Sleep

It is very difficult to find good budget hotels in Mumbai. If you are a tourist or a business traveler, you may have to stay in South Mumbai, which is where both the business district and the touristy areas are. Lack of space means that even the cheapest hotel charges stratospheric tariffs. The state of public transport and traffic means that it is not really a good choice to stay anywhere else. In any case, things aren't much better if you are looking for hotels close to the airport. You should be looking at the Western Suburbs in that case. There are many guest houses at Colaba, where you find most of budget foreign travelers stay. Other budget hotels are found near railway stations, such as Dadar or Santa Cruz, but most of them are absolute dumps. One safe and economical place to stay in Mumbai is the YMCA. Reasonably priced accommodations are available at the Colaba, Bombay Central, Andheri, and CBD Belapur Branches.

Staff at the Windsor Hotel on Kumptha St have been accused assaulting a traveler on TripAdvisor. [48]

One inexpensive alternative is to live with a local family as a paying guest. A list of available families can be obtained from the Government of India tourist office (+91 22 2220 7433) opposite Churchgate train station.

On the other hand, if money is not a problem, you can stay at the Taj in Colaba (the oldest in India), the Leela Kempinski, the ITC Grand Maratha, or the JW Marriott Mumbai, Renaissance Mumbai Hotel & Convention Centre. Hotel listings are in the district pages.

LGBT options

There is already a lively late night, if somewhat subterranean, scene for gays, as well as social and political networks. However, you need to do your homework before arriving, as LGBT gathering spaces and organizations are not published or available at local newsstands. However, Bombay Dost (Bombay Friends) the only magazine catering to the community, after 7 years of running was closed and relaunched in 2009. Much of Mumbai's LGBT scene is coordinated using social networking sites and groups. Use extreme caution; robberies, hustlers, and even police entrapment are not unheard of, though a July 2009 judgment legalizing homosexuality might have saved you from the last one. Unfortunately, that was revised and declared criminal in 2013.