Around & About Mumbai
How do I get there?
By Air
India Tour Packages - Mumbai’s international terminus is the Sahar International Airport, 30 km from the city centre of Nariman Point and 4km from the domestic terminus at Santa Cruz. Most of the international airlines, the national carriers Air India and Indian Airlines, as well as other private airlines fly into Mumbai and connect it with major national and international destinations. Both terminals have facilities like foreign exchange bureaus, duty free shops, restaurants, left luggage sheds and tourist offices. Travelling into the city is made convenient by the easy availability of prepaid taxis, rented cars, airport-city shuttle bus services and auto rickshaws. Pick up service by hotels you are booked in can also be availed of - Tour Packages of India.
By Train
Indin Tour Packages - Mumbai is the headquarters for both Western & Central Railways sectors of the behemoth Indian Railways. An enormous network of regular train services connects the city via superfast, express and passenger trains with all major towns and cities in India, including Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The Victoria Terminus and Bombay Central Station, the two main railway stations in Mumbai form the hub of Western Railways, tickets and reservations as well as train schedules and other information can be gotten here - Indian Tour Packages Asia.
By Road
Tour Packages to Mumbai - Good motorable roads connect Mumbai to all major cities, small towns and tourist centres in the state – Pune (163 km), Aurangabad (392 km), Nashik (184 km), Mahabaleshwar (239 km) and to the towns and cities of the neighbouring states of Goa - Panaji (597 km), Gujarat - Ahmedabad (545 km) and Vadodara (432 km) and Andhra Pradesh. Traffic is fairly heavy but disciplined. Interstate roadways buses and private operators run every kind of bus from luxury coaches to ramshackle rattletraps. Car rental companies will usually provide chauffeur driven vehicles; traffic drives on the right hand side and while ideally you should have an international driving license, your local license will do for stays under six months - Mumbai Tour Packages.
By Sea
Tour Packages of Mumbai - The regular ferry service that connected Mumbai to Goa is now defunct but Goa-Mumbai is still connected by a catamaran that takes 71/2 hours to reach Mumbai’s Bhau-ka- Chakka Ferry Wharf. The catamaran has air conditioned cabins, dining rooms and economy and business classes. The tickets come inclusive of two meals, drinks and snacks. The catamaran does not operate during the monsoons from June to September - India Tour Packages.
Getting Around
Tour Packages of India - The most popular mode of transport is the metered black and yellow topped taxis that are available around every corner or next to most hotels. Mumbai’s cabs are economical and safe and the cabbies are an efficient, honest and helpful lot. Cars, MUVs and vans (usually with drivers) are also available from car rental agencies and travel agents. One can even hire motorcycles and bicycles, though be prepared as Mumbai stretches out over a vast distance encompassing suburbs and outer city areas. Mumbai has the best city transport system run by a municipal department anywhere in the country with an excellent network of fast local and commuter trains, double-decker buses and bus services run by BEST. Auto rickshaws and ferry services between the islands are other ways of getting around the city. If you’re planning to drive yourself around, then an international or at the very least a local driving license and a good city map are absolute imperatives - Indin Tour Packages.
When to Go
Indian Tour Packages Asia - The ideal time to visit Mumbai is the months between September and April as the rains have finished playing havoc with the city’s drainage system and the humidity levels are at their lowest. Actually, visitors come across to Mumbai all and any time of the year, though summer months tend to be enervating and hot, making sight seeing not very pleasant, but if you are planning a business trip and will stay indoors in air conditioned comfort, then summer, winter, rain or shine, the weather doesn’t matter - Tour Packages to Mumbai.
Where do I Stay?
Mumbai Tour Packages - Mumbai offers plenty of accommodation beginning from top end luxury hotels – international and national names - with all facilities including convention and conference, spas, sports and multi cuisine restaurants. Less expensive but with all mod cons and comforts are the mid budget hotels for business travellers and tourists. At the bottom of the price chart are guesthouses, lodges, hostels and hotels offering little more than a bed and bathroom. Reasonably priced but with few frills is the government tourism department run hotels - Tour Packages of Mumbai.
What to bring
India Tour Packages - Mumbai is better equipped than any other city in India to meet even the most obscure of demands as its shops and malls are full of Indian and foreign goods, including medicines, toiletries, cosmetics, clothes and shoes. Travellers should, however, carry special prescription drugs. You will need light cotton clothes for the hot summer months and a light jacket/sweater for the cooler months. The monsoons are heavy and you may want to bring your good rain shoes and favourite rainwear - Tour Packages of India.
Things to Do
Dining & Entertainment
Shopping
Special Events
City Getaways
Dining & Entertainment
Keeping in line with Mumbai’s cosmopolitan atmosphere the scene for dining and entertainment is fabulously all-inclusive. The city has an extensive range of fine restaurants serving Indian, French, Italian, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Lebanese, Arab and Mexican food. Restaurants run the gamut from top of the line elegant establishments with the finest selection of wines to family style restaurants to shacks and roadside vendors and stalls. Whatever may be your preference, whoever you are, whatever your wallet size, Mumbai is sure to adapt to your requirements. From restaurants in five-star hotels to shacks, stalls and vendors on the Juhu Beach, the range on offer is enormous. Bars, pubs, clubs and cafes serve drinks till about midnight.
Epicurean tastes are tantalized at Mumbai's gastronomic range of restaurants. You can't get more with it than at Athena, the "champagne cigar lounge" restaurant and bar near the Taj, which rocks to wild music till the wee hours of the morning; and incidentally, is a great hangout place to be seen and to see! Indigo at Colaba, is an immensely satisfying to dine and drink in chic elegance. Bandra's Olive wins hands down for Mediterranean cuisine, a balmy atmosphere and a fabulous bar. The Thai Pavillion at the President does divine - one guess only - Thai. The Taj's Golden Dragon is still popular for Chinese, after all these decades. Perhaps it's the delightful sea view of Gateway that does the trick, as much as the generous portions.
The Executive luncher has many an option, starting with good old Trattoria at the President Hotel on Cuffe Parade, open 24-hours. The décor and food is cheerfully Italian, with original pizzas and a sinful chocolate mousse. Ling's Pavillion behind Regal, is another old time favourite with gourmet Cantonese cuisine and a great reputation that it lives up to. The Sea Lounge at the Taj retains its old charm and informality, with guests lingering at their meals while ships pass by in the busy harbour.
Good old Khyber at Kala Ghoda and Samrat at Churchgate serve North Indian cuisine and maintain the same standard they have for decades. Sanuk Thai, at Kala Ghoda has great executive lunches. For a taste of Maharashtra, try Viva Paschim at Worli - this is non-veg Malvani, Konkani, Kolhapuri cuisine at its spicy best. Bandra boasts of the Golden Orchid, with Oriental cuisine, especially seafood. The Great Wall at the Leela in Sahar is another sure bet.
Mumbai's Smorgasbord of eating out choices includes trail blazers such as Dosa Diner, offering the best fusion-dosa with unconventional stuffing! New Yorker and New Yorker, two always-packed restaurants on Chowpatty, dish up the tastiest Tex-Mex, pizzas and a brownie fudge sizzler to die for! The restaurants are vegetarian and have a pure Jain-vegetarian section too. As for non-vegetarian food, the tiny Under the Over at Kemp's Corner, has hearty continental fare - the fillet mignon and roast beef are recommended - but there is not much to offer the vegetarian. Mainland China at Sakinaka on the Andheri-Kurla road, serves unusual but authentic Chinese, and is a great bet in the suburbs Café Mondegar, Cloud 9 Café and Leopold Café, all on Colaba, score high on continental snacks and ambience and are popular hangout joints for the young.
Finger-lickin' fare is a-plenty in Mumbai. The famous pao-bhaji is at its buttery, "double maska" best at Sardar's at Tardeo. He's come a long way from the days when you drove up and stood around the bonnet of your car and died over his steaming pao bhaji. Eat ethnic - sample a Gujarati thali at Status, Nariman Point. Kobe, the original sizzler joint, is still doing brisk business, and now has an outlet at Bandra, too. Enjoy your bun-maska and chai (buttered buns and tea), sandwiches and other bakery goodies at Bastani and Kyani's, near Metro. Britannia at Ballard Estate serves Parsi cuisine. Olympia on Colaba Causeway has economical and strictly non-vegetarian food; in fact, a sign warns you that their "Dal may have chicken bones!" For economically priced Maharashtrian snacks, try Swati Snacks at Tardeo and Mela at Worli for North Indian.
Pub-crawling and bar hopping - Mumbai's doing it, everyone's doing it and there are great places for doing it. Do it at Not Just Jazz by the Bay - this is not just an unusual sounding name; it's a throbbing place on Marine Drive that changes character. By day, it's a sleek salad bar haunted by the business luncher, while at night it transforms into a lively, jazzed up pub with music and dancing. Copa Cabana and Geoffrey's, are the other pulsating bars, also on Marine Drive, while the Bay View Bar on Nariman Point and The Ghetto on Bhulabhai Desai Road are popular hotspots. But hotter yet, is the vodka you get at Side Wok Café, a happening bar at NCPA, which has a live band and dance floor.
Recommended strongly are Trishna, Mahesh Lunch Home and Apoorva, all at Kala Ghoda just off Flora Fountain. Everybody's talking about these red-hot restaurants, frequented by celebrities and just about anyone who is turned on by seafood. Their Konkani/Mangalorian, tandoori fish, pomfret, lobster, crab and other seafood is guaranteed to leave you drooling for more. Frangipani, the coffee shop at Oberoi Towers, is an inspiring creation with a classy, minimalist décor and good food to match. For those in the know, Gallops, at the Mahalakshmi Race Course, has hearty breakfasts, as does the Tea Centre at Resham Bhavan, Churchgate. Tea Centre does divine brunches with Parsi cuisine, and a fabulous high tea - sorry, no coffee here!
Mumbai is one of the few cities in India that actually has an entertainment scene all year round. The city is home to an active theatre movement with regular performances of vernacular language plays in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi as well as English language plays. Western and Indian dance and music concerts, art shows, fashion shows, movie premieres, bars and discos, nightclubs and bars with floor shows, horse races at the Mahalakshmi Race Course or cricket at the Wankhede Stadium; amusement arcades and theme parks, bowling alleys and discos, you name it, Mumbai has it!
Shopping
Mumbai is a great place for shopping, where you can find everything from all across the country!
The favourite for shoppers of all shapes, sexes and wallet sizes is textiles and ready-made garments, including export surplus apparel, which you can pick up at throwaway prices. Head for ‘Fashion Street’, a long row of ‘illegal’ roadside stalls on MG Road. Heera Panna Market is the place for ‘foreign goods’, clothes with designer labels at reasonable prices, electronics and household stuff, while for trendy boutiques you could check out Kemp’s Corner, Napean Sea Road, Warden Road and Linking Road near Bandra. Colaba Causeway in downtown Mumbai is another great area for shopping for shoes, clothes, bags and everything you can think of and much that you can’t.
The Government Emporia at the World Trade Centre is the ideal place for handicrafts from most of the Indian states -- wooden votive statues and other woodcarvings, brass ware, printed cotton from Nasik, leather goods, calico and block-printed bedspreads – the list is long and irresistible. And don’t forget to get yourself a pair of ‘kolhapuris’, the handcrafted, ethnic and comfortable ‘chappals’ (open slippers), a specialty of Kolhapur region of southern Maharashtra.
If you fancy some hard bargaining and a lot of atmosphere, the lively Chor (‘thieves’) Bazaar would be the place for you. This is where you could pick up antiques, jewellery, leather goods (shoes, handbags, wallets, belts), and bric-a-brac and sundry items at throwaway prices.
The experience of local markets is yours to savour at Crawford Market with its amazing lanes of specialized little shops where you will get anything from a pin to an elephant!! The local vegetable markets are also worth taking a walk through so long as you can handle the crowds and the chaos.
Special Events
Ganesha Chaturthi is one of the most important festivals celebrated in Mumbai. The ten day long event held in August/September was given religious and cultural dimensions to engender feelings of nationalism and self-esteem by Lokmanya Tilak during the freedom movement. Colourful pavilions house ornate statues of the God Ganesh and the nights come alive with the folk dances- Dandiya and Garba- before the festival culminates with the idols ceremoniously taken in procession to be immersed in the sea on Chowpatty beach. The Hindu festivals of Dashera or Navratri and Diwali; Muslim festivals of Id and Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas are celebrated with great community participation and gusto.
The cultural year begins with the Banganga Festival of Music held near Banganga Tank every January. The Elephanta Festival held in February on the Elephanta Island is a festival of classical Indian dance and music organised by the MTDC. Famous classical dancers, singers and musicians perform during this festival. The Kala Ghoda Festival showcases the country and particularly regional arts and crafts and is held every Sunday from November to January.
City Getaways
42 km to the north of the city is the Sanjay Gandhi National Park once known as the Borivili National Park. Highlights of a trip here are the Kanheri Caves - a cluster of 109 rock-cut caves, dating back to the 2nd to 9th centuries. The huge Chaitya Hall (Buddhist Hall of Worship), with its long colonnade of pillars and 5-meter high stupa at the back, is the grandest of all. The Lion Safari is an attraction for the visitors though its small number of animals, which includes tigers, leopards, panthers and deer, are under severe threat from encroachment and urbanisation. Further a field, you could plan weekend trips to Karnala Bird Sanctuary (60 km), or the cool hill resorts of Matheran (104 km), Khandala and Lonavala (about 125 km).
