14 Best Hotels in Mumbai, India

Convenient for visiting the caves, this gleaming Mughal palace is all bright marble and stone, inside and out—its windows and doors arch to regal Mughal points, and the grand dome over the lobby is hand-painted in traditional Jaipuri patterns. The warm, Ajanta-esque rooms have solid furniture with matching headboards and mirror frames, and all look out onto the garden. Many rooms have their own balconies. Stone paths wind through the five acres of beautifully landscaped lawns. The staff is obliging, and go out of their way to make you feel safe and welcome.

Just a few minutes on foot from the Gateway of India, the Fariyas is a solid midrange hotel, well located in Colaba. It has a small marble lobby with glass chandeliers and brass ornaments. The rooms, with contemporary furnishings and wood floors, are inviting, though pricey given the lack of luxury. Ask for a room with a sea-facing view.

Extremely popular with businesspeople because of its central location between South Mumbai and the western suburbs, India's tallest hotel—33 stories—has a luxury rooftop bar that is one of the city's hottest (and most expensive) nightspots. Earth tones and warm colors are the order of the day throughout the hotel, from the marble and wood lobby to the spacious rooms: the standard rooms come in three sizes, from 385 square feet to nearly 600 square feet, while suites range from the living-room-bedroom-double-walk-in-closet setup to the massive Presidential Suite.

Aside from the ideal sea-facing Marine Drive location (near the commercial hubs of Nariman Point, Colaba, and Fort) and some of the city's biggest standard rooms, service is a big plus point at this hotel catering to a business clientele, with personal concierges and a complimentary in-room massage for every guest. It lacks lobby space, but it has one of the best bars in Mumbai: the open-air, rooftop Dome. The contemporary, sophisticated finish complements modern interpretations of tribal Warli art on the walls.

Built in the 1970s, this Western-style high-rise was completely renovated when Novotel took over in 2009, and the spacious lobby and large rooms now have a modern, sleek feel. White, gray, and black marble abounds, and the rooms have LCD TVs with laptop connectivity and a modern brown and beige color scheme. The best standard rooms have limited views of the beach—but this doesn't add all that much to the atmosphere.

Luxury and stellar service are the hallmarks here—every floor has a butler who will make reservations, collect your laundry, shine your shoes, supervise the room cleaning, and bring you chocolates. The service is diligent, subtle, and simply perfect. The outdoor swimming pool, a cool, shamrock-shape oasis, offers a spectacular and secluded vantage point of Marine Drive and the Arabian Sea.

Favored by business travelers, this hotel in the heart of charming Cuffe Parade also offers some great views, comfortable rooms, a choice of restaurants, and a hip bar. Rooms are modern, with polished wood floors, wall-mounted televisions, and massage showers—sea-facing rooms cost slightly more, but the views of South Mumbai and the harbor are worth it. Although not as extravagant as its palatial counterpart near the Gateway of India, the Taj President is priced right for a business hotel.

Choose this opulent, ocean-facing hotel if you don't mind paying a decent buck for a luxurious stay far from the city's main sights but close to some of its best restaurants, bars, and clubs. The lobby seems like an acre of marble, and the huge, sparkling chandeliers and fountains add to the refined atmosphere. The more expensive rooms are remarkably luxurious and modern, with bedside controls for lights, curtains, and air-conditioning, and bathrooms with both showers and tubs. By comparison, the lowest-priced rooms are much more basic and dated. But the views—especially those that aim directly down the Bandra-Worli Sea Link—are unparalleled.

The fifth Taj property in Mumbai, this hotel shares the high standards of all the others; each room offers all the regular mod-cons---free Wi-Fi, deep-soaking bathtubs, and DVD player. All guests have access to the pool, spa, sauna, in-house restaurants, special diet menus, babysitting services, and salon.

The Oberoi's less luxurious cousin continues the same tradition of excellent service, and because room rates vary according to occupancy, it can be great value in the off-season. It's connected to its more famous counterpart by a corridor of luxury shops. The interior design is pretty standard for an upscale Indian hotel—simple and luxurious, with such Indian flourishes as paintings by local artists and various prints. The Trident isn't a heritage property and doesn't try to be, and it tends to attract a business crowd.

A long driveway through the spacious grounds here leads to a place where efficient and friendly staffers create the kind of warm, intimate setting you'd normally associate with a smaller hotel. The exterior of the building is decorated simply with red bands of elephants chiseled on its bleach-white facade. Standard rooms, in two wings around the pool, are spacious, plush, and comfortably elegant, with views onto the verdant garden of palms and bright flower beds. Corner suites are vast.