Mumbai: How to Visit and Get Around
Mumbai used to be Bombay, officially renamed in November 1995, and the old name still shows up on the Bombay High Court and the Bombay Stock Exchange, so don’t let it throw you. It’s India’s largest city and its financial capital, on the Arabian Sea coast in Maharashtra, and visiting it well is mostly a logistics question: which airport you land at, how you move through a city of over 20 million people, and what paperwork you sorted before you left home. Get that right and Mumbai’s three UNESCO sites, its food and its neighbourhoods take care of themselves.
| Mumbai essentials | |
|---|---|
| Best months | October to February; plan around the June-September monsoon |
| Main airports | Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (BOM) or the newer Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) |
| Getting around | Suburban rail, Metro Aqua Line 3, kaali-peeli taxis or Uber/Ola; autos don’t run in South Mumbai |
| Visa | Needed by most nationalities; apply for the e-Visa at indianvisaonline.gov.in |
Getting to Mumbai: BOM and the new NMIA airport
Most flights still land at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM), split into T1 for domestic low-cost carriers and T2 for international and other domestic services. It’s Mumbai’s main gateway and, since it also sits closest to South Mumbai’s hotels and sights, the more convenient one for a first trip.
Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) is the real 2026 change: commercial flights began 25 December 2025, and it’s currently running domestic and a limited international schedule through carriers including IndiGo, Akasa Air and Air India Express. It sits across the harbour on the Navi Mumbai side, connected to the city by the Atal Setu (see below), so check which airport your ticket actually lands at before you book a hotel area or a transfer. Confusing the two costs a real hour or more in traffic.
Getting around Mumbai: locals, Metro, taxis and rickshaws
The suburban railway, known simply as “the locals,” is the city’s backbone: roughly 7.5 million riders a day across the Western, Central and Harbour lines, reportedly the busiest passenger rail network anywhere, with women-only coaches on every train. It’s cheap and fast outside the 7-10am and 5-8pm peaks, brutal inside them.
Metro Aqua Line 3, Mumbai’s first fully underground line, finally opened end to end on 8 October 2025, a 33.5km run from Cuffe Parade up through the BKC business district to Aarey. It’s a genuinely useful cross-city option now that the last phase is open, worth checking against your route before defaulting to a taxi.
Kaali-peeli black-and-yellow taxis and Uber or Ola cover most trips a train or the Metro doesn’t. One quirk worth knowing before you land: auto-rickshaws aren’t allowed in the island city, roughly south of Bandra and Sion, so in Colaba, Fort and around Marine Drive you’ll always be in a taxi or a rideshare car, not an auto, however many you see running further north. If your trip involves NMIA or anywhere in Navi Mumbai, you’ll likely cross the Atal Setu, the 21.8km sea bridge that opened in January 2024 and is India’s longest, linking Sewri on the Mumbai side to Nhava Sheva.
Book an Elephanta Caves ferry tour if you’d rather have someone else handle the boat timings and the walk up from the jetty; it’s one of the few Mumbai excursions genuinely worth pre-booking rather than turning up and buying a ticket at the Gateway.
Mumbai’s neighbourhoods, from South Mumbai to Bandra and beyond
South Mumbai, Colaba and Fort, is the compact heritage core and where most first trips are based. It holds the Gateway of India, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT, the former Victoria Terminus and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004), and the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai, a 2018 UNESCO listing covering the Fort precinct’s colonial buildings and the Art Deco blocks along Marine Drive. Out in the harbour, the Elephanta Caves, rock-cut Shiva temples carved roughly between the 5th and 8th centuries, became Mumbai’s third UNESCO site in 1987; the ferry runs from the Gateway, closes Mondays, and can suspend in rough monsoon weather.
Bandra, reached across the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (opened 2009, a different bridge from the Atal Setu), is the film-industry side of the city: the Bandstand promenade, Mount Mary Basilica, and a younger restaurant and bar scene than Colaba’s. Further out, the northern and eastern suburbs are where most Mumbaikars actually live and work, quieter on the tourist trail but closer to both airports if a flight time puts you out there.
Check current rates for hotels in Colaba if you’re deciding between South Mumbai and Bandra as a base; South Mumbai keeps you nearer the UNESCO core, Bandra trades some of that for restaurants and a livelier evening scene.
Do you need a visa for Mumbai?
Yes, almost certainly. Most nationalities, including US, UK, EU and Australian passport holders, need an Indian visa before they arrive, with no broad visa-on-arrival option to fall back on. The e-Visa (eTV) is the practical route for most leisure travellers, and it’s only issued through the official portal, indianvisaonline.gov.in ; the site itself warns that no agent is authorised to charge extra for the service, so treat any other site selling an Indian visa as a scam. You’ll also need to file a separate e-Arrival Card online within 72 hours of arrival, and it’s worth checking your passport has at least six months of validity and a couple of blank pages before you book anything.
When’s the best time to visit Mumbai?
October through February, the cool, dry window nearly every source agrees on. Avoid the monsoon if you can, roughly June through September: heavy rain causes real flooding and waterlogging, disrupts the suburban trains, and can suspend the Elephanta ferry for days at a stretch. March through May is hot and humid, workable but the least comfortable non-monsoon stretch.
Money in Mumbai: INR, UPI and cash
The currency is the Indian Rupee (INR, written Rs), and Mumbai is India’s most expensive city, though it’s still cheap by Western standards for food, local transport and most day-to-day spending. UPI, the QR-code payment system, is genuinely everywhere, street stalls included, so a phone with a UPI-linked app covers more ground than cash does. Cards work at hotels, malls and established restaurants; carry some cash for smaller or informal purchases.
Is Mumbai safe to get around?
Yes, as safe as a megacity this size reasonably gets, with specific, practical things to know rather than vague worry. Petty theft and pickpocketing happen in crowds and packed trains, traffic is genuinely dangerous so don’t drive yourself, and tap water isn’t safe to drink anywhere in the city, bottled or filtered only. Women travelling solo should stick to registered taxis or ride-hailing after dark and avoid empty train compartments late at night, the same practical approach that applies across India generally. Check the current UK FCDO advice for India and the US State Department’s current advisory level before you travel rather than relying on an old number; the FCDO flags no restriction on Mumbai or Maharashtra at all, reserving its warnings for the India-Pakistan border area, Jammu and Kashmir, and Manipur.
What you’ll actually see once you land
Once the airport, the visa and the getting-around logic are sorted, the actual sightseeing is straightforward: the Gateway of India and CSMT on day one, Elephanta and Dhobi Ghat if you have a second day, then Bandra, Dharavi and Sanjay Gandhi National Park as the trip stretches longer. Our 3-day Mumbai itinerary covers the South Mumbai core plus Elephanta and Haji Ali, and the 5-day itinerary adds Dharavi and a slower food day on top of that same spine. The Mumbai travel guide has the full sight-by-sight breakdown if you want the detail before you build a day-by-day plan.
One habit that saves an actual day of this trip: book your e-Visa before anything else. Visa processing rarely happens same day, and everything else on this page, the airport, the trains, even the Elephanta ferry, only matters once you’re legally allowed to land.