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First day in India today. Hello from Mumbai. Flew over on last night’s VS service to BOM which despite taking off late (seemingly a regular occurrence!), ended up landing at a better time for me than had it been on time or earlier. Good crew, reasonable food and nearly six hours of sleep.
45min cab from the airport, which I shared with a French traveller. Haven’t laughed as much in some time! The traffic is… a whole other thing.
I booked the Taj Mahal Palace through Emyr, who gave me a great rate. At check in, I was given an upgrade to a club room. Waiting for it to be ready in the Club lounge.
@AL Enjoy, I love the Taj and have only ever stayed in the old part of the hotel, have you seen the memorial yet? Great view of the Gateway of India from breakfast in the morning too.
Hadn’t heard of Emyr – I assume you mean Bon Vivant? Do you mind sharing the rate? Indian hotels are often at their cheapest less than a month before you travel when booking direct, but it doesn’t always work so you need to do some test bookings to spot the patterns.
Yes – Emyr is the chap at Bon Vivant. I think he’s the owner and only person!
The rate was for a Luxury Grande Room City View in the palace (which is what you want – not the tower!). It included WiFi throughout the property, which was fast and reliable, $100 dining credit at any restaurant except Wasabi, the Mashimoto outpost (so, I chose Golden Dragon, which was great), an upgrade if available and late checkout ‘til 4pm.
On arrival, I was upgraded to a Club room on the 6th floor which was lovely.
I stayed a Friday and a Saturday, totalling 56640 INR, broke down as 23000INR on the Friday night and 25000INR on the Saturday night. 8640INR in taxes and fees.
I’ve now flown up to Delhi on Vistara. I am fast learning that a few namastes help a lot in India. The hotel wanted £75 for what was a £10 Uber to the airport this morning (although the website claims Club rooms get the journey for free, but maybe you have to be on a revenue booking for that). I missed check in cut off by five minutes but they were great at accepting my bag, and then called me on the phone to find where I was and send a buggy! Inflight meal, in UK PE, was a herb omelette, which was as you’d expect from an airplane omelette, although there were local dishes too.
@strickers I did the property tour but didn’t see a memorial – a shame to have missed that! There’s a lot of decorations celebrating their 120th. The Gateway of India is amazing.
First time in India, so I took a wander over – I think I was more a tourist attraction than the Gateway was!
Did a private tour of Mumbai yesterday. The hotel didn’t seem to be able to organise one, so I found some spare Viator credits and booked a half day for about £35. Saw loads which was great, although a bit put off by the fact that they merged my tour with someone else’s, and the chap spent the entire time taking annoying videos for his Instagram reels, and asking the guide to refilm take after take. C’est la vie, though.
The hotel car cost is usually 3x or 4x the uber / regular cost, but 7.5x is a new record. There’s certainly some value in a hotel car as its usually clean, air conditioned and comfortable. Ubers are a bit hit and miss with some cars looking like they are decades old. Plus the hotel driver will wait for you and help you in loading and unloading bags before you ask.
It might be that I misheard but even £40-£50 was a bit steep! Uber was fine, complete with fake Michael Kors branding on the ceiling. Air con could have been better but I didn’t come to India in monsoon season expecting it to be cold…
I stayed a Friday and a Saturday, totalling 56640 INR, broke down as 23000INR on the Friday night and 25000INR on the Saturday night. 8640INR in taxes and fees.
That looks like a decent rate to me. Enjoy the rest of the trip!
Hoping you catch the India bug in the sense of wanting to go back again and again.
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