Guides ·Essentials

Cash, cards and UPI

Mumbai is close to cashless at the top and bottom of the market and stubbornly cash-based in the middle. Hotels, restaurants, malls and app cabs take Visa and Mastercard without fuss. Street vendors, chaiwallas and autorickshaw drivers take UPI via QR code — the ₹20 vada pav stall will have a laminated code taped to the cart. What sits awkwardly in between are small standalone shops, ferry counters, temple offerings and market stalls that want notes. Carry ₹2,000-3,000 in cash, mostly in ₹100 and ₹200 notes, and top up every couple of days.

UPI apps generally require an Indian bank account, so most short-stay visitors cannot use them; some international cards can now be linked through UPI One World wallets sold at airport counters, which is worth investigating if you are here for a week or more. Otherwise plan on card plus cash. Tell your bank you are travelling, expect a 1-3 percent foreign transaction fee, and always choose to be charged in rupees rather than accepting a terminal's offer to convert — dynamic currency conversion routinely costs 4-6 percent.

What things cost

Anchor prices, off-season: a cutting chai on the street ₹10-15, a vada pav ₹20-25, an Udupi restaurant thali ₹150-250, a beer in a mid-range bar ₹350-450, a cocktail in a Lower Parel rooftop bar ₹800-1,200, a main course in a good restaurant ₹500-900, dinner for two with wine at a five-star ₹6,000-9,000. Transport: local train ₹5-10 second class, ₹65-105 first class, metro ₹10-70, BEST bus from ₹5, autorickshaw minimum ₹26, taxi minimum ₹31, app cab across town ₹300-600.

Accommodation is where Mumbai gets expensive relative to the rest of India. A hostel dorm runs ₹900-1,500, a clean budget double ₹2,500-4,000, a good four-star ₹6,000-9,000 and an international five-star ₹12,000-20,000. Navi Mumbai runs 40-50 percent below those business-hotel numbers. Elsewhere: a laundered shirt at a hotel ₹250-400, a barber shave in a local salon ₹100, an hour of coworking in BKC or Lower Parel ₹300-600, a full-day car with driver ₹2,500-3,500, entry to Elephanta Caves ₹40 for Indians and ₹600 for foreign nationals.

Tipping, and where it is already included

Tipping is expected but modest. In restaurants without a service charge, leave 10 percent; with a service charge already on the bill, nothing more is required, and by Indian consumer rules service charge is voluntary and can be removed on request. Round up autorickshaw and taxi fares to the nearest ₹10. Hotel porters ₹50-100 per bag, housekeeping ₹100 a day left in the room, a doorman who finds you a cab ₹50. A driver on a full-day hire ₹200-300, more if he has waited through a long dinner.

Elsewhere: ₹50-100 for a spa or salon attendant, ₹100-200 for a walking-tour guide per person on top of the fee, ₹20-50 to the attendant at a paid public toilet or a parking valet. Do not tip at street stalls, Udupi restaurants or Irani cafes — it is not the convention and the price is the price. If someone unasked carries your bag, points at a taxi, or offers to guide you around a monument, that is a paid transaction being created; agree the number first or decline clearly.

ATMs, exchange and the airport trap

ATMs are everywhere and reliable. Most cap withdrawals at ₹10,000 per transaction and charge ₹150-250 for foreign cards, so take the maximum each time rather than making several small pulls. Bank-branded machines — HDFC, ICICI, Axis, SBI — are more dependable than standalone kiosks in shopping arcades. Airport exchange counters offer the worst rates in the city, typically 3-5 percent below the interbank rate plus a fee; change only what you need for the first taxi, then use an ATM in town.

Licensed money changers in Fort, around Horniman Circle and the Colaba Causeway area, and in Bandra West offer better rates than hotels, which routinely take 5 percent. Count notes before leaving the counter and keep the receipt. Note that Indian ₹500 notes are the largest in circulation, ₹2,000 notes have been withdrawn from issue, and torn or heavily marked notes are refused by shopkeepers — check what you are handed. Keep ₹10 and ₹20 notes for buses, tips and toilets, which are the most persistent small-change needs.

Expensing it: GST, invoices and receipts

Hotel rooms carry GST at 12 percent up to ₹7,500 a night and 18 percent above it; restaurant meals carry 5 percent in most standalone restaurants and 18 percent in hotel restaurants above the room-rate threshold. Alcohol carries state excise instead and is billed separately. All of this appears itemised on a proper GST invoice, and any business hotel will issue one with your company name and GSTIN if you provide them at check-in — do that on arrival, because retrofitting an invoice later is painful.

For app cabs, download the trip invoice from the app rather than trusting a driver's handwritten slip. Metered taxis will give you a printed receipt if asked; autorickshaws generally will not, so log those yourself. Street food and market purchases come without paperwork, which is worth knowing if your policy demands receipts for everything. Coworking spaces in BKC, Lower Parel and Andheri East all invoice properly and are a sensible substitute for hotel meeting rooms at ₹300-600 an hour.

Where the money goes further

Mumbai rewards spending unevenly. Food is the best value in the city: ₹300 buys a better meal at Cafe Madras or Ram Ashraya than ₹1,500 does in a hotel coffee shop. Transport is nearly free if you use rail and bus. Culture is cheap — the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya is around ₹150 for Indians and ₹700 for foreign nationals, the Jehangir Art Gallery is free, and walking Fort and Ballard Estate costs nothing.

What is genuinely expensive is anything alcohol-related, imported goods, taxis in the rain and hotel rooms in season. Maharashtra's excise duties mean a bottle of imported wine can cost three times its origin price and a five-star cocktail ₹1,200. The efficient split for a business trip: pay up for a well-located, properly certified hotel that saves you two hours a day in traffic, then eat, travel and explore at local prices. That trade beats the reverse every time in a city where the commute is the real cost.

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