Mumbai has always had style. A port city overlooking the Arabian Sea, it is famous for its mega-population (16 million people crammed onto a curving promontory), its glittering Bollywood film industry, its dhobiwallahs or tiffin carriers and the extremes of wealth and poverty. It is in fact an island divided from the mainland by a narrow creek and its prosperity soared with the opening of the Suez Canal. Fashionable Mumbai swirls around Colaba, to the south of the city, but the northern suburbs are becoming popular too. Bars, restaurants, shops, movies, nightclubs, parties and festivals are everywhere: this is a city that never sleeps. Sights include the Taj Mahal Hotel - an early 20th-century gem that was the first luxury hotel to allow Indians to enter, the Chhatrapati Shivaji (formerly Victoria) Terminus, one of the world's most spectacular railway stations, the Gateway of India, Elephanta Island, Crawford Market and Chor Bazaar. Marine Drive makes an ideal evening escape, and you will be joined by hundreds of other people strolling by the sea.
Maharashtra & Gujarat, North India