Post tour

carolv

If you have an evening flight, you can leave your luggage at the Oberoi, take a day tour, and shower at the spa/gym before departing for the airport. Our Tour Director organized a 1/2 day trip to Elephanta Island. We did not partake as we had already made plans for a city tour with Hanna. Hanna's knowledge, passion and eye for detail was astonishing. She was a pleasure to be with. hannajs@hotmail.com She personalized the tour according to our interest and came with a driver in an air conditioned car. We walked around the Sassoon Docks (fishing industry), Crawford market (fruits and vegetables), flower market, water tank, entered a 2 room home shared by 14 people, walked around an outdoor laundry, and visited 4 synagogues and the Chabod House that was attacked in 2008 by terrorists. Hannah knows her city!!

Nanos

carolv - thank you for this wonderful information. i will be extending my time in mumbai by 2 days. i have already made arrangements for a private tour with a Jewish heritage guide (Ralphy Jhirad) on one of the days. we will be going outside of Mumbai. We will be visiting the Bene Israel settlements in Panvel, Pen, Alibaug and Navgaon.

back to the Tauck tour - My tour does not include Elephanta Island on our last touring day - rather the tour now has a Heritage Walk I am not sure exactly what this is. I will call Tauck and find out - and then perhaps contact Hanna for my other free day. How long did you spend with her?

carolv

We spent an entire day with Hanna. She picked us up at 9:30 and brought us back at 4:30 or 5:30. Tauck has replaced the Elephanta visit with the Heritage Walk. Those who took the Elephanta trip did this as an optional extra. Because of the heat, it's best to do that in the morning. We chose to go to the Sasoon Docks so couldn't include Elephanta in our plans. We were afraid we'd be covering the same turf as we did with TAuck, but the perspective was very different on the few places that we repeated with Hanna.