Mumbai, made simple

Mumbai: Full-Day Sightseeing Tour of Mumbai

The most-reviewed Mumbai tour on GetYourGuide and the easiest way to cover a spread-out city in one day. You travel by air-conditioned car between the big South Mumbai sights, with a driver-guide or a separate guide depending on the option you pick, and choose a shorter or longer version to suit your day.

• Gateway of India, CSMT and Marine Drive
• Dhobi Ghat, Mani Bhavan and Malabar Hill
• Air-conditioned car with a driver-guide or a dedicated guide

Mumbai: Elephanta Caves Half-Day Guided Tour

Elephanta’s sculptures are magnificent but almost unlabelled, so a guide makes a real difference. This best-selling tour explains the great cave panel by panel — the Trimurti, Shiva as Nataraja, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati — and sorts out the ferry from the Gateway of India. The caves are closed on Mondays.

• UNESCO-listed rock-cut Shiva temple
• The six-metre, three-faced Sadashiva (Trimurti)
• A guide who explains each sculpted panel

Mumbai: Street Food and Night Markets Tour

An evening walk through Mumbai’s night markets with stops at the food stalls locals queue at. You taste a run of vegetarian and non-vegetarian snacks along the way, and the guide does the choosing — the surest way to eat Mumbai street food without guessing which stall to trust.

• Vegetarian and non-vegetarian snacks at well-known stalls
• Night markets and bazaars lit up after dark
• Stalls chosen by a local guide

Mumbai: Dharavi, Dhobi Ghat and Dabbawalas Tour

Three sides of working Mumbai in one morning: the recycling, pottery and leather workshops of Dharavi, the vast open-air laundry at Dhobi Ghat, and the dabbawalas who deliver home-cooked lunches across the city. It is the tour that explains how Mumbai actually runs.

• A guided walk through Dharavi’s workshops and lanes
• The open-air laundry at Dhobi Ghat
• The dabbawalas sorting and delivering lunchboxes

Mumbai by Night: Private Iconic Sights Tour in Lights

Mumbai is cooler, calmer and arguably better looking after dark. This private tour with an English-speaking local guide takes in the floodlit Taj Mahal Palace, Flora Fountain, the city’s own “Big Ben” — the Rajabai Clock Tower — and a viewpoint over the lights of the bay.

• The Taj Mahal Palace and Gateway of India lit up
• Flora Fountain and the floodlit Gothic buildings
• Marine Drive — the “Queen’s Necklace” — after dark

Mumbai’s Famous Bollywood Tour: The Heart of Indian Cinema

A look behind the scenes of the Hindi film industry at Film City in the northern suburbs. You tour sets with a guide, watch a film or television serial being shot when shooting schedules allow, and finish with a live dance show.

• Guided visit to Mumbai’s Film City
• Sets and, when schedules allow, live filming
• A live Bollywood dance show

Mumbai: Kanheri Caves and the Golden Pagoda Temple

Two Buddhist sites, two thousand years apart: the rock-cut monastery of Kanheri in the forest of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and the gilded Global Vipassana Pagoda on the coast at Gorai. With hotel transfers, it removes the awkward logistics of reaching the far north of the city.

• Ancient Buddhist rock-cut caves inside a forested national park
• The golden Global Vipassana Pagoda
• Hotel transfers included

Victorian Gothic Heritage Quarter and Art Deco Walking Tour

A guided walk through the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble that faces itself across the Oval Maidan: nineteenth-century Gothic on one side, 1930s Art Deco on the other. Excellent value, and the best way to make sense of the Fort district’s architecture.

• Mumbai’s UNESCO-listed Victorian Gothic buildings
• Art Deco apartment blocks and cinemas
• The stories behind the architecture

Gateway of India & Colaba

Where every Mumbai visit begins

The basalt arch on the harbour is Mumbai’s front door: built to mark a royal landing in 1911, finished in 1924 and now the city’s favourite meeting place. Next to it stand the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the Elephanta ferries and the stalls and cafés of Colaba Causeway.

Elephanta Caves

A rock-cut Shiva temple on an island

An hour by ferry from the Gateway of India, a hillside on Elephanta Island hides one of the masterpieces of Indian sculpture: a cave temple cut from solid basalt around the 5th–6th centuries, with a six-metre, three-faced Shiva at its heart. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, closed on Mondays.

CSMT (Victoria Terminus)

The grandest railway station in Asia

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus is a working station dressed as a cathedral: turrets, gargoyles, stained glass and a great dome, designed by F. W. Stevens and completed in the late 1880s. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and still handles millions of commuters.

Fort, Oval Maidan & Kala Ghoda

Victorian Gothic meets Art Deco

Across the cricket pitches of the Oval Maidan, a row of Victorian Gothic public buildings faces a row of 1930s Art Deco apartment blocks — together a UNESCO World Heritage ensemble. Around them lie the Fort business district and Kala Ghoda, the city’s gallery and museum quarter.

Marine Drive & Chowpatty

The Queen’s Necklace

A 3.6-kilometre sweep of promenade around Back Bay, lined with Art Deco apartment blocks and ending at the sand of Girgaon Chowpatty. Mumbai comes here at sunset to walk, sit on the sea wall and eat bhel puri as the streetlights come on.

Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi & Dhobi Ghat

A shrine in the sea and a laundry for a city

In the middle of the city, three very Mumbai sights sit close together: the white Haji Ali Dargah on its islet, reached by a causeway at low tide; the Mahalaxmi temple on the shore; and Dhobi Ghat, the huge open-air laundry beside Mahalaxmi station. Siddhivinayak temple is a short taxi ride north.