Private Dharavi Slum Tour with Transport and Refreshments

Private Tour at Dharavi Slum

It was our second tour from this company, the first one was - Bollywood Private tour. It was informative excursion for us, because we represented slums otherwise. I wouldn’t explain all that we saw inside, I think, it’ll be better to see and to feel by yourself. I just want to mention professionalism of the company and our guide, who’s name was Farzan. Thank you for this unforgettable experience!

Great experience.

Aman is an excellent guide. My husband and I had a great time. He is punctual, easy going ans very well informed. We highly recommend Aman!

An invaluable glimpse into a sophisticated society

This was my second trip with World of Bollywood Tours, because the first one (Best of Mumbai Private City Tour with Lunch and Transport) was so good. I figured I couldn't see Dharavi without a guide and this proved to be the case. You would never be able to navigate without a guide and you wouldn't really have any context for what you would see. Yahya, my guide, was born there and lives there still. He took me on a 90+ minute route through a maze of passageways, roads and alleys. Dharavi is a hive of activity, every few steps you'll see something new. Yahya explained how the industrial and residential parts of the community work. For example, he showed me how plastics are gathered, broken down and sorted, cleaned, dried, turned into pellets, etc. For example, he showed how cardboard gets cleaned up and repurposed. He showed where people live, go to school, the doctors, etc. He answered about a million of my questions with great graciousness and a pride of his community. I didn't take many photos. It seemed disrespectful and I heard that it might be considered rude. I don't think photos or videos could really do justice to the experience anyway. I found it very inspiring. Dharavi seems to do a fantastic job of recycling, reusing and repurposing. Don't we all need to do this? The amount of human endeavour and enterprise truly impressed me. Slum seems a pejorative term for Dharavi. I won't be using it. Tiger, who took me round the city on my previous tour, picked me up again from my hotel. It was good to see him. He took me by cab to Dharavi and brought me back by train. I don't know if this was standard, but he knew I hadn't ridden the train and wanted to. I got to lean out of the carriage door like a local and see how the system works. Thank you Yahya. Thank you Tiger. I highly recommend this tour.

Mumbai slums

Excellent guide. Did a great job. Explained the rationale behind the area. Coming from Australia it can be confronting. However our guide explained while it works for his people. Highly recommend.

Excellent day out to an Indian slum

Had a perfect half day tour with my local guide Farzan who was very knowledgeable and happy to share his real life experiences where a local resident with first hand experience. This was my third tour with Bollywood tours and highly recommend them as you will feel safe and secure at all times and they are very punctual as well. Farzan is a true asset to the team and if you have the pleasure of Farzan being your guide you won’t be disappointed ☹️. Thanks for a great day out and eye opening experience.

Must Do Experience in Mumbai

This tour was the highlight experience of our 5 days in Mumbai. Our guide, Farzan, was extremely knowledgeable, friendly and experienced as he expertly guided us through the streets of Dharavi

Dharavi will surprise you.

What ever you think you know before you visit Dharavi will not survive this exceptional tour of the 'slum'. My tour guide Farzan is a local and he brought his passion and pride in this, his home, to the tour. He was articulate and informative at all times and I certainly felt completely safe under his guidance. This tour was one of the most 'human' experiences I have ever had the privilege to be a part of. This was my 2nd tour with World of Bollywood tours and as with last time the owner Rahil was a pleasure to work with and Farzan was the perfect host. This tour might not be for everyone but if you are looking to understand Mumbai fully, have an open heart and a willingness to experience life in a way most of us never will then sign up. Farzan will change your expectations.

Terrific tour!

Our guide Farzan was excellent: informative, funny, serious about his home area, protective of us, and knowledgeable. We saw sights we will never forget. We thoroughly enjoyed this tour.

Amazing experience

We had an amazing experience with our tour guide Farzan. We felt safe all the same while exploring the most hidden corners in the slum. You can enter local factories with Farzan and he explains you everything in detail. We never felt rushed, and you just get lost in time wandering around the narrow streets. The people living there are super friendly, you never feel misplaced. We highly recommend the tour!

Amazing

It was an amazing tour with my lovely friends. I really enjoyed this place. We have visited to the place so excited.

Outstanding Tour - Very Uplifting

My tour guide, Farzan, is a life long resident of Dharavi, and provided an outstanding tour. The tour was thorough, authentic and educational. The most surprising part is how much better the residents are doing there, and with their educational opportunities, the children have tons of opportunities ahead of them. I was also surprised at the amount of industry hidden there, which is growing in a positive direction. Having Farzan provide the tour provided incredible insight and legitimacy, and I highly recommend this tour.

A 'must do tour' when in Mumbai

I was looking spontaneously for a late afternoon tour through Dharavi. Mr. Rahil Khan was the only one who could provide me a tour guide plus airport drop off all within a time frame of 3 hours. He personally picked me up at the meeting point and would let me know all the details and more about Mumbai before the tour started. My tourguide Farzan was extremely knowledgeable about Dharavi, had very impressive conversation skills and would know every corner of the neighborhood. I highly recommend taking him as a tourguide as he will make you feel safe and has very interesting local insights that you cannot possibly find on the internet. Definitely a must do tour as it was the one memory I kept from Mumbai.

Great tour. Excellent guide.

Took this tour today. Yahya the guide did an excellent job explaining theindustries and lifi in the slum. Very good English and answered all my questions. He arrived early to my hotel and made sure the whole tour went smoothly. Ralih - his boss - was great, as well. Great communication during the booking and also called to make sure the tour was going well. I’d use this agency again for other tours in the future,

Amazing - without a doubt would recommend to anyone

I would recommend this tour to anyone. Yahya is an impressive guide giving a full in site of life in the slums. Very informative and able to answer any questions. He made me feel safe from the time he picked me up from the hotel to the time he dropped me back. He has changed my perception and what I thought I was going to see. I would say don’t go for the cheap options, this option was the best! If you are travelling alone in India, which can be daunting then this is the tour for you! Communication was good from the time of booking to the pick up and drop off. Yahya you are the man, thank you for a life changing experience.

Slumdog Tour

Exhilarating tour. Our guide Yahya was very informative and caring. We give him 11 out of 10. An experience we will never forget. All arrangements were professionally handled. Couldn't believe how courteous and kind everybody was. Even the free spicy cornflakes were delicious!

What a day

I wish it was possible to give more than five dots for this tour. Superb organisation, Rahil kept in contact with our driver Arvan and guide Tiger during the day to make sure all was well. We were collected from our hotel on time, early in fact, and driven to the slum with stops of interest along the way. Tiger is a delightful young man and we enjoyed his company. When we arrived at the slum we were introduced to our guide Farzan and what a guide he turned out to be. What was supposed to be a two hour tour turned into four and he was a font of information as he lives in the slum. One million people live there and generate an income of $US 1 billion per annum through enterprise and hard work in conditions that would not be acceptable in the Western world. Great respect to you all. We saw recycling, leather working, pottery, engineering and fabric dyeing. We were taken through the residential area where some of the alleyways were single file. We were treated to masala chai made by a man working in a space smaller than a wardrobe who was doing a roaring trade. There are schools, doctors, dentists, pharmacies even hospitals and so many shops, it really is a city within a city. We came away with a sense of respect and admiration for a real community working together where there is harmony no matter who you are or what your religion is. A real lesson for the rest of us. The company even took us to lunch at the end which was completely unexpected and thoroughly enjoyed. Big thanks to all involved, Rahil, Tiger, Farzan and Arvan. A tour not to be missed.

Highlight of my Mumbai stay

My personal review about the tour ...... the only reason why I wanted to do this tour was because I’m extremely adventurous and like exploring how the locals live whilst I travel. We were talked out of it many times by lots of people ... especially the Mumbai affluent locals - which shows how ignorant they are. This tour was probably the highlight of my Mumbai holiday. I throughly enjoyed it. Farzan was such an amazing tour guide. He is smart, bright, intelligent and very witty. We could not have asked for a better guide. His English is exceptional too. It’s a pity I didn’t have more time as I would’ve loved to buy a few leather bags and get a few leather jackets made. I also enjoyed shoaib - he too was a good guide and made us feel at home and alleviated our fears I rate this tour 5 out of 5 and wish that more people would go on it to open their eyes instead of being so negative 🙏🏻

Educational and enlightening!

Khan was an intelligent young man and tour guide. I appreciated the opportunity to spend the afternoon with him and learn more about the day to day life and complexity of the Dharavi slum. I was particularly interested to see and learn first hand about the involved recycling industry and where our unwanted goods are processed by hardworking but unprotected workers. Khan was forthcoming with information and didn’t hesitate to answer my constant questions. As a single women I felt very safe in his hands.

Fantastic experience!

We are beyond happy with this service and would recommend it to anyone. So thankful we booked through this company as we had thought about trying to navigate the area by ourselves. That would have been a mistake as we would never have been able to see all of the things our incredible, knowledgeable and fun guide, Yahya, had to show us.

Simply Wonderful!

I've wanted to visit the Slums for years - all thanks to Slumdog Millionaire! ... as I'm sure is the case for many of you reading this! And this tour didn't disappoint! Rahil and his wife organised everything from the hotel pick up and drop off and the tour itself which was given by Rahul, wonderful guy - friendly, fun - and the best bit, he lives in the slums! ... so knows it like the back of his hand - we felt in very safe hands. So knowledgeable and took us round the many entrepreneurial businesses set up in the slums - which BTW make millions and millions of USD! Utterly inspiring! Then he also took us round the living areas too - eye opening and again fascinating to see how people there, live. I still don't know how they do it! But the people are wonderfully friendly and don't seem to mind random strangers walking round their back yard! The company we used give money back into the slum communities which I'm sure the locals are very grateful for. It really is a thriving, supportive community - not to be missed! Very humbling and I felt we could learn a lot from these guys in our 'western' day to day lives. All in all - this was a fantastic trip. Rahul - our Slum Guide was fantastic - loved him! And Rahil and his wife were just lovely people - helpful, knowledgeable and genuinely want you to have the best time - and we definitely did! Would highly recommend. Its a private tour and so costs more than a larger organised trip but to get personal service and a personal guide for the slums was worth every single penny! My dream was fulfilled ... and it ticked every box for me! Thanks to all the team.

If in Mumbai for Business or pleasure YOU MUST VISIT the Dharavi Slum - a happy, busy place

Before this tour, I thought that the slum would be a sad place ... A place not to visit for fear of gloating at the misfortune of others ... HOW WRONG I WAS ... this trip was a real eye-opener into how thriving a place it really is .. Zero unemployment, Smiling faces and busy people of all religions and levels of society living together in peace... I was here on business and was determined to see something REAL ... Grand buildings and palaces are reminders of the past .. Dharavi slum is a symbol of how human beings can adapt and prosper. From the early days of tanning leather to the more recent 'business' of recycling everything ... I look forward to visiting in a few years when the future software engineers set up shop in the slum.

A city within a city... enlightening

I booked this Private Dharavi Slum tour as my flight was in the evening and I just wanted to do something in Mumbai to kill time after checking out of hotel. Not knowing much about slum tours, I thought it would be quite touristy and commercial. I was wrong and it was a pleasant surprise. My hotel reception booked the tour and Rahil the owner was happy to accommodate my personal requirement, he arranged for me to be collected at the hotel and then drop me in the airport with my luggages kept in the car while doing the tour.Not only that was cool, since I will have the driver for the afternoon and the tour starts at 2pm, he offered (for no extra charge) to have the driver pick me up an hour earlier and show me a few places around Mumbai that I haven't seen on the way to the slum... places such as Sassoon dock, Main Railway station, High Court, Cricket ground, Mumbai University, Mosque in the sea, and Mahatma Gandhi Memorial/House (Gandhi house was excellent and a must go, no fees but expected to give any small donation to Gandhi house on the way out). The day before the tour, Rahil kept in contact with me through Whatsapp confirming time, date, price, driver name, slum guide name, photo of driver etc (I guess this is important if you are a solo female tourist). The driver Arvind, doesn't speak much English but Rahil keep communicating through Arvind's mobile to ask which sites I have or haven't seen and which sites we were going next. This is an 'extra touch' much appreciated especially when communication with driver could be a problem. Arvind was pleasant and the drive was comfortable, and he does make effort to say the name of the places in English. After the 'complimentary' city landmarks tour, I was brought to Mohsin,my slum tour guide for the afternoon, a cheerful young intelligent university student studying business, but wants to be a psychology researcher. He even tells me he has a TED talk coming up. He grew up in the slum area and lives there. His English is excellent and is better than my English! He started with his introduction of the slum, and why he is proud to be from there. The tour itself was an eye-opener. It is really a city within a city, almost like a science fiction movie. In the slum, there are various industries (leather making, plastic recycling, metal recycling, luggage making, carpentry, bakery, etc just to name a few). There is a leather products shop and you could even customise any leather products you require (handbags, wallet, jacket, belt, suitcase, etc). There are schools in different languages in the slum and very normal/regular shops in the 'market area' of the slum. There is a bank and ATM, mini-market, grocery market and a small 'mini-cinema'. Halfway into the tour, we went into one of the local shop to have tea with one of Mohsin's friend who is a local school teacher and studying engineering. They tells me that most people in the slum holds a job while also studying to pay for their studies. Interestingly, unlike Mumbai city, the residents/shop owners/factory workers in the slum do not hassle you to buy their product or any beggars asking for money. Out of respect, I only take photos from the skybridge (overview of area) and one area where the movie Slumdog Millionaire was shot. After the slum tour, I was brought back to the driver and headed to the airport. Tip: wear comfortable sneakers or walking shoes

Dharavi Slum Tour was a Highlight!

Rahil was very flexible with our group of 8 Canadians in Mumbai for only 48 hours. His guide, Moshin was excellent during the slum tour with lots of background knowledge and great personality. Highly recommended. Our day during the Holi Festival of color was a ton of fun and required some flexibility from Rahil ... and he delivered in spades! Thanks for an exciting 2 days in Mumbai. We would do it all again!

Dharavi slum tour

I did the private dharavi slum tour with my friend and thought it was excellent! We got picked up from our hotel and taken to the dharavi slum where we met with our guide who has grown up in the slums and currently lives there. He took us through the small Lane ways, showed us the many different types of businesses and productions that keep the slum a booming market place and the way of life for the people that live there. A real Eye opener and so educational into the insight of a slum. Our guides English was amazing!! and it was self taught. He was so knowledgeable and was able to answer any questions we had. I highly recommend anyone that visits Mumbai do this!

Fantastic tour, very well organised by...

<p>Fantastic tour, very well organised by Rahil. Keep in contact right up to the pick up. Certainly recommend this tour if you want to experience the Authentic side of India!!</p>

Excellent tour. Rahil Khan is the...

<p>Excellent tour. Rahil Khan is the owner and he runs this tour very well. I read on his web page, World of Bollywood Tours and Travel that 20 of their profits are donated to the school for under privileged children and the school for special children. His wife picked me up from hotel and took me to the meeting point. Even though it says private tour I met two other people. I was fine as I enjoyed the company of the two other men. Being the only woman with them and Oves, the guide, some women may not be as comfortable. Just check with them when booking. Oves, makes this tour what it is. He grew up in this slum area and has worked his way through school and University. I was so impressed with him. His love for his family and his people. We met back at our starting point where we were asked if we wanted something to drink and given an Indian coffee mug as a gift. All around a great experience from booking until I was taken back to hotel. Make sure you wear pants/jeans and closed toe shoes. For me it just made the walking around the area better.</p>

Veldig interessant tur

Fikk god og informativ omvisning av den lokale guiden, med spesielt fokus på den imponerende næringsvirksomheten, spesielt gjennvinning. Fikk respekt for folkene som bodde og jobbet i Dharavi. Svært glad for at vi fikk kontakt med dette selskapet og fikk gjennomført denne turen på innsiden av slummen.

Schon einen Tag vorher wurde ich per...

<p>Schon einen Tag vorher wurde ich per WhatsApp kontaktiert. Das gab mir ein sicheres Gefühl, dass die Tour auch stattfindet. Rahil Khan, Tourdirector, holte mich vom Hotel im weit entfernten nördlichen Vorort Powai ab und brachte mich zu einem Cafe. Dort, nach einer Erfrischung, traf der nette englischsprechende Tourguide Parvez Khan ein. Er führte mich durch die verschiedensten Ecken des Dharavi Slums. Es war eine hochinteressante und beeindruckende Tour. Gemeinsam fuhren wir nach Ende der Tour mit einer Motor-Rikscha zurück zum Cafe. Dort wartete wieder Herr Khan und brachte mich zum Hotel zurück. Eine wirklich empfehlenswerte Tour, die vom Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis recht günstig ist! Kann ich nur empfehlen, da man ohne Führung nur begrenzte Eindrücke bekommt.</p>