Malang was built as a hill station, and it still behaves like one. At around 450 metres the air is noticeably cooler than the coast, which is why the Dutch put their villas here and why Surabaya empties into it at weekends.
More of the colonial street plan survives here than almost anywhere else on Java. Kayutangan, the old shopping street, has been restored rather than replaced, and the lanes behind it are still ordinary neighbourhoods rather than a preserved quarter.
Most travellers use Malang as the practical way in to Bromo and Semeru — it is the closest real city to both, with the trains and the roads to prove it. That is a fair reason to come, but it undersells the place. Give it a night at either end rather than treating it as a transit stop.
North of the city, Batu climbs higher again into apple orchards and cold mornings. East, the Singosari temple remains stand from the 13th-century kingdom that once ran this part of Java.