48 hours in Mumbai - International Traveller

From garish to gritty, historic to heart-wrenching, here’s what to do during 48 hours in Mumbai. Words by Elspeth Velten.

Squeezing Mumbai’s sights and scenes into just two days is a tall order.

Upon first glance the city seems stubborn to slow you down – cabs crawl through traffic-clogged streets, straphangers lean out the doors of brimming local trains, and sidewalks, when present, are hectic to say the least.

But with careful planning, it’s possible to get a full feel for the striking disparities that make Mumbai the ‘city of dreams’ for so many hopeful migrants from every corner of India.

DAY ONE

7:30am

Best visited early in the morning, the Dadar Flower Market is one of Mumbai’s most photogenic – and best smelling – places.

The colourful streets around Dadar station brim with roses, marigolds, jasmine and more all day long, but the action peaks between 5am and 9am.

10:00am

Head north from Dadar to Dharavi.

One of the largest slums in Asia, the area is home to over a million people in the space of just over two square-kilometres.

Slum tours can seem a polarising proposition, but a guided walk around Dharavi’s industrial and residential areas gives a true insight into how the majority of Mumbaikars live.

Walks led by young men from Reality Tours (realitytoursandtravel.com) meet at nearby Mahim Station before heading into the slum and the company invests 80 per cent of profits back into the Dharavi community.

1:00pm

Head down into town and splurge on a Mangalorean seafood lunch at Mahesh Lunch Home in Fort.

The small restaurant’s menu is full of the familiar and the less familiar – choose from tandoori and various curry preparations of prawns, crab, lobster, squid and fish including surmai, pomfret and bangda.

Adventurous? Try the infamous fried ‘Bombay Duck’. It’s not duck at all but lizardfish, native to local waters.

2:30pm

Switch into shopping mode and take a walk through the Chor Bazaar at Mutton Street.

Known as the ‘thieves bazaar’, lore has it that stolen items from all over Mumbai end up on sale here.

In reality, the bustling streets are more reminiscent of London’s Portobello Road Market – everything from (fake) antiquities to Bollywood posters and random remote controls are available, but don’t dare make a purchase without haggling unapologetically first.

4:30pm

Grab a ride over to Dhobi Ghat at Mahalaxmi Station.

Here, people called ‘dhobis’ work full-time in a giant open-air laundromat to wash the clothes and linens from homes and businesses all over Mumbai.

A bird’s-eye view of the area can be had from the top of a staircase on an overpass, where row upon row of laundry flying in the wind make for a colourful photo-op.

If you decide to venture down into the laundry labyrinth, beware of scammers requesting payment and remain sensitive and smart when taking photos.

This is not only the Dhobi workplace, it’s also their home.

7:00pm

After a day of drooling over tempting street food that seems like forbidden fruit, head to Swati Snacks at Karai Estate for a meal of street-style snacks in a trusted environment.

This buzzing eatery is popular with local families and it’s a great place to try street foods that, elsewhere, are usually unsafe for foreign stomachs.

Try pani puri, a crispy, hollow dough ball served with fillings and chutneys; or panki chatni, paper-thin rice pancakes steamed in banana leaves.

Order several small dishes at your own pace and wash it all down with a sweet sugarcane juice.

8:30pm

See the day out with a drink (or two) at the InterContinental Hotel’s Dome rooftop bar.

The bar boasts panoramic views over the Arabian Sea and the arching Marine Drive, a popular waterfront hangout for Mumbaikars come nightfall.

DAY TWO

9:00am

Start the day with a meal at Leopold Café, the Colaba Causeway stalwart that’s an historic and popular hang-out for Indian and foreign tourists alike.

Aside from its age (144 years old) and atmosphere, the café is famous for extensive mention in Gregory David Roberts’ novel Shantaram (a favourite of travellers across India), and infamous as one of the locations of the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

10:00am

It’s time to knock historic – and touristy – Colaba off the to-do list.

Stroll past the souvenir shops on Colaba Causeway and then head around the corner to the Gateway of India, a seaside monument built in the early 1900s to welcome British colonial leaders arriving by sea.

Cross the street to admire the majestic and historic Taj Mahal Palace hotel. This impressive accommodation opened in 1903 and has since been a base for the city’s most elite visitors.

Even if you can’t foot the bill for a stay, visitors can browse the luxury shops on the ground floor or visit for a meal or a drink.

Finish in the area by heading back up to the Oval Maidan playing field where you can watch a cricket game and gaze at the impressive Bombay High Court building.

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

11:30am

Before lunch, spend an hour or two browsing thousands of exhibits of antiquities and art from India, China, Nepal and Tibet at the Prince of Wales Museum.

The gallery is housed in an impressive building known for its Indo-Saracenic architectural style marked by Islamic, western and Hindu influences.

This style was popular with British architects in the early 1900s and is seen in various other buildings around Mumbai from the colonial period.

1:30pm

A walk north to the beautiful, tree-lined Ballard Estate business area brings you to Britannia & Co. restaurant – a Mumbai favourite that’s been serving Parsi and Iranian food since 1923, and a sign of Mumbai’s flourishing Zoroastrian migrant community.

You’ll likely be greeted by the charming 92-year-old Boman Kohinoor who inherited the restaurant from his father, Britannia & Co.’s founder.

He may even slowly scrawl down your order of mutton berry pulao – the restaurant’s famous rice dish – and rose raspberry soda himself. Afterwards, walk off the meal with a stroll past the nearby Mumbai General Post Office and the Victoria (Chhatrapati Shivaji) Terminus – two more striking examples of colonial architecture built between the 1870s and 1920s.

3:30pm

North of the train station, the crumbling Crawford Market is one of Mumbai’s most famous – it’s British-designed and features friezes and fountains by John Lockwood Kipling, Rudyard Kipling’s father.

The market is still active today and eager vendors sling everything from fresh produce to poultry and exotic pets.

5:00pm

Have an early dinner at local favourite, Persian Darbar.

This unassuming joint in Byculla is known for its mutton kepsa – a succulent preparation of spice-rubbed meat cutlet served with enough biryani rice to feed four.

To wash down the fall-off-the-bone meat, it does a particularly nice fresh lime soda.

7:00pm

Tick off the rest of the city’s sites during a Mumbai by night tour, offered by many tour companies in the city, including the reliable Reality Tours.

Stops include Chowpatty Beach, where families gather to eat and socialise around sunset, a view of Marine Drive from Malabar Hill, a drive past the Antilia building – a monstrous 27-storey home to one of the country’s wealthiest families – and a busy red light district that’s sure to leave you with conflicting feelings about a city that’s characterised by glaring highs and lows.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

48 hours in Mumbai, India

From garish to gritty, historic to heart-wrenching, here’s what to do during 48 hours in Mumbai. Words by Elspeth Velten.

DAY ONE

7:30am

10:00am

1:00pm

2:30pm

4:30pm

7:00pm

8:30pm

DAY TWO

9:00am

10:00am

11:30am

1:30pm

3:30pm

5:00pm

7:00pm

This new 8-day tour is designed to find snow leopards in the Himalayas

Mumbai’s Irani cafes are the city’s best kept secret

This luxury Ganges cruise reveals India’s top highlights

Uncover the splendours of India on a luxury journey to remember

These community homestays are changing how travellers experience Nepal

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

A new generation demanding more

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

The power of community homestays

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

International Traveller
available in digital + print