If I said the word ‘Mumbai’, most of you would conjure an image in your minds – local trains, chaat and vada pav-walas, beaches, colonial architecture.. But is there more to this dynamic city than our clichéd idea of it? Walk the talk with five of the city’s popular walking tours to rediscover this no less than a jewel in the crown of India.

Reality Tours & Travels, is an established walking tour operator in the city offering the best deals for an informative and recreational stroll through the labyrinthine gullies and by lanes of Mumbai. You can traverse now famous Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi, which sprawls across 1.75 sq kilometer in addition to a city tour of South Mumbai’s popular markets and religious spaces.

The village tour allows you to visit various small scale industries, rural households and tribal settlements and experience hands on fishing and farming. A comprehensive sight seeing option is also available where you could go to interesting destinations unique to Mumbai!

Well informed guides promise to take you on foot, riding a cycle or huddled up in a car on a tour customised to suit your preferences and hygienic food supplies and restrooms are also provided. RTnT ploughs back 80% of the profits into its sister charity ‘Reality Gives’ whose initiatives and education programmes have registered significant change in the lives of the slum dwellers. Don’t miss the Mumbai Marathon Tour in January 2013!

The Bombay Heritage Walks comprises a team of enthusiastic architects and experts in art, history, culture and heritage management who claim to give you a panoramic view of the city’s cultural extravaganza. Explore the beckoning lanes of Colaba and a plethora of art galleries, museums and Mumbai’s oldest library, the David Sassoon Library. You could also visit aesthetically designed churches, cathedrals, temples and gardens and heritage buildings in Kala Ghoda district – Mumbai’s art hub. The tour also covers the stretch of bazaars along D.N. Road which give you a glimpse of some of Mumbai’s oldest markets and family run businesses.

Beyond Bombay offers you tours that allow you to discover magnificent heritage buildings, scout through the action packed bazaars, satiate the taste buds with yummy Indian food (Thali Tripping), enjoy the serenity of the religious structures, traverse through Mumbai’s largest slum – Dharavi – and gorge on the rich culture, art and history of this beautiful city. You could also enjoy Bollywood movie shoots traditional henna designing, Mumbai nightlife and even adventure sport like paragliding!

‘Live the city’ with Raconteur Walks tour packages – The Apollo Gate and Front Bay Walk, The Churchgate and Heritage Mile Walk and Baazargate Walk. Young tour guides, fresh out of college but with an unparalleled knowledge of the city will take you through some of the most fascinating sites in the city – structures which bring out the European influence on Mumbai, spaces highlighting the city’s art, history and culture that has evolved over centuries and markets that underline Mumbai’s local life.

Mumbai Magic will render you spoiled for choice with its plethora of tours. You could choose to walk or ride around in a boat or a car. Covering Mumbai’s oldest and most happening bazaars, streets, beaches, islands, caves, vineyards, art and culture, and religious and historical architecture, Mm additionally offers added attractions – rickshaw drive, Indian weddings, local movie screening and Indian festival and revelry. The Dharavi slum tour is also a part of the offer and you are free to opt for daytime or night time tours.

*Photography  is subject to permissions and discretion of the tour operator.
** Cost of tour comes to an approximate average of Rs 6000 with slight variations as per customisation of tour.
***Group sizes for tour vary from a minimum of two persons to a maximum of 6-10 persons.