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Mumbai is the bubblegum glamour of Bollywood cinema, shopping malls full of designer labels, cricket on the Oval Maidan, promenading families eating bhelpuri on the beach at Chowpatty, red double-decker buses queuing in grinding traffic jams and the infamous cages of the red-light district.

This pungent drama is played out against a Victorian townscape more reminiscent of a prosperous 19th-century English industrial city than anything you'd expect to find on the edge of the Arabian Sea. It's a city with vibrant streetlife, India's best nightlife, and a wealth of bazaars.
 

When to go

The best time to explore Mumbai is between the months of September and April, when the weather is relatively dry and cool. From June to September the skies open, sometimes with catastrophic results - the floods of 2005 killed nearly a thousand and left thousands more homeless. During the monsoon season, ferries to Elephanta Island and beyond stop, and trips to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and the forts and cave temples around Mumbai are often impossible. YOu might also want to avoid the months just before the monsoon breaks, when temperatures can top 40ºC (140ºF).

Without doubt, the biggest spectacle in the Mumbai calendar is Ganesh Chaturthi, an 11-day Hindu festival that rocks the city every August/September. This colourful event reaches a climax when huge images of the elephant-headed god are immersed in the sea, most notably off Chowpatty Beach. The largest effigies are hauled into the river by crane and all are painted in surreal, fluorescent colours.

A Top Day in Mumbai

Days in Mumbai start early, with coffee and a muffin at the nearest branch of Barista or with a plate of idli (steamed rice cakes) at one of Colaba's south Indian dining halls. Then stroll along Colaba Causeway to watch the vendors setting up market stalls laden with t-shirts, incense, soapstone elephants, discount electronics and faux antiques. Take a ride in one of Mumbai's charming old taxis - modelled on 1950s Fiats - to the bizarre colonial fantasy that is Victoria Station, followed by a wander round the faded but still stately streets of the old British quarter. For the second half of the morning, I'd be torn between visiting the splendid Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum or a jaunt to Chowpatty Beach for a promenade on the sands and a plate of Mumbai's famous bhelpuri salad. Or i could have lunch at the phenomenally popular Cream Centre - assuming I can get a table. After lunch, I'd head back to Colaba for a boat ride to the famous Hindu cave temples on Elephanta Island (not before making sure anything that looked edible was hidden from the eyes of hungry monkeys). The tail end of the afternoon would be spent shopping for ethnic knick-knacks and Indian fashions on Dr DN Rd in Fort or Linking Rd in Bandra. A shower and a change of clothes would be essential for dinner at Khyber, Mumbai's best eatery, styled after an Afghan palace and serving food fit for a Mughal emperor. Belly full, I'd drift back to Colaba for an ice-cold Kingfisher beer and a chat with interesting punters at the energetic Leopold Cafe.
Suitably refreshed, there might still be time for a late showing of a Bollywood blockbuster at the swish Inox cinema at Nariman Point.