Mumbai
Capital Of Maharashtra; Three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (2004), The Victorian Gothic And Art Deco Ensembles (2018), Elephanta Caves (1987) · Mumbai, Maharashtra
India's largest city and its money, film and fashion capital, built on seven islands joined by land reclamation into one long peninsula. What makes it a destination rather than just a business stop is its colonial architecture, some of the finest anywhere: the Victorian Gothic railway terminus Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, and the Victorian and Art Deco buildings facing each other across the Oval Maidan, both World Heritage Sites. A third, the rock-cut Elephanta Caves, is an hour's ferry ride from the Gateway of India. Around them is a city of twenty million with extremes side by side: the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and the Dharavi settlement, Marine Drive's curving seafront and the open-air laundry at Dhobi Ghat, Bollywood studios and suburban trains so full that people hang from the doors. It is expensive by Indian standards and humid all year. The monsoon, June to September, brings some of the heaviest urban rain on earth and regular flooding. Stay in south Mumbai, walk Colaba and Fort, and eat vada pav.
Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400001, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED AND ALL TIMES MUST BE CONFIRMED. The typical pattern: the heritage districts, the Gateway and Marine Drive are open at all hours. ELEPHANTA CAVES CLOSE ON MONDAYS; ferries from the Gateway usually run from roughly nine in the morning to mid-afternoon, with the last boats back from the island in the late afternoon, and they are reduced or suspended in rough monsoon seas. Museums such as CSMVS open from roughly ten to six, and may close on a weekday or public holiday. Haji Ali is only reachable on foot at low tide. The traps: arriving at Elephanta on a Monday, catching a train at rush hour, and planning a monsoon day with no slack.