Dharavi Tour & Pottery Workshop

Brilliant tour

mumbai is an amazing city and I loved it but there is a city with the city that everyone should visit- #dharavi the largest #slums in the world. Made famous by the film #slumdogmillionaire and book #qanda we went on a tour with realitytoursandtravel - part of the NGO realitygives who give back to the community and employ Dharavi residents. We had the brilliant Sabina as our guide. You can't take pictures when in Dharavi and tbh it's so nice to just be in the moment and respect that you are in someone's home.Learnt so much about life there and how innovative people are and what and how supportive the community is. We also tagged on a #streetart tour in a neighbouring area, where we could take pictures. A must do in mumbai

Must do tour

Amazing! The guides were auper friendly and they takes you to explore curiosities and way of living of indias. I strongly recommend it!

Important to See, Hard to Watch

Very thoughtful and a meaningful look at a community it would be hard to access without a guide. Still frustrating that the sewage issue is so intense, but glad to see the school and community center.

A Highlight of Mumbai

This was absolutely a highlight of our trip. Raj was an amazing guide; he patiently answered all of our questions, and we learned so much about Dharavi. It was especially wonderful meeting members of the community. The street art was also gorgeous! We enjoyed this tour so much, we booked several more with Reality Tours, and they were all fantastic. 10/10 would recommend!

Educational

I was a bit unsure of touring 'the slums' but Chathan explained their work and culture so well it put me at ease and I didnt feel uncomfortable just really impressed with the work/industry by those living there. A fascinating trip finished off with a tour of the the street art - loved it.

Improving lives and breaking down misconceptions

80% of the profits are returned to Dharavi and other communities. Our guide, Chetan, was exceptional and grew up in a similar community. I find it difficult to use the word ‘slum’ after the tour. While the people live and work in difficult circumstances foreign to me, I discovered hard working people, welcoming and friendly, clean well maintained homes, close family and community relationships and so much more. Thank you for educating me, helping the community with your programs and breaking down my misconceptions.

Changing perceptions, big time!

I've been to Mumbai several times over the years and held myself back from doing a "slum" tour for fear that it may be intrusive and taking advantage of less advantaged communities. Reality Tours put my mind at ease - booking with them was fast, met the tour guide Javed at the train station and we began our walk through the commerical and residential parts of Dharavi. It was informative, eye opening and humbling. A very different experience to what I had in my head and what Reality Tours is doing - changing perceptions about the hard working community and their lives - is amazing. We had a hundred questions but Javed was so knowledgeable and kind, patiently answering all we asked. I'd book with them again the next time I'm here, and highly recommend going with someone that is working to fund educational programs within the community. Thank you for a brilliant experience.

Great Tour during Ganpati!

We chose a great time to take a tour as the Ganpati celebrations were taking place. Nano and Raj were very personable and didn't miss a beat after a two year pause due to COVID. I plan on doing more tours with this company in other cities.

Amazing tour

We did the Dharavi Slum tour. What an experience is this. We learned a lot about the life in Dharavi and got the chance to see a lot about the life people have there. Our tour guide was really kind and really took the time to explain, lives there by himself, We had a lot of fun with him. Thanks for the amazing time. The money you pay for the tour is defenitely worth it, big part goes also to the community.

see mumbai from a different side

This tour from reality tours&travels was one of the best tours i‘ve ever done. Javen has been an amazing guide growing up in the slums itself. So he knew every corner of the streets and could show me around easily. He spoke english very well and explained everything in detail. It was a great experience to see Mumbai from e different side, talking to some inhabitants and learn how people live and work there. Thank you very much!

Informative and fascinating visit - highly recommended!

Would give 6 stars if I could! Fantastic tour with a great guide. He knows all the little corners and could give us a fascinating view into how the slums really operate. Thank you to Raj for such an informative and interesting visit. Highly highly recommended!!

Brilliant, eye-opening tour

I was a little apprehensive about this tour but it was fantastically delivered, eye-opening and positive. The fact so much of the money goes into Dharavi is just brilliant. Reality Tours are superb

Slum tour

We had an incredible guide. Tour was great to really get iinside on how people are working and living in Mumbai ✌✌🌎❤❤😍

Fantastic tour

We did this tour last week and it was fantastic! Our first tour guide J met us at Churchgate station and took us up on the train and then around the Dharavi Slum and was a fountain of knowledge answering all of our questions even the silly and ignorant ones. We got to see the inner workings of the industrial area and the residential areas and learnt heaps. Our second tour guide Sheilesh then took us around to look at the street art and give us some background about each painting as well as the person who painted it and some of the cultural and topical reasons that it was created. Definitely recommend!

Do it!

Great experience! Was a very informational day with a great guide, she answered all our questions - was absolutely worth it!

The power and the beauty of education

I has great expectations, because of the o positive comments here. Indeed I was still more impressed by the transformative power of the experience. The visit was really interesting, thanks to the sensitive and thoughtful approach of the company, as well as the quality of the guide. Thanks!!

Worthwhile

I joined a small group of foreigners on this most amazing tour, expertly guided by Sabina, a fairly new tour guide who hails from the slum herself. Sabina is very knowledgeable about so many aspects of the slum. She took us to see the plastic recycling businesses that employ and create income for many people. The tour makes you think differently about what a slum is and does and see the ecomic powerhouse that it can be. I marveled at the creativity and industriousness (even on a Sunday). I was glad to hear that Reality Tours allows no picture taking (you can get a QR code at the end and use their pictures) and the proceeds support the work of the Reality NGO, of which you learn a bit towards the end. Highly recommended, even if you are a solo traveler, a woman of a certain age, new to Mumbai and with a bad ankle.The staff, the hotel I stayed in and my taxi driver were all very helpful to get me to the right place at the right time.

Great company, great guide!

We signed up for this slum tour because of the street art, but the best part was the tour of the slums themselves. This same company’s tour without the street art is probably just as good because with the street art included we were really tired. That all said, our tour guide, Simran, was amazing. She was very knowledgeable, welcoming and helpful. We signed up for a group tour but ended up being the only two guests so got a lot of time to ask questions. Taking the train to the location and back was fun too, and a great experience. Highly recommend! Get Simran if you can.

A great initiative!

These tours are a great way to help people understand the reality of life for some fellow human beings, while also enabling tourism to make a positive contribution to their community. Our guide was a great example of how the charity can help: he had only started learning English one year ago from the charity, and now has a job conducting these tours in fluent English. He told us a lot about the history, politics, industry and community of Dharavi, and his delivery was extremely clear and professional.

Recommended

It's a fine line to organise these tours, weather it becomes voyeurism or something of which the informative, insight creating aspects overweigh, that my change peoples way of thinking and create a sensitivity for the social structure of Dharavi and the fact that our global economic system consumes respurces and people to garant the wealth of a few. E.g. the no photo policy convinced me. Our guide Shailesh, was not only very very friendly, but he knew a lot about Dharavi and made sure that all our questions were answered. Thank you very much, Shailesh, for perfectly guiding us through that afternoon.

An inspiring journey

One tends to be preventive about visiting a slum, however the experience was touching and leaves you with a sense of admiration. An enormous organized chaos filled with character and substance. Our guide Javed was excellent; very profesional and kind. You can tell he loves what he does and that makes the whole difference. We are glad we went. A unique journey into the heart of Mumbai.

Dharavi Tour and Street Art Tour.

Great day not hours like it says. Worth it though. Our tour guide Davi was fantastic. Her knowledge is great although room for improvement on the Art Tour. This is a new tour. Lots to look at. Thank you Reality Tours.

Great tour, fantastic guide!

My family and I really enjoyed this tour. The thing that really stood out was the guide Pradeep. He was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and patient. He answered all our questions and made sure everyone in our family was ok throughout the tour. The tour gave a real insight on what life is like living and working in Dharavi. Thanks for a great tour!

A Great Tour to do and very informative

I’ll start my saying that we were unsure if a tour of Dharavi was the right thing to do as we had heard many comments giving emphasis to how it was unfair on both the workers and residents in the area. However that aside we are so pleased that we made the right decision and completed the tour with a brilliant guide. Reality Tours have a policy that ensures that community projects are funded by the fees that we pay towards the tour and it is also very important to the Dharavi Community that we see the time that they are investing in initiatives that they are working on to ensure a future for themselves and their families. This tour allows you to see and experience several aspects of the working side followed by a relaxed walk through the residential side where you can interact with the locals should you wish to do so. It certainly gives you a better understanding of what life is like in this part of Mumbai. As photos are not permitted We can not share any with you but would highly recommend taking the tour and you will retain the memories. After a short break during which we were able to take a comfort break and have a chilled coke( inc) we then continued onto the Street Art Tour. Again it was good to experience another initiative that is going towards funding projects within the community. The artists are not always local artists many are international but they have to pay for the privilege to paint on the community buildings. As this is a relatively new project the landscape is changing all the time but once again the tour was worth it and we got some great photos. We’ll only share one as we wouldn’t want to spoil the tour for anyone considering it. As for our tour guide Arjan he was very good. He is very informative and takes you right into the heart of the community inc a visit to a school, a view of Dhavari from the rooftops and an amazing walk through the potteries. Don’t forget to wear comfortable full shoes as the ground can be a bit dirty and wet. Wear 3/4 or long sleeves to protect you from the sun and respect the wishes of the locals and finally makes sure you have a good amount of water.

Highlight of our Mumbai trip

Was lucky enough to spend my birthday in the lovely company of the smart and funny Diva on a Tour of Dharavi. My partner, our 6 year old daughter and myself were shown the industrys operating, given a real insight into the legal classifications of the different areas within Dharavi, the history of what Indians growing up in the slums have faced and challenges they face today in a growing and changing environment. Diva was a super star in her knowledge, the tour added so much value to our time in Mumbai. Our trip would have been a lesser experience had we not gone- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Fabulous!

My tour was everything I hoped it would be. Informative, interesting, fun! It’s exhausting in this heat but Naiynesh and the team made it comfortable for me. I opted for solo tour with car pickup at the hotel and it was worth the extra charge. I could not have navigated Mumbai on my own to get where I needed to go. Dharavi was fascinating and Naiynesh made sure I knew where to walk, duck, hop, step to avoid pitfalls. Street art was great and the team that came along made it even more special. I had such a good time that I booked the Market and Temples tour for the afternoon. Loved it!! I’m heading to Delhi next, so checking out what they have to offer there.

Great experience

I did the slum and street art tour with Arjun and the street food tour with Swati. I really enjoyed both. The guides were friendly and informative and I felt this was a great way to get to know Mumbai a little better than just the main tourist attractions. Would reccomend to anyone.

Visite du Dharavi avec Shailesh

Expérience inoubliable au sein du slum de Dharavi ! Tour très complet de 3h qui nous a permis de visiter diverses parties du plus grand slum d’Asie. Je recommande vivement le guide Shailesh qui est né dans Dharavi et qui a donc pu nous faire une visite des coins les plus intéressants et qui a pu répondre à toutes nos questions.