Mumbai

Mumbai operates at a scale and intensity that overwhelms first-time visitors and becomes addictive for everyone else. The Victorian Gothic architecture of the Fort district — built when Bombay was the second city of the British Empire — sits next to Art Deco apartment buildings on Marine Drive and the fishing village of Versova in the northwest. The Dharavi neighbourhood, often called Asia's largest slum, is one of the most productive industrial areas in India — its leather, pottery, and recycling industries are a different city entirely. The food is Mumbai's greatest achievement: vada pav at a street stall, Parsi dhansak at Britannia & Co, Kolhapuri mutton at a neighbourhood restaurant in Matunga — each is world-class in its own way. Give the city four full days and it will reveal itself completely.