StCirq

I have now spent more time searching this forum and others for a decent, affordable hotel in Mumbai than I will spend sleeping there! Someone please put my out of my misery!

Flying into Mumbai from Zurich October 12, arriving 10:50 pm. Flying out of the domestic terminal the following day, probably mid- to late morning. Looking for a clean, quiet hotel for under $200 a night that provides airport shuttle, breakfast, and if possible internet connection.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Cicerone

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, a Le Meridien (also run by Sheraton), and a Leela Kempinski. They will probably be just over that budget, but I would check in any event. These are all slightly closer to the international terminal, but it is maybe 10 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 (if sometimes uneven) 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 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,

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 (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, after check-in, and it is <i>much</i> faster, one small advantage ...) I would arrive at least 1.5 hours before flight depature. If you can pay the fare difference for business class, which usually is not very much, this is well worth it for easier check-in and boarding (but not for any lounges which are usually just the local restaurant).

SiobhanP

Hot3ls are just so prices for non Indians in India unfortunately. Anyone I know for work that blindly took a cheaper option walked out after seeing the rooms. Its hot or miss at times. Spend the extra and stay at the airport. Try seeing if you can get a deal with one of the asian hotel booking websites.

Also I agree with Cicerone, its quite cheap to upgrade to Business Class and makes life easier for check in. The lounge is never much to rave about in most Indian airports and yes is usually a crummy restaurant although the airport (Domestic) is quite shiny and new last time I went through. I think my internal tickets through KLM were added to the whole package I booked and it was about 150-200 euro extra on top of the Flight from ireland return and that was about 3-4 internal business flights.

StCirq

Thank you both. I was originally going to need to fly to Chennai, but now it looks as though I may be meeting my daughter in Agra. Would I be better off taking a train from Mumbai to Agra and staying in Mumbai city center instead, closer to the train station?

Marija

Isn't the train ride from Mumbai to Agra 17 hours?! I think you want to fly to Delhi and then train from there.

Cicerone

I think the train to Agra from Mumbai takes almost 24 hours (get a map to see the distance). In any event, I believe that your flight arrival time into Mumbai would be too late to make any train that day, which means you would have to wait until the late afternoon of the following day to get a train. Therefore, IMO, a train is not a good option unless you are on a very tight budget and have a few days to spare.

If you can still change your int’l flight schedule, IMO, your best option is to <i>fly directly into Delhi</i> and go down to Agra from there. You most likely will have to overnight in Delhi as your int’l fight will arrive to late to get on to Agra that same day, but you would have to do that in Mumbai anyway, and going via Delhi will save you a good bit of time the next day, esp if your plan was to fly to Agra from Mumbai, which can only be done on Kingfisher via a change in Delhi and does not depart from Delhi until 3:30 pm (to the best of my knowledge). If you can fly into Delhi and hit the road or train by 6 am the next day, you will be in Agra by 8:30 am – 10 am.

Therefore I would fly into Delhi, overnight there, and either take the early morning train or drive down. There is the very fast Shabtabi which takes 2 hours and departs at 6 am. There are some earlier trains which are a bit slower and some later trains as well, which take about 3 hours, see indianrail.gov.in or http://www.indiamike.com/india/india...rmation-t1750/ for options. Note that the Shabtabi departs from New Delhi station so staying in the Connaught Circle are makes sense, for trains departing from Nizamuddin, a place like the Oberoi would be a bit better. If you drive, I would stay at an airport hotel to avoid all Delhi city traffic and hit the road early in the morning. The drive takes about 4 hours
(you need a car and driver, this can be arranged).

Of course if your international flight gets in during the day, you could then go right to Agra; I would drive, rather than battling Delhi traffic to get downtown to train stations, door to door driving to Agra will be about the same at that point as taking the train. Do NOT take the Delhi road at night, it is not a safe road accident-wise. You can take the train if you have an early afternoon arrival time into Deli and want to take an evening train to Agra.

Perhaps your daughter could meet you in Delhi and you could travel down to Agra together.

SiobhanP

Delhi sounds like a better stop but I think you seem to have it booked to mumbai unless you can change. I usually travel through London, Amsterdam or Paris to Delhi. Not sure what options are from Zurich.

Its just me but I would not take a train for 20+ hours. Anything more than 3 is too much for me. Its more quaint old fashioned sometimes grotty but also Delhi station is my idea of hell. Its what you picture the real India is like and can be tough on your own getting info etc. At least that is how I felt as a woman with two hapless men I was travelling with. Nice blokes no backbone. We had someone taking our bags to the train but were not sure it was even the right one...we did eventually find it but was a stressful experience. Also book a 1st class seat of possible. It still would be an exciting experience and there are lots of options to for hotels stay at connought place.

Alternativly fly from Mumbai to Agra it will be the easiest and leaves you more time to enjoy the place. I have never been so I cannot comment on Agra. Love to hear your take on it.

Ok back to planning my work trip to Japan and China!

StCirq

Thanks all. I am using FF miles for this trip and thus am locked into the int'l flight schedule. I'm now overnighting in Mumbai and taking a flight to Delhi next day. I've arranged for my daughter to be taken to the Chennai airport and put on a flight to Delhi, and for a guide (friend of friend) to meet us in Delhi and take us to Agra the following day and for two subsequent days of touring in/around Jaipur.

Plans are coming together. Thanks again...

SiobhanP

Sounds great you will enjoy it.