Hi there,

Mumbai is also known as the most expensive place to stay in India,thats true because taxes are so high :

Anyways,the colaba area is the best area to stay but there are very limited budget hotels there,i recommend you fort area which is adjusted with colaba area and with a variety of budget hotels,also there is a CSTM station(VT) from where most of the trains for goa ldeparts and arrive:

1.Hotel City Palace Rs 1000 to 2500

2.Travelers inn Rs 700 to 1200

3.Sheel Hotel Rs 440 to 1140

4.Victoria Rs 1000 to Rs 2000

5.Landmark Rs 2200 to 4000

6.Oasis Rs 1200 to 2000

7.shetal Inn Rs 700 to 1700

8.Standard Rs 800 t0 1000

Mumbai is most of the safest city in India,u may can hire prepaid taxi without any fear,

Residency Fort Hotel, located in the fort area of Mumbai / 5mins from Colaba ~ well located • safe for tourists • rates start from Rs2800/$64

When you land at Mumbai airport after you walk out of customs with your luggage into the arrival hall call Meru cabs. They have phones in the terminal. Do not I repeat do not take any non licensed operators. Meru is very safe and very professional. You could also consider Mega cabs as the trunk space in Meru is very limited.

Stay downtown. $80 is tight in Mumbai as its a very expensive city. If u have any contacts it is the cheapest to stay at a club. A club like NSCI (National Sports Club of India) charge just $50-60 for a room and is in downtown and very safe. But u need to find a member. Happy journey and have a good time in India. Just a small word of advise. Please be careful in Goa. While it is a great beach resort there have been lots of unpleasant incidents of late. Ensure you stay where there are crowds and do not venture on the beach after it is dark. Be safe rather than sorry.

For political reasons, radio taxis have not been allowed to pick up from the international terminal for a while now.

The pre-paid booths for government approved cabs register details before you commence your cab journey. You should be safe.

If you wish, you could make a call to the hotel and / or someone after getting into the cab, to give your cab number. Expensive on roaming, but maybe worth it for peace of mind. However, I think that even that is unnecessary and you should be fine.

Thank you all very much for your help,

I think we will just get a prepaid cab from the airport, and then stay at the Residency Hotel in Fort. It gets good reviews from Trip Advisor and from the Lonely Planet.

I stayed in the New Bengal Hotel.... http://hotelnewbengal.net/

Very cheap, taxi only around 30 - 35 (do ask them to put the meter on!!!!)...

I went there expecting a dump (booked with shared facilities..), and was really surprised by the room! The room was very clean! Well, the bathroom not :-)

Still, even the more expensive rooms are still cheap for mumbai standards!

Have fun!

30 - 35 Rupees into Colaba area i ment to say.. :-)

Backpackersgranny,

Good that you clarified ;) Else you would have had a whole lot of us having a go at you about that taxi fare :)

Hi,

Where exactly is that bengal hotel please. It looked OK from their website but even the website did not show a location(unless I missed it).

many thanks,

Pete