ovenbird

We're traveling to the Great Rann and Little Rann of Kutch in Feb 2012 and due to lack of cooperation of connecting flights, we find we need to overnight in Mumbai. What comfortable but not too pricey (not much over $225) hotel close to the airport would you recommend? Thanks!

Craig

We were stuck in Mumbai between flights last year and stayed at the Tunga Regale which is about 15-20 minutes away. Perfectly adequate 4-star hotel well within your price range.

I just checked recent reviews on tripadvisor.com and they are very good for the most part.

ovenbird

Thanks Craig. We'll look into the Tunga Regale.

galactus

I found the Transit Hotel (http://www.hoteltransit.in/) fairly clean and convenient for a short stay. The prices of course are much cheaper than what you're looking at (~100-125$) so the level of comfort is in accordance.

ovenbird

Thanks galactus. The Transit Hotel looks like it might be decent quality for the price. We'll keep it in mind.

Cicerone

You are kind of spoiled for choice, as there are many hotel options at or near the Mumbai airport. (I assume you are arriving on an international flight; if so note that your onward flight to Kutch will be out of the domestic airport which is a few miles away. If you are connecting between domestic flights, they will go out of the domestic airport.)

There are about a half dozen hotels within a few minutes’ drive of the international and domestic terminals of the airport, including a Hyatt, a Sheraton (called the Maratha), an Intercontinental (called the Lalit), a Le Meridien (also run by Sheraton), and a Leela Kempinski. I only checked the rates at the Lalit, which are showing just over US$200 a night for February; I imagine the others would be in the same range or a bit more, but it may be worth checking each individually; and if you have something like Sheraton reward points, then the Maratha or Meridien may be a good option. These are all slightly closer to the international terminal, but it is maybe 10-15 minutes to the domestic terminal from any of them. I think you can find the websites of the most of them, for the Leela, a good local Indian chain, go to www.theleela.com . The Sheraton, Hyatt and Leela are IMO the nicest and the Leela or Hyatt is probably the best in terms of price. Most of these would have a shuttle bus from the international airport, please confirm this as I have never taken one, but I believe they offer it, otherwise take a taxi or a hotel car (latter is the absolute easiest and most pleasant and IMO more than worth the price). The Sheraton has an outlet of the Dumpukht Restaurant from their Delhi hotel, which is excellent. Even if you don't stay there, it is a good place for dinner. (You could almost walk between many of the hotels, they are very close.)

You also might want to consider the new Courtyard Marriott hotel in Andheri, which is showing rates of US$150 or so for February. This is new and quite nice. It is bit further than the hotels above, so is cheaper, but is still an easy trip to either terminal. Also you can earn or spend Marriott Reward points there, so that may be another attractive option.

The one more budget hotel in the area, which I don’t know personally, but which has been mentioned on this board, is the Hotel Highway Residency hotel. A few posters here have mentioned it as being fine; the comments on tripadvisor.com were not so great, but see for yourself. I don’t know it at all so can’t give any comments good or bad. I only found this website, http://travel.vsnl.com/hotelhighwayresidency/, not sure if it is the official one,

Cicerone

Sorry, one more comment. If your flight out the next day from the domestic airport is on a weekday, note that Mumbai domestic airport is often very crowded in the morning with business people making day trips (esp to Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad), so leave a little extra time, mostly for security lines which can be quite long, and for check-in which can be somewhat chaotic. (Women have their own security line on the right and it is <i>much</i> faster, one small advantage ...) I would arrive at least 1.5 hours before flight departure.

Cicerone

The penny just dropped for me for your destination. I assume you have ruled out taking the express train (No 11092) which departs just before midnight and arrives into Bhuj at 3 pm the next day. While it does take 15 hours, you will arrive at the same time as if you stayed overnight in Mumbai and took the afternoon Jet flight to Bhuj. May be worth thinking about. There are also a couple of other trains which take a bit longer, but they depart at 3 pm and 5 pm, not sure if this works with your arriving flight. If you take a train, get it at Andheri station, not central Mumbai, as the Andheri station is relatively close to the airport.

If you are going to Kandla, then the Kingfisher flight is your best option rather than a train.

qwovadis

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qwovadis

Hotel Airport International is cheapest nice pick usually for me
bidding priceline.com from $50 or book it on sale for $98 without bidding.1 m Mumbai Intl closest for me.

ovenbird

Wow! Cicerone and qwovadis, thanks for all the info and advice.

Our itinerary starts Feb 3 in Bhuj and ends in Amedebad (2.5hr drive from where we're staying in Little Rann.) We then would like to be in Bangkok on Feb 10. Getting to Bhuj is not a problem, it's getting to Bangkok that is tricky.

So we've figured out the following 2 options for getting to Bangkok.

Option 1: Overnight the 9th in Amedebad, fly Amedebad to Mumbai to Bangkok on the 10th (takes all day).

Option 2: Fly to Mumbai on the 9th, overnight in Mumbai the 9th, then fly to Bangkok on the 10th.

The first option would give us a little more time in Little Rann, but the second option would break up the travel time.

Re overnight trains, neither of us slept very well on the trains when we traveled in India in 2010. So flying is our preferred choice.

Thanks again for the input!

Cicerone

I would definitely choose Amedebad over Mumbai. Smaller and more manageable both in terms of the airport and the traffic in the city itself. You hopefully will have time to see something of the city which has numerous sights. There is a nice Lemon Tree hotel there, as well as a Meridien.

If you overnight in Mumbai, all you will see is your airport hotel, as you won’t have time to get to the central Mumbai areas.

ovenbird

Cicerone, thanks for the valuable input.

More questions...

1. On the way to Bhuj from Addis Ababa, we'll have an 8hr 20 min layover in Mumbai (4:50am to 1:10pm). I know maybe 30 min will be getting from the international airport to the domestic airport. But will we have a choice of which airport to spend time in or will we have to immediately take the shuttle from the baggage claim area to the domestic airport?

2. If you had a choice of Kingfisher or Jet Airways Konnect from Mumbai to Bhuj, which would you prefer to take?

Thanks!

galactus

For the second question, Kingfisher by far. The Jet Konnect is a low cost airline minus the bells and whistles of Kingfisher (who's low cost equivalent is Kingfisher Red).

Cicerone

I woudl take whichever flight has the better departue and/or arrival times which work with your schedule. Jet Konnect is Jet Airway's budget airline and is perfectly fine. It is a very short flight, and you don't need any sort of service on that short a flight (and Kingfisher's service aint what it used to be anyway....)