Top 10: Beach Cities

The World's Best Beach Cities

Body Of Water The City Borders: Arabian SeaPopulation: Around 13,662,885Average Temperature In The Winter: 75°FAverage Temperature In The Summer: 85°F

Mumbai is the financial, commercial, industrial and celluloid capital of India, and it’s where Bollywood dreams are made. Built from the ground up on its colonial foundations, Mumbai is one part glitz, with flashy skyscrapers and designer stores, and one part poverty, with slums and seedy neighborhoods. Located next to the Arabian Sea, another one of Mumbai’s points of interest is, of course, the beach. Juhu Beach, which sits just outside of the city center, is lined with Mumbai’s best hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, and it's where the business bunch like to come and play. Mumbai’s deep-water port is also an essential component to the beachside city; it manages over half of India’s maritime cargo.

Best Beach

Fringed by Marina Drive on the western side of the city, Chowpatty Beach is Mumbai’s most charismatic beach. There are donkey rides, stalls selling bhelpuri (a savory snack favored in the region) and a huge man-powered Ferris wheel to be ridden. When the sun sets behind the Arabian Sea, Chowpatty Beach turns into a carnivalesque scene with astrology readings, plays, monkey shows and yoga demonstrations happening right on the sand. The beach also doubles as the venue for the annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival, during which giant statues of the elephant god are thrown into the sea. This is beach-going India-style, and there are no apparent rules or regulations.