Business India March 22 2009

:: Mehta and Vahalia: different tours for different folks::

Mumbai is always in the news for doing things differently. This time, it’s for some unusual tours being offered by various tour companies. The current favourite is the ‘slum tour’, made popular by the movie- Slumdog Millionaire and celebrities like Madonna and Gregory David Roberts (Shantaram) who have visited and lived in slums, respectively.
Although the origin of this trend is unknown, there are some firms that specialise in this new concept. On top of the list is Namaste City Tours, brainchild of Ms. Naini Mehta and Kunal Vahalia, who started the company nearly two years ago out of passion for the city and otherwise hold separate full-time jobs. Namaste has a number of exceptional tours such as the temple tour, shopping tour, golf tour, rural tour, Bollywood tour, Rajasthani fair tour, and of course, the slum tour.
 
Namaste’s temple tour takes tourists to a number of temples, churches, mosques and gurudwaras, including Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi temple, Jain temple, Siddhivinayak temple and so on.
he or she wants. It can be anything from roadside shopping to a wedding trousseau, and a professional shopping consultant accompanies the customer,” says Mehta. The golf tour, a hot favourite with Japanese tourists, takes clients to a Mumbai golf club and the company provides all the necessary equipment. The rural tour takes tourists to a village in the interiors of Maharashtra.
 
“Our Bollywood tour is quite popular, but often poses problems for us as the foreigners come thinking we’ll take them to have coffee with Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. We actually take tourists to watch a day’s -shooting at Film City and if requested, . to see some film stars’ houses,” explains Vahalia. The Rajasthani fair tour takes tourists to Chokhi Dhani, a few hours away from Mumbai, while the slum tour provides a glimpse into Mumbai’s underbelly.
 
“Almost all our customers are foreigners. It is obvious that a Mumbaikar will not take these tours and we hardly get anyone from other parts of India either. So we focus on making the tours as ‘Indian’ as possible, complete with gajras, bangles and bhulis,” says Mehta. “Even though we’re relatively new, we get over 100 tourists per month. We also hold various seasonal tours during festivals such as Ganpati, Diwali, Gokulashtami and Holi,” adds Vahalia.
 
Tel: +91 22 23888711 / +91 9323652111 / +91 9323394850 / +91 9820954856
e-mail: visitus@namastecitytour.com

visit: http://www.namastecitytour.com/

Important :

We also offer a customized tour to our customers. The customized tour is exactly what you want, whenever you want and wherever you want.

Please Note :-

All our tours are personalized tours accompanied by a professional English speaking guide.