Mumbai Guided Sightseeing Tour including Dharavi Slum

A 6-hour tour of Mumbai and the largest slum of Asia, Dharavi. Hassle-free tour with hotel pick up and drop off and the company of the expert tour guide.

Highlights

• Learn about daily life here and absorb the strong community in the Dharavi Slum.
• Visit the famous places of Mumbai like the Gateway of India, Taj Palace Hotel, and more.

Detailed overview

Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, the wall street of India. This city is filled with people from all over the world making it one of the must-see spots in India. Mumbai grew up to be the financial capital of India. For some, it is the city of big dreams but for many, it is the best chance they will ever get for a better living. After all, it's the home of Bollywood and everyone from Slum dogs to Millionaires is crazy for the same.

Dharavi is located in the city of Mumbai and is the largest slum in the continent of Asia with a population of about 700,000. It is also one of the densest areas in the world with a population density of 277,136/km². The tour through the slum's narrow alleys is quite an adventure, and you will undoubtedly feel the strong sense of community and the special spirit that exists here. Dharavi became famous through the worldwide hit movie "Slumdog Millionaire" in 2008. You will find a wide range of activities in this mini-city such as plastic recycling, leatherwork, pottery, soap production, and also in schools and churches.

Itinerary

• You would start the private tour with a pickup from your Mumbai hotel/residence.
• Delve into the streets in a private, air-conditioned car with your guide, and hear about Mumbai’s history, including its time under British rule from the 18th to the 20th century, and how it is India’s second-largest city, with a population of about 18.4 million.
• Stop first at the vast Dharavi Slum, Asia’s biggest, and home to nearly a million people.
• Take a walk through this town-within-a-town, crammed with thousands of makeshift huts.
• Learn about daily life here, and pass tiny bread and sweet shops, interspersed with dimly-lit manufacturing units hosting small-scale clothes, pottery, and soap-making businesses.
• Absorb the strong sense of community, and visit the plastic and metal recycling yard, where workers sort materials for re-use, before delving into Kumbharwada, the community of clay potters dubbed the ‘city of lamps.’
• Explore the lanes here, weaving through thousands of hand-made, kiln-fired pots being crafted as oil lamps for festivals.
• Having explored Dharavi, take a tour of the colonial and modern faces of Mumbai. Admire the Gateway of India, built to commemorate a 1911 visit by King George V, and see the imposing Taj Mahal Palace hotel, opened in 1903.
• Hear historical tales and anecdotes en route, and stop at landmarks including the UNESCO-listed Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, Mumbai University with its Big Ben-style Rajabai Clock Tower, and the Oval Cricket Ground and Bombay High Court.
• Visit Mumbai’s Dhobi Ghat - Asia’s biggest open-air laundry - along with Mahatma Gandhi's former residence, and the Hanging Gardens on top of water tanks.
• You would also be driven past the colonial buildings on Marine Drive, seeing the Prince of Wales Museum, Flora Fountain, the Telegraph Office, and more.
• Your tour then ends with a drop off to your hotel/residence.