The Best Hotels in Mumbai, India

The Trident is one of Mumbai’s premier business hubs, in a prime location at the southern end of the long line of landmark art deco apartment buildings on Marine Drive. There’s a certain deco quality to the interiors too, contrasting with the 1970s style of the gleaming, whitewashed tower. Bedrooms boast some of Mumbai’s best sea views, with stylish, understated decor in shades of red, brown, and gold. There’s great dining too – pan-Asian, Mediterranean and more.

The best hotels in Mumbai are destinations in their own right, and that’s certainly the case at the Oberoi. Nariman Point’s most prestigious hotel rises above the seawall, serving up jaw-dropping views of the Arabian Sea and north along Marine Drive’s arc of lights. You can admire the sunset nightly from luxurious rooms with a masculine, Frank Lloyd Wright quality. The top room classes come with glass-walled bathrooms and freestanding tubs, and dining spans artful sushi, handmade pasta and Michelin-starred Indian extravagance.

While some Mumbai hotels feel the heat of the city, the Leela floats coolly in sprawling green gardens. The stunning outdoor pool stands in a grove of palm trees – natural insulation between you and Mumbai’s big-city buzz. Rooms have a very modern elegance, with moody dark timber, Islamic rugs, sound-absorbing soft upholstery, and bay windows framing city and garden views. Service is flawless, and eating options lavish, with standout al fresco dining famed across Mumbai.

The President earns its five stars, with a prime south-Colaba location that places you close to Sassoon Docks, Apollo Bunder and the Gateway of India. Prestige dining has given this Mumbai hotel a loyal following. Behind the modern exterior are imaginatively designed bedrooms that blend intricate wooden panelling and sandstone colours that spill from the walls onto the soft upholstery of sofas and armchairs. Big windows bring in sea views of two bays from one of the narrowest points on the isthmus.

The Novotel is the pick of the crop on Mumbai’s premier beach strip, north of the downtown crush and facing onto the sunset-painted Arabian Sea. Locals know Juhu for the ISKCON temple complex; guests at the Novotel know it for sea breezes and long promenades along the sand. The well-designed rooms have a Nordic simplicity, with subtle colours, etching-effect friezes of Mumbai landmarks, and windows angled to frame the sea views. There’s an outdoor pool as an alternative to bathing in the bay.

The best hotels in Mumbai capture the character of their location, and the Four Seasons fits its Worli setting perfectly. The sleek glass tower is offset inside by graceful, light-filled bedrooms with a 1940s feel – neatly carved wooden furniture, polished wood panels, and bathrooms that are as bright as the living spaces. Giant windows bring in views of the sea and city buzz, and the Mahalakshmi Racecourse, Nehru Planetarium and Haji Ali Dargah are right on the doorstep.

Annexed to the landmark Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai’s second Taj hotel is a striking modern counterpoint to its historic twin, soaring high above the Colaba waterfront – and scoring stunning sea-and-city views in the process. There’s a modern-Mughal feel to the exterior – but inside, things are refreshingly personal. Alongside attentive service, you get sleek, modern bedrooms with glass-walled bathrooms and arrow-straight lines. The Jiva Spa is one of Mumbai’s best, and afternoon tea in the Sea Lounge is a Mumbai institution.

Many of the best hotels in Mumbai cluster in the busy, noisy old city, but the Bandra Trident takes full advantage of its northern location in well-to-do Bandra – the setting for some of Mumbai’s best shopping and nightlife. The architecture owes a little to the fortresses that flank the Konkan Coast, reinvented in a contemporary style. Rooms are decorated in the Trident’s signature palette of reds, golds and autumn browns, with huge picture windows and gleaming bathrooms.

A stay at the Westin places you well north of the old part of Mumbai in the northern suburbs, but you’re in pole position for the airport, and close to Mumbai’s most precious green space – the wildlife and cave temple-filled expanse of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The soaring convex tower hides sleek modern rooms that feel thoroughly international, with Nordic-style furniture, high-glam bathrooms with freestanding tubs, and enormous windows that admit views of the greenery.

Mumbai’s most famous hotel is also one of its most famous landmarks, rising in a flurry of balconies and Indo-Saracenic domes and arches on Apollo Bunder. Inside, it’s effortlessly refined. Walk up its signature wooden stairway and you’ll reach rooms that riff on Raj-era themes and update them for the modern age. Sealing the deal, you’ll also find one of Mumbai’s best spas, some of Mumbai’s best Indian, Japanese and Chinese food, and one of the city’s most stylish outdoor swimming pools.