Kala Ghoda

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, 159 M G Road, in the Indo-Saracenic dome. Open roughly 10.15am to 6pm, closed Mondays; Indian adult entry around ₹150, foreign visitors substantially more, camera fee extra. The Indian miniatures gallery and the Tibetan and Nepalese collection are the two rooms to make time for.

161 M G Road, beside the museum gates. Four halls, free entry, shows changing weekly, usually 11am to 7pm. It is where Mumbai artists still fight for a booking, so quality swings wildly — that is the fun. The pavement artists outside sell canvases from about ₹1,500.

Corner of M G Road and K Dubash Marg, 1870, teak staircase and a first-floor reading room where members nap under fans. The front garden with its cane chairs is the quietest outdoor seat in south Mumbai; visitors are usually tolerated. The restored ground-floor restaurant handles dinner.

Sir Cowasji Jehangir Hall, corner of M G Road and Madame Cama Road, a domed 1911 building converted into five circular floors of gallery. Open about 11am to 6pm, closed Mondays, tickets around ₹20 for Indian visitors. Retrospectives here are the serious ones — check what is hanging before you commit.

Sai Baba Marg, off Rampart Row, a small unremarkable room that has fed the city's seafood reputation since 1965. Butter-pepper-garlic crab around ₹2,400, Hyderabadi fish tikka and koliwada prawn cheaper. Dinner needs a booking two to three days out; lunch is easier and just as good.

Somaiya Bhavan, Flora Fountain, ground floor under a wooden mezzanine. Strong South Asian history and fiction sections, staff who have read the stock, and the Food For Thought cafe at the back for a ₹250 lunch. Open roughly 10am to 8pm; one of very few Fort-area places open on Sundays.

CSMT is a 10 to 12 minute walk north for Central and Harbour line trains; Churchgate is 12 minutes west for the Western Line. From the airport, 22 km, 50 to 90 minutes, ₹550 to ₹850 by app cab, or the greener version — Western Line to Churchgate then walk. Metro Line 3's Hutatma Chowk station serves the northern edge at Flora Fountain. Inside the quarter you walk and nothing else makes sense: the museum to Trishna is four minutes, to the Gateway of India eleven. Black-and-yellow taxis are metered from ₹31 and everywhere. Parking on M G Road is pay-and-park, full by mid-morning, and the cobbled lanes are effectively car-hostile.

Both of the big ones — CSMVS and the National Gallery of Modern Art — close on Mondays and public holidays. Jehangir Art Gallery generally stays open, as does the Sassoon Library garden and Kitab Khana. If Monday is your only free day, do the Deco walk on Marine Drive and the Fort street architecture instead.

The first full week of February, usually nine days ending on a Sunday, centred on Rampart Row and the museum forecourt. Entry is free for the street programme, with ticketed talks and workshops. Hotels across Fort and Colaba raise rates and sell out, so book by mid-December if you want to be walking distance.

For dinner, yes — two to three days ahead for Trishna and at least a day for Khyber, more at weekends and in December. Lunch is far easier and both kitchens are identical at midday. If you arrive without a booking, the Kala Ghoda Cafe and the Sassoon Library restaurant absorb the overflow.

Both work, but supply is small. There are only a dozen or so hotel options actually inside the quarter, so most visitors sleep in Fort or Colaba and treat Kala Ghoda as the eight-minute walk it is. If you want to be inside it, book heritage boutique rooms on V B Gandhi Marg well ahead.