Mumbai

The currency is the Indian rupee (INR, ₹), at about ₹89 per dollar and ₹16 per real in 2026. The price ranges: chai at a stall ₹10 to 20, vada pav ₹15 to 40, vegetarian thali ₹150 to 350, a meal for two at a neighborhood restaurant ₹800 to 1,500 and ₹2,500 to 5,000 at a good restaurant, beer at a bar ₹250 to 500, café coffee ₹150 to 300. Transport is cheap: train ₹5 to 20, metro ₹10 to 80, bus from ₹5, a short rickshaw ride ₹26 to 60, a taxi ₹31 to 100, and an app crossing from south to north ₹350 to 800. Lodging is the expensive item: a hostel dorm bed ₹700 to 1,800, a clean mid-range hotel ₹4,500 to 9,000, a high-end hotel above ₹18,000. The standard local payment is UPI by QR code, even at street stalls. Visitors can use international cards at restaurants, shops and apps, but it's worth always having small bills for chai, rickshaws, train counters and temples, because change for a ₹500 note often runs out. Tipping isn't mandatory: 5 to 10% at a restaurant when there's no service charge on the bill, ₹20 to 50 for a porter or delivery person, and nothing in a taxi or rickshaw beyond rounding up.

Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 at the airport, 6 km apart

From the airport: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (BOM) has Terminal 2, international and part of the domestic flights, and Terminal 1, domestic, about 6 km apart and linked by a connecting bus. Since October 2025, metro Line 3 links T2 to BKC and Worli and to the south center (Churchgate, Cuffe Parade) in about 50 minutes for ₹10–80, and it's the most predictable option at rush hour. The alternatives are the prepaid taxi counter at arrivals, ₹600–1,000 to the south and more if traffic has other plans, and the Uber, Ola, and Rapido apps, which have marked pickup points. The second airport, Navi Mumbai (NMI), has been operating since December 25, 2025, and has received international flights since July 2026. It's 35–40 km from south Mumbai via the Atal Setu, 45 to 90 minutes by car, and the bridge toll for cars is about ₹250 each way.

Getting around the city: three systems, all used in a single day

In the city, three systems add up. The suburban railway has the Western (Churchgate–Dahanu), Central (CSMT–Kasara/Khopoli) and Harbour (CSMT–Panvel/Andheri) lines and carries around 7 million passengers a day. A second-class ticket costs ₹5 to ₹20, first class costs four to five times more and is far less crowded, and air-conditioned trains start at ₹30. Tickets are valid only that day, bought at the counter or on the RailOne app (the old UTS was decommissioned on March 1, 2026), and every train has women-only cars, marked by stripes on the platform. The metro adds up to about 101 km and 77 stations in 2026, with lines 1 (Versova–Ghatkopar), 2A and 7 (elevated, in the west), 3 (underground, Cuffe Parade–Aarey) and the open stretch of line 9. The Mumbai 1 card (NCMC) and the Mumbai One app integrate the metro, BEST buses and, progressively, the railway. BEST's red buses have fares starting at ₹5, are paid with the Chalo app or the NCMC card and run where the rails don't reach. Auto-rickshaws can't operate south of Bandra and Sion, so in the southern center only taxis and apps are left. Walking works in Colaba, Fort, Kala Ghoda, Marine Drive and Bandra. Outside those areas the sidewalks are occupied by other trades and a bicycle isn't a practical option.

Mumbai has low rates of violent crime for a city this size, and much of the south center and Bandra are walkable at night, even for solo travelers. Even so, the standard advice for women is to use the train's women-only car and book a ride through an app rather than accept an offer on the street. The real risks are of a different kind: traffic, crossing outside the crosswalk, packed platforms, and the monsoon. On the suburban rail network, more than 2,500 people die on the tracks every year, nearly half of them crossing the line on foot. Never cross the tracks or ride hanging out the door, however natural that may look from outside. Between June and September, avoid historically flood-prone spots (Hindmata, Sion, Kurla, the Andheri and Milan underpasses) on alert days, and don't walk through a street with standing water, because an open manhole is the most common accident. Wallet and phone theft happens on packed trains, at Crawford Market, and at the Gateway; carry your backpack in front. The scams that keep repeating: a driver claiming the meter is broken (ask for the fare card or use an app), an informal guide at the Gateway or at temples warning that the place is closed, schemes selling gems and carpets with a promise of resale, and tip collectors at temples who aren't part of the shrine's staff. General emergency 112, police 100, ambulance 108; hotels, stations, and malls have metal detectors at the entrance, and bag checks have been routine since 2008.

Take off your shoes before entering

This applies to every temple, mosque, gurdwara and private home, and to some small shops and workshops. Large temples have shoe checks at the entrance, usually free or for a few rupees, and socks are acceptable.

Use your right hand for eating and handing things over

The left hand is considered impure for contact with food and for passing objects, money or documents. Eating with your right hand is normal and expected at thali restaurants; there's a hand-washing sink at the entrance.

Respect the women's train coaches

All suburban trains have coaches reserved for women, at specific times, marked by stripes on the platform. Men who enter those coaches can be fined and are removed without argument.

Ask before photographing people

At Dhobi Ghat, Dharavi, markets and temples, a camera pointed at someone without asking reads as rude. Photography is banned inside many shrines, and there are railway rules restricting photos on platforms and at stations.

A head wobble side to side means yes

The sideways head movement means agreement, acceptance or “got it,” not denial or doubt. Don't feel you have to copy it, but read it as confirmation when it comes from someone else.

Alcohol and beef follow state rules

The legal drinking age in Maharashtra is 25, a drinking permit is technically required (obtainable at hotels or online), and there are dry days (January 26, August 15 and October 2) when bars don't serve. Cow beef has been banned in the state since 2015; what's sold as beef is buffalo meat.

Underestimating distances between neighborhoods

Underestimating the distance. Colaba to Andheri is about 25 km, and a car can take 50 minutes to two hours at rush hour, while the train or metro covers the same trip in 35–50 minutes and the price drops from ₹700 to ₹20.

Looking for a rickshaw in south Mumbai

Looking for an auto-rickshaw in south Mumbai. Rickshaws don't run south of Bandra and Sion. Between Colaba, Fort and Worli, your options are a taxi, an app, a bus or the metro, and whoever's waiting on the corner keeps waiting.

Riding the suburban train with a suitcase at rush hour

Tackling the suburban train with luggage at rush hour. Between 8am and 11am and between 6pm and 9pm the cars are too crowded for bags, and you get ready to exit two minutes early, standing near the door, because the stop is short and nobody holds up boarding for you.

Booking Elephanta on a Monday or during the monsoon

Booking Elephanta on a Monday or during the monsoon. The island is closed on Mondays, and ferries from the Gateway are frequently suspended between June and September because of the swells; confirm at the pier the same day.

Tap water and ice of doubtful origin

Drinking tap water and ice of doubtful origin. Sealed bottled water costs ₹20 and is sold at every stall. Busy street food is usually safe precisely because of the turnover, and the empty stall at three in the afternoon isn't.

नमस्कार: Namaskar (namaskár)

Hello / formal greeting in Marathi, with hands joined together

किती रुपये? Kiti rupaye? (kíti rupaiê)

How much does it cost? (Marathi)

धन्यवाद: Dhanyavaad (dhânyavád)

Thank you (Marathi and Hindi; day to day people often just say “thank you”)

मला मराठी येत नाही: Mala Marathi yet nahi (malá maráti iêt nái)

I don't speak Marathi

मीटर से चलिए: Meter se chaliye (mítar se tchálie)

Run the meter, please (Hindi)

इथे थांबा: Ithe thamba (íthe thámba)

Stop here (Marathi); in Hindi, “yahan rokiye”

The peninsula, the creek and the park

Mumbai occupies a narrow peninsula on the Konkan coast, with the Arabian Sea to the west and Thane Creek to the east, at the mouth of the Ulhas River. Average elevation is about 14 m, and the highest point sits around 450 m in the Salsette hills, inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park: 104 km², about a sixth of the municipal area, with resident leopards.

The seven islands and the north-south axis

The seven original islands (Bombay, Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mahim, Parel, Worli and Mazagaon) were joined by landfill between 1782 and 1845, and the larger island of Salsette, to the north, today holds the suburbs. The resulting shape, 3 to 12 km wide by about 50 km long, forces all traffic to run on the north-south axis: three parallel rail lines, two expressways and, since 2024, the Coastal Road and the Atal Setu. East-west crossings are few and slow, which is why ten kilometers can take forty minutes or two hours depending on the time.

The monsoon and the Mithi floods

The climate is tropical savanna, with a dry season from November to May and monsoon from June to September: about 2,200 mm of rain falls per year, and over 70% of it in those four months, flooding low-lying spots like Hindmata, Sion, Kurla and the Andheri and Milan underpasses. The Mithi River, channeled and narrowed by encroachment, has been the main driver of urban flooding since 2005.

The home of Hindi cinema

Mumbai is home to the Hindi-language film industry, which produces a few hundred films a year and employs tens of thousands of people at Film City, in Goregaon, a studio complex opened in 1977 across about 210 hectares. Alongside it runs a theater circuit that never shut down: Prithvi Theatre, founded by the Kapoor family in Juhu in 1978, keeps a daily program in Hindi and English, and the NCPA, at Nariman Point, has housed halls for Indian classical, Western classical and Marathi theater since 1969. Marathi theater is a tradition of its own, with venues in Dadar and Vile Parle and a loyal audience.

Film music, rap and modern art

Mumbai is also where the country's soundtrack comes from. Film scores and the record industry that grew around them have made the city the center of Indian popular music since the 1940s, and since 2015 the Hindi rap that emerged in Kurla, Dharavi and Andheri (Divine, Naezy and the scene the film Gully Boy brought to the screen in 2019) has gone from neighborhood to national market. In the visual arts, the Progressive Artists' Group, founded in Bombay in 1947 by Souza, Husain, Raza and others, broke with academic painting and defined modern Indian art; you'll find its legacy in the Kala Ghoda galleries and the Bhau Daji Lad Museum.

Cricket organizes the calendar

Cricket organizes the social calendar: Wankhede Stadium, opened in 1974 with about 33,000 seats, hosted the 2011 World Cup final and hosts the Mumbai Indians' Indian Premier League matches between March and May. Outside the stadiums, the game happens at Shivaji Park, the Oval Maidan and Azad Maidan, where dozens of matches share the same field at once. Religious life is just as public and simultaneous: Hindu temples, mosques, Portuguese churches, 19th-century synagogues, Sikh gurdwaras and Parsi fire temples operate within a few blocks of each other.

Maximum City: Bombay, Lost and Found, Suketu Mehta (2004)

A sweeping piece of reportage written after the author moved back to the city, covering police, the mafia, cinema, bar dancers and post-1993 politics. It's the text that best explains how the city's institutions work from the inside.

Salaam Bombay!, Mira Nair (1988)

A film shot with real street children around Grant Road and Kamathipura, nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. It shows the city's margins in the 1980s, before the towers of Lower Parel.

Gully Boy, Zoya Akhtar (2019)

A fiction based on the rappers Divine and Naezy, filmed in Dharavi, Kurla and Andheri. It works as a sonic and social map of young Mumbai and the Hindi rap that moved from the settlements to the national market.