Things to do in Mumbai

Landmark · South Mumbai

A three-kilometre art deco crescent along the Arabian Sea, its streetlights known as the Queen's Necklace after dark.

Local tip: Go at sunset and walk north to Chowpatty for bhelpuri from the stalls. Mumbai has the world's second-largest collection of art deco buildings after Miami — look up at the facades along the promenade.

Nature · Borivali, northern suburbs

A 104-square-kilometre national park inside the city limits, with 2,000-year-old Buddhist caves carved into basalt and a resident leopard population.

Local tip: Genuinely wild — leopards live here and occasionally enter surrounding neighbourhoods. Go early on a weekday. The Kanheri caves are a 6km walk or a bus from the gate.

Neighborhood · Central Mumbai

One of the world's largest informal settlements and also a working industrial district turning over hundreds of millions of dollars a year in recycling, leather and pottery.

Local tip: If you visit, go with an operator that employs residents and returns money to the community, and do not photograph people without asking. Better still, buy from the leather workshops directly.

Landmark · Fort

A UNESCO-listed Victorian Gothic railway station from 1888, and still one of the busiest in India.

Local tip: The exterior is what everyone photographs; the heritage gallery and the star chamber inside are open to visitors and almost nobody goes. Come at 6pm to see the peak commuter flow, which is a sight in itself.

Neighborhood · Bandra West

The suburb where the film industry lives — sea-facing promenades, Portuguese-era villas and street art along Chapel Road.

Local tip: Walk Chapel Road and Waroda Road for the murals and the old East Indian village houses, then eat at one of the Bandra institutions rather than the sea-facing chains.

Culture · Walkeshwar, Malabar Hill

An 11th-century freshwater tank surrounded by temples and stepped ghats, hidden in the middle of Mumbai's most expensive neighbourhood.

Local tip: Five minutes from the towers of Malabar Hill and a thousand years away. Almost no visitors find it, and the residents around the tank have lived there for generations. Go at dawn.