Unpopular Opinion: Mumbai is not a great city to explore.

Some background: I was born in Mumbai, but I have lived in other cities as well throughout my life.

Let me tell you one thing - This city is not good if you want to relax.

This is because of the lack of third spaces, over-commercialization, lack of walk-ability and poor infrastructure.

Every-time you will be asking someone "what do I do" you will get answers like oh just go to marine drive or like a park. Yea sure, I'll spend hours just walking across the shoreline encountering chapris making reels or the poorly maintained parks which do not allow outside food or are mostly filled with mudholes thanks to the consistent monsoon.

The worst part about Mumbai is that anything "interesting" is isolated in this location and if you get out of your house you should only go to that particular location or else you have nothing else to do.

Compare that to Delhi, or any other city - there will be an area with multiple cafes/libraries/a park/a pub and affordable eateries within that specific area. You'll see college students or others spend their entire day in these places, because there is a lot of things to do.

The only remotely interesting place is Bandra or Andheri since they have multiple bakeries, cafes, etc. But even that is too over-commercialized now. At least Bandra has some walk-ability.

Colaba feels fake, everything is abandoned. The best part is that you can shop for nice duplicate items and go to leopold to get the worst food you have ever tasted (go to like the old restrobars instead they have better and cheaper food)

Oh and btw the only proper, two libraries in Mumbai require an yearly subscription so there is no day pass either.

So yea fuck the recommendations Mumbaikars give you when they say "haha go to gateway or juhu or *insert popular spot* haha" because there is nothing there, just pollution, chapris, and if you want a nice place to sit and relax you will be scammed. Wanna know how?

Let's say you are a college student and want a spot with your friends to kick back and relax? Sorry that will be 700 rupees per person in our UNIQUE cafe where the food is ASS and we got famous through Instagram.

The concept of cheap food in Mumbai is - stalls on flyovers with every contaminant imaginable. What happened to small, indie restaurants? Why is everything branded now?

Don't give me the BS of "saar mumbai working hard saar we dont have time like other cities cus we working hard saar" is your brain really melted by this hustle culture propaganda? People need time to relax and explore from all of this noise! It is sad that the cities "work culture" is used as an excuse to ignore the suffering of others, especially the labor class.

Public transit is a joke, we have like 2 metro lines and the audacity to call the red one "line 7" as if we will ever be close to the inter-connectivity Delhi has. The Monorail is a scam, the local train is the only saving grace, and sometimes the buses are great. Don't get me started on the behavior of the autowalas.

The rich and successful don't even LIVE in Mumbai, because this place sucks if you want to relax. No one wants to deal with these inconveniences.