Annve

We are traveling to Bombay in December with two children ( ages 7 and 9) via Singapore Airlines. Any suggestions for hotel accommadations? Will be in munbai for only three days. Spending 10 days with family/friends in Baroda, India. Marriott was booked....tentative reservations at the Continental? I have heard it is far from downtown...alternatives? any must go to restaurants, sites or shopping? Any special considerations with children? Thanks

rahulm

Staying in Bombay: You can get a range depending on your budget. The Renaissance in Powai is really great for kids and is a great hotel in general (the best breakfast buffet I've ever had!). However, its quite far from "downtown" Bombay and you'll surely need a car. Other options to live in South Bombay are: The Taj and The Oberoi (stay in the new wing). The view from the Oberoi can be nice if you get a sea facing room. Again, depends on what part of the city you want to stay in and what kind of activities you're interested in.

Things to do:
- I've never thought about this from a tourist angle, but in general, whenever I go back (I grew up in Bombay), I make sure I walk around Crawford market/Fort area just to soak in the crowds
- Also, in the Fort area is a really cool shop called "The Bombay Store". My wife and I go there on every visit.
- Walks along Marine drive in the evening.
- Visit Hanging Gardens and you can get a nice view of Marine Drive
- There are tonnes of malls in Bombay that offer shopping opportunities.


Food:
You can find restaurants of almost any kind of cuisine.
- If you're into "Indian-Chinese" i recommend the following: Golden Dragon at the Taj. I've been going there ever since I was a kid and have never been disappointed. Go a bit early and get a sea-view seat.
- Another favorite is the "Pearl of the Orient" atop the Ambassador hotel that has a revolving restaurant and offers great food and views of Marine Drive.
- Street food around Nariman Point is a staple of executives and CEO's in that area. Just goto a crowded stall, if you enjoy that kind of stuff (I do). This is Bombay and you cannot miss Bhel/Sevpuri on the street.
- Eat a paan. Meetha Maghai is the flavor you want. Make sure you tell them no "choona".
- The restaurant above Hotel Samrat (and I cannot remember its name ) is an all-veg international cuisine restaurant and is superb. Hotel Samrat is in Churchgate area.

Movies:
There are a ton of multiplexes in Bombay if you want to see movies. I've heard that off late you can get a comfortable seat which is a sort-of recliner + a blanket and you can order food which is delivered to your seat.

Phoenix mills compound has a lot of kids activities I think and some good eateries (Bombay blues is my favorite and so is Maroosh (middle eastern)).

You stirred up a lot of memories... Hope this is helpful.

rahulm

I should also mention, Taj Lands End in Bandra is also an awesome hotel. However, if you stay there make sure you have a driver and car. Bandra is almost in the center of the city so you can go to the northwestern suburbs and south bombay from there as well.

Cicerone

First, keep trying to get a reservation at the JW Marriott because IMO that is the best place for kids. It has a very nice pool complex and is on the beach (not that you want to swim in the water) but the beach is nice for walking and just getting a feeling of being out of the city. The hotel has good restaurants and a very helpful staff. One of the best seafood restaurants in Mumbai, Mahesh, is about 10 meters away. The area has is the Malibu of India, lots of fims stars live there, although it is not quite as beautiful, still the beach is quite pretty (Last time I was in the hotel, Sereena Miller was there with Amitab Batchan having pictures taken at the pool, and of course, no one knew who Sereena was and there were thousands of people on the beach screaming for Amitab....I thought that was hilarious)

Secondly, do you mean the INTERcontinental hotel or just the Continental hotel? If the former, the location is actually very good if you want to be in downtown Mumbai. It's right on Marine Drive on the waterfront, a nice location. I have not stayed but have been in the public areas and it is quite a nice hotel. However, a small pool, I believe you can work aruond it.. But good if you want to take the kids on the ferry out to the Ajanta caves and perhaps to walk on Chowpati beach (not my favourite of the beaches there). Also good for going to look at Taj gate and going to the Prince of Wales Museum, quite a good museum. If you mean the Contientnal hotel, I don't know it other than just looking it up now and seeing that it is in Andheri, which is near to the domestic airport (and consequently not far from the international one either). That would be far from central Mumai, but so is the Marriott; however IMO that is not necesarily a drawback. You could go to Bandra, an aritists colony and an old Portugues area, with shops and galleries. You could also go to the Juhu area, where the JW Marriott is located. (I will say that as the Continental hotel is not part of a major chain, I have some doubts about it, anything it says on a website about being "5 star" etc can pretty much be ignored. I would try tripadvisor.com for actual reviews.)

Alterantives if you want as nice a hotel as the Mareriott and want to be in the downtown Marine Drive area would be the Oberoi or the Taj Mahal. I like the pool deck at the Oberoi as it is larger, outdoors and has a nice view. (The "new wing" of the Oberoi mentioned above is now actually a Hilton, the poster above must not have been there is a while; and it is a rather pooly managed franchise so I would not recommend it actually.) The pool at the Oberoi is in an interior courtyard and the kids may feel they can't run around as much. (there is also an Intercontinental out at the airport that would be OK too, quite nice, a long drive into town, but so is the Marriott. The advantage of the Marriott is its great location right on the beach, yet 20 minutes from the airport.)

I disagree on the Taj Lands End Bandra, I don't think it is a very nice hotel.

I agree on the Renaissance recco, that is in a large park-like area with a huge lake. That is Powai, again outside the main downtown area, but not a huge problem. If you want to go downtown, you just plan a day where you will taek 2 hours or so each way to get downtown and see what you want to see. Hire a driver, they are not expensive. I have the number of a car service my company uses which I can post (I am in an airport lounge today), they would be cheaper than the rate quoted by the hotel.

All in all, there is really not a lot in Mumbai to interest many adults tourists, and even less for children. I tell most people to avoid it on a first trip to India and concentrate on other cities. Crawford Market and the Chor Bazar (Theives Market) perhaps, I just don't know if 7 and 9 year olds will like looking at fruit\veg and the odd antiques. The Prince of Wales Museum is very good, but again for kids that young I don't know how long that will hold their interest. The Hanging Gardens have never held MY interest. The Dobhi Ghats I honestly think would make young children weep and be frightened (it's an outdoor laundry with manual almost slave labour, a sweatshop really, honestly I don't know that I would take children that young there, teenagers perhaps to understand the world better). I think Mumbai is a great city for shopping and restaurants and is a vibrant place for business, but it is a huge huge city of 20 million people with a very strained infrastructure and traffic like you would not believe. It is Bangkok traffic on steroids.

Is there a particular reason you settled on Mumbai for 3 days? Is there any way you could go to Delhi instead? That has the Red Fort, Friday Mosque. Qutab Minar and some tombs and other actual large physical sites that children may find more interesting. Also, with 3 days and good flight and train connections, you could instead get to a national park area to see wildlife, whuich would IMO be a much more enjoyable experience. You may be planning this in the Baroda area perhaps.

I assume you have all the meds for kids, all the childhood regulars, esp a recent polio shot (that is a problem in India). I would not worry about Malaria in India in December, but that is up to you of course (check on Baroda that is not well touristed). Hep A and Hep B of course. Tetanus too. They can't drink the water of course, eat only peeled fruit. You don't want to make them crazy our paranoid but you do have to watch out for them as they don't know the risks. The one thing I will say is that Indians are extermely friendly and love children and do not see many Western children tourists and so the children will probably be an object of curiousity and conversation at many places. They will get asked questions about their name, age, etc probably quite frequently and are expected to answer in the same friendly fashion. You may need to schedule some "down time" every day at the hotel to give them time to recoup.

Cicerone

Sorry, the above should say that the pool at the TAJ MAHAL is in an interior courtyard. That's why I prefer the one at the Oberoi, for the sea view.

CFW

Cicerone, What do you recommend as a good airport hotel in Mumbai. Arriving around 10:00 p.m. and have a flight the next a.m. to Goa, so just want to overnight near the airport.

agtoau

Good airport hotel in Mumbai:

My preference is The Leela. The Hyatt Regency and the Grand Maratha Sheraton are also very good options.

Cicerone

There are about a half dozen hotels within a few minutes drive of the international airport, including a Hyatt, a Sheraton (called the Maratha), an Intercontinental, a Le Meridien (also run by Sheraton), and a Leela Kempinski. 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 Dehli hotel, which is excellent. Even if you don't stay there, it is a good place for dinner. (You could almost walk between the hotels, they are very close.)

Note that the international airport (where I assume you are landing on an international flight from outside India) and domestic airport (for your Goa flight) are a few miles apart, and it takes about 15 minutes by car or bus to get between the two. The hotels mentioned above are all near the international airport. While they are both called "Mumbai airport" and often refereed to as the "domestic terminal" and "international terminal', they are not physically located close by (Delhi is the same). There are not at this point really any hotels (at least good ones that I am aware of) near the Mumbai domestic airport.

If your flight next day is on a weekday, note that Mumbai domestic airport is often very crowded in the morning with business people making day trips, so leave a little extra time, mostly for security lines which can be quite long, and for check-in which can be somewhat chaotic. I would arrive at least 1.5 hours before flight depature, a bit more if you don't mind getting up earlier.

CFW

Thanks, Cicerone, for your usual good advice and very thorough detailed info!
When I checked prices, the Hyatt & Maratha were most expensive, and the Meridien, though still in the $350 price range, was the least expensive. Any good websites or travel agents to get better prices? The hotels in Delhi & Mumbai seems exhorbitant for the pretty standard hotels rooms & facilities they offer!

Cicerone

Sorry, I really don't have any suggestions, my company generally books for me. Try contacting the hotels directly. Mumbai is really the business centre and there are very few good hotels and lots of people chasing them, so that keeps prices up.