Experience the best of Surabaya

Surabaya spreads along the Kali Mas river near the northern coast of East Java, a port city that grew under Dutch rule and is known as the City of Heroes for the battle fought here in November 1945 during the struggle for independence. The Heroes' Monument, a tall concrete obelisk, and the museum below it recall that fight, and Heroes' Day is marked on 10 November. Legend says the name comes from sura and baya, the shark and crocodile on the city's emblem.

The old town, Kota Lama, keeps warehouses and banks of the Dutch period along the river, and the Ampel quarter has a 15th-century mosque and a crowded Arab-style market. The Suramadu Bridge, more than five kilometres long, crosses the strait to Madura Island. Mount Bromo and the Tengger highlands are a few hours' drive to the south-east, and the Majapahit ruins at Trowulan lie inland.

Rawon, a black beef soup coloured with keluak nuts, rujak cingur, a salad of vegetables and fruit with sliced boiled cow's snout in a peanut and shrimp-paste sauce, and lontong balap, rice cakes with bean sprouts and fried tofu, are Surabaya specialities. Heat and humidity are constant, and the drier months run from May to September.