing deck.
A free amphitheatre park wedged beneath the Pasupati flyover, with roughly 500 tiered seats facing a large outdoor screen and free public wifi. The adjacent Taman Jomblo painted concrete cubes are the cheapest photo stop in the city.
A Dutch laboratory from 1928 holding Java's fossil hoard: a Tyrannosaurus cast, Homo erectus skulls excavated at Sangiran, and a hall on the 1815 Tambora eruption. Tickets run about Rp 10,000 general and Rp 5,000 for students.
A 450m elevated walkway bolted above Jalan Cihampelas, free to stroll and lined with kiosks selling Rp 5,000 cireng, roti bakar and es cendol. The western railing catches the sunset over the old denim shopfronts below.
Bandung's oldest trading hall, rebuilt as a twelve-storey block of textiles where batik shirts start near Rp 35,000 and kebaya fabric is cut by the metre. The upper-floor food court fills you for around Rp 20,000.
A Sundanese prasmanan institution where you load a plate yourself from trays of ayam goreng, tahu, tempe and jengkol, then pay at the till on the way out. Lunch lands around Rp 30,000 and the queue moves in minutes.
A 1920s neighbourhood market inside the Dutch villa quarter, still selling flowers, jamu and second-hand books. In the back lane, Kios Ibu Eha has poured kopi tubruk and toasted bread since 1947 for well under Rp 20,000.
The Cibadak food alley switches on at dusk: a covered lane of some sixty stalls turning out Bandung's Chinese-Indonesian staples — bakmi, cakwe, martabak manis, seblak — with most portions between Rp 15,000 and Rp 30,000.
A bare cliff edge above the Dago pine forest where the Bandung basin fills with cloud until mid-morning. Entry is about Rp 15,000 for domestic visitors, plus roughly Rp 5,000 motorbike parking at the ridge gate.
Some 590 hectares of pine and mahogany threaded by a paved trail linking Goa Belanda, a 1918 Dutch munitions tunnel, with Goa Jepang, dug by forced labour in 1942. Entry sits around Rp 17,000 for domestic visitors.
A 12m waterfall on the Cikapundung river reached by a long flight of concrete steps down a ravine. Beside the pool sit two stone inscriptions left by the Siamese kings Rama V and Rama VII during visits in 1896 and 1901.
A pine ridge above Cimenyan at roughly 1,440m, marked by a steel star frame over the lookout. Around Rp 15,000 buys the widest cheap view in Bandung; stay past dark for the full grid of city lights below the ridge.