Experience the best of Makassar

Makassar is the largest city in eastern Indonesia, a port on the south-west coast of Sulawesi that grew rich on the spice trade and the Gowa sultanate. Fort Rotterdam, first raised by the Gowa kings and rebuilt by the Dutch after 1667, holds a museum, courtyards and old warehouses. Losari Beach is a waterfront promenade that fills at sunset with food stalls and families, and a mosque built partly over the water stands on its shore.

At Paotere Harbour, tall wooden Bugis schooners called pinisi load cargo for the islands, and short boat rides lead to Samalona and the other reef islands of the Spermonde archipelago. North of the city, the limestone towers of Maros hold caves with hand stencils among the oldest cave art known, and Bantimurung is a waterfall park famed for butterflies.

Coto Makassar, a rich beef stew eaten with rice cakes, and konro, beef ribs in a dark soup, are the city's signature dishes, and pisang epe, grilled flattened banana with palm-sugar syrup, is sold along Losari. The dry months from May to September are the brightest, with heavy rain from December to February.