India Layover Itineraries: Delhi and Mumbai in a Few Hours

The visa. India's Bureau of Immigration does not require a transit visa from a foreigner in direct transit by air who stays within the airport for up to 24 hours. Leaving the airport is different: you go through immigration like any arriving passenger and need a valid visa. India's e-Visa includes an e-Transit Visa, valid for 30 days from your first arrival, for which you upload your onward ticket and the visa or entry permit for the country you are flying on to; an e-Tourist Visa or another valid visa also lets you present yourself at immigration. Holders of an OCI card enter on the card. e-Visa holders must land at one of the designated airports, which include Delhi and Mumbai, and their biometrics are taken on arrival. Apply only on the government portal: our India e-Visa guide explains the categories, and OCI cards and entry rules covers overseas citizens.

The e-Arrival card. If you will pass through immigration, submit the e-Arrival card online in the 72 hours before you land. A passenger who stays airside does not file one. See the e-Arrival card.

Entry is not automatic. The Bureau of Immigration reminds travellers that a visa does not confer a right of entry, which is at the immigration officer's discretion. Do not book anything you cannot afford to lose before you know your visa is granted.

Count everything that happens before you see a monument: immigration on arrival, the trip into town, the trip back, then check-in, security and departure immigration for the next flight. The UK Foreign Office advises travellers to allow enough time for check-in and security and for moving between international and domestic terminals.

• Delhi. All international flights use Terminal 3. Terminals 1 and 2 handle only domestic flights, and free inter-terminal shuttles link the three. If your two flights are on separate tickets, you collect your bags, clear immigration, check in again and pass security again.
• Mumbai. The region now has a second international airport, Navi Mumbai, as well as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International. Check which one each of your tickets names before you plan anything in between.

Our advice: if the gap is short, the hours are better spent at the airport hotel or in Aerocity, the hotel district right beside Delhi's Terminal 3, than in traffic.

• A few spare hours. Stay close: Aerocity, beside Terminal 3, has hotels, restaurants and shops.
• Half a day. The Delhi airport operator puts Qutub Minar about 14 km away and Humayun's Tomb about 18 km. Both are World Heritage Sites. Humayun's Tomb, the Mughal garden tomb that came before the Taj Mahal, is open daily from sunrise to sunset; Qutub Minar's complex opens at sunrise.
• A longer gap. Take the Airport Express (Orange Line) from Terminal 3: the airport operator gives about 25 minutes to New Delhi railway station, with first trains at about 4.45 am and last trains around 11.15 to 11.30 pm. From central Delhi, India Gate is open from morning to night every day, and Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, near Connaught Place, is open around the clock, with a free community kitchen; cover your head inside. Old Delhi's lanes suit a guided street food walk.

Our Delhi travel guide covers the city's sights in full.

Mumbai's fully underground Metro Line 3, the Aqua Line, runs 33.5 km from Aarey JVLR to Cuffe Parade with 27 stations, including stations at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. South of the airport it stops at Bandra-Kurla Complex, Dadar, Siddhivinayak, Worli, Grant Road and Kalbadevi before reaching Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Hutatma Chowk, Churchgate and Cuffe Parade. That southern stretch serves the heritage districts of Fort, Kala Ghoda and Marine Drive.

• CSMT, formerly Victoria Terminus and a World Heritage Site, has its own metro stop.
• The Gateway of India is open throughout the day; the ferries to the Elephanta Caves leave from here, but with about an hour's crossing each way, and the caves closed on Mondays, they rarely fit a layover.
• Marine Drive, the 3.6 km curve of seafront, is where families gather in the evening to watch the sunset.

A guided Mumbai street food tour fits a few hours, and our Mumbai travel guide covers the rest of the city.

A driver who meets you at arrivals takes most of the risk out of a layover outing: ours wait with a name board and track your flight, so a late landing does not cost you the slot (airport transfers). Every trip we run can be cancelled for a full refund up to 24 hours before it starts.