Things to Do at Mumbai Airport
A terminal-by-terminal guide to Mumbai airport - what to eat, buy and do in T1 and T2, how the free inter-terminal coach works, how long a layover really needs, and when you can leave.
Almost everything worth doing at Mumbai airport is in Terminal 2 - the Jaya He art museum, the duty free, the Adani and Aviserv lounges, the sleep pods, and about two thirds of the food. Terminal 1 is domestic and much smaller. The two are 6 km apart with no airside link, so a terminal change means leaving the building, riding a coach and checking in again.
Mumbai airport is really two airports that happen to share a runway. Terminal 2 at Sahar is the one in the photographs, with the art museum and the marble and the duty free. Terminal 1 at Santacruz is domestic, older and 6 km away by road. Nothing connects them airside.
Which means the honest answer to "what is there to do at Mumbai airport" starts with a question back: which terminal does your boarding pass say?
Which terminal do you need: T1 or T2
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (BOM) runs two passenger terminals.
- Terminal 2 (Sahar, Andheri East) - every international flight, plus a large share of domestic. Air India, including all the former Vistara flying, is here. So is Akasa Air.
- Terminal 1 (Santacruz) - domestic only. IndiGo and SpiceJet split flights between the two terminals, so the airline name alone tells you nothing.
Two things changed this year and most guides have not caught up.
Akasa Air moved every Mumbai flight to Terminal 2 on 1 August 2026. If you flew Akasa from Mumbai before this summer you went to T1. You do not any more.
Air India Express moves its domestic flights to Terminal 1 on 1 October 2026. If you are reading this before October, AIX is still at T2. If you are booking for the winter, it is not.
Warning: There is no airside link between T1 and T2 at Mumbai. None. No train, no bus inside security, no walkway. If your two flights are at different terminals you will clear arrivals, leave the building, take a road vehicle and check in again from scratch.
Check the terminal on the day you fly, not on the booking you made in March, and check both legs of a connection separately. A quiet terminal change is the single most common way people miss flights here.
What to do in Terminal 2
Our own directory for Mumbai lists 70 shops, 84 places to eat and 10 lounges. Roughly two thirds of that sits in T2.
Where to eat in Terminal 2
Skip the burger chains, they are the same everywhere. The reason to eat at T2 is the Indian food.
Mitti Café
The one to go out of your way for. It is staffed by people with disabilities, with braille menus and placards for ordering, and it serves a perfectly good coffee. It is also the only thing in this terminal you will still be thinking about a week later.
Moti Mahal
For the butter chicken lineage, from the restaurant family that more or less invented the dish. The safe answer when you want a proper meal before a long flight.
Kailash Parbat
Sindhi chaat and pav bhaji, which is the correct thing to eat in Mumbai even at 6am. Do not overthink this one.
Zambar and Shiv Sagar
Zambar covers coastal South Indian; Shiv Sagar handles the vegetarian standards. Between them they are the answer if Moti Mahal is heavier than you want.
Dosa Plaza and Street Foods by Punjab Grill
Dosa Plaza does an alarming number of dosa variants. Street Foods by Punjab Grill runs the chaat counter as a sit-down restaurant, which is a better idea than it sounds at an airport.
Third Wave Coffee
For coffee that is actually coffee, rather than the thing airports usually sell under that name.
The bars
The Irish House, Budweiser Bar, Hoegaarden Bar, Heineken Bar and Clink Bar are all airside in T2. For a quick bite instead, Amreli, Masala Twist, Naashto and Vaango fill in the fast end.
Where to shop in Terminal 2
T2 carries the international labels you can buy anywhere - Armani Exchange, Lacoste, Marks and Spencer, Superdry, Skechers, Steve Madden, Hush Puppies, The Body Shop, Sunglass Hut, Swarovski. Ignore them.
The interesting half is the Indian brands that are genuinely hard to buy outside the country. Amrapali and Isharya for jewellery, Fab India for handloom cotton, BIBA for ready-to-wear, Kama Ayurveda and Forest Essentials for skincare that costs three times as much abroad, Rare Planet and Isha Life for craft and gifting that is not a fridge magnet. The Bombay Shaving Company is a good, cheap, very Mumbai thing to bring home.
What to buy to take home
The best souvenir from an Indian airport is food, and Mumbai does this well. Haldiram's and Bikaji for namkeen that survives a long-haul, Lal Sweets for a mithai box, Theobroma for brownies, Gourmet Baklava if you want to confuse people at home. At T1, Chitale Bandhu sells the Pune bakarwadi that Maharashtrians fly with on purpose.
You can browse the full Mumbai shop directory and restaurant list with terminal locations before you fly.
Duty free, and the customs allowance
Mumbai Duty Free sits in T2 international departures, and there is also a store on the way in, after immigration and before the baggage belts. Arrivals duty free is unusual and genuinely useful, because you can buy your bottle on landing instead of carrying it around Europe for two weeks.
Indian customs allows an arriving passenger a free allowance of ₹50,000, which includes up to 2 litres of alcohol and 100 cigarettes, 25 cigars or 125g of tobacco (Mumbai Customs, arrival passenger guidelines; the allowance is lower if you are arriving from Nepal, Bhutan or Myanmar). Anything past that is dutiable, and the arrivals store will happily sell you more than the limit.
You can pre-order through the Adani One app and collect in store, which is the move if you want a specific bottle rather than whatever survived the 2am rush.
Jaya He, the art museum in the walls
This is the best thing at Mumbai airport and most people walk straight past it because it is on the walls.
The Jaya He GVK New Museum runs about 3.2 km through T2, curated by the scenographer Rajeev Sethi, holding more than 5,000 works and artefacts from across India. It is not a room you enter. It is the building. The multi-storey Art Wall in departures, the Thresholds of India section of carved doorways and façades, Layered Narratives along the arrival corridors, and sculpture hung above the baggage belts in Baggage Acclaimed.
It is airside in T2, so you need a boarding pass. Plaques carry QR codes for artist notes. Walking the main departures stretch properly takes 20 to 30 minutes and costs nothing, which makes it a far better use of a long layover than a fourth lap of the perfume hall.
What to do in Terminal 1
T1 gets written off. It should not be. It carries 7 shops of its own plus 17 that trade in both terminals, and 26 places to eat.
The food is the point, and it is more Mumbai than T2 is. Amcha Katta does Maharashtrian home cooking. Mumbai Se does the street classics. Raju Omlet is the Gujarati omelette institution transplanted into an airport. Madras Coffee House does filter coffee properly, Idli.com does idli and vada, and Bira 91 Taproom pours craft beer if your flight is late enough to justify it.
What T1 does not have: duty free, the art museum, a transit hotel, sleep pods or showers. If you need any of those, and you are at T1, you are out of luck.
How to get between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2
Six kilometres, entirely on public roads, through some of the densest traffic in India.
The free inter-terminal coach is the sensible option and a lot of people do not know it exists. CSMIA has run it since April 2022, it is free, it runs 24/7, and departures are roughly every 25 minutes. Pick-up at T1 is by Departure Gate 2; at T2 it is Level P4, the ground transportation lobby. You need a valid same-day ticket or boarding pass for the onward flight to board. Budget 25 to 30 minutes for the ride, more in the evening peak.
The Metro is now a real option, which is new. Line 3, the Aqua Line, opened in October 2024 with underground stations at both terminals and Sahar Road in between. It runs on to BKC and south Mumbai. It is fast and it is immune to the traffic, but you are still walking out of one terminal, down into a station and back up into another, so it saves you less than the map suggests on a pure terminal-to-terminal hop.
Taxis and autos work too. An app cab between the terminals is usually a few hundred rupees and can take anything from 15 to 45 minutes depending on the hour.
Lounges, showers and where to sleep
Security here typically takes about 18 minutes, and closer to 45 at peak. Our published minimum connections for Mumbai are 60 minutes domestic and 90 minutes international, and those assume you stay in one terminal.
Lounges. T2 has the Adani Lounge network (the rebranded GVK lounges) across business class, first and loyalty tiers, an American Express lounge, and Aviserv East and West. T1 has the Adani Lounge T1B and the Travel Club Lounge. Card access is the part that keeps changing: Indian bank cards increasingly gate complimentary visits behind a previous-quarter spend, so check your own bank's app before you rely on it rather than on a blog from 2023. Walk-in passes are sold at the desk.
Showers and sleep. Both are T2 only.
- Niranta Transit Hotel has a landside wing on Level 1 at arrivals and a separate wing for international transfers on Level 2, so there is an option whether or not you have cleared immigration. Rooms book by the hour and come with an en-suite shower.
- Aviserv on Level 2 landside at arrivals, near Gate A on the west side and Gate C on the east, runs sleeping pods and standalone showers around the clock. You can book a pod without booking a room.
If you are sleeping free, T2 is carpeted, brightly lit and noisy all night. Bring an eye mask. T1 has fixed armrests on most seating and is a genuinely poor place to spend a night.
Left luggage exists at both terminals: T1 at the domestic arrival hall exit ramp, T2 at Level 1 east, ground transportation (P4). CSMIA will hold a bag for up to three months. Rates go by time slab and are not published online, so ask at the counter.
Can you leave the airport on a layover?
It depends entirely on which passport you hold and what kind of connection you have.
Domestic to domestic. Yes. Leave, eat something that is not airport food, come back. Terminal entry is controlled by CISF and you generally will not be let back in more than about three hours before departure, so leaving on a four-hour layover buys you very little once you subtract the traffic.
International to international, staying in T2. You can stay airside without an Indian visa if both flights are at T2, your bags are checked through, and you are connecting within 24 hours. You cannot leave the airport. India has no visa-free transit sightseeing arrangement for most nationalities: going into the city needs an actual Indian visa, and for most people that means an e-Tourist visa applied for in advance.
International arriving, domestic onward. You clear immigration, collect your checked bags, clear customs and re-check them for the domestic leg, even if the tag says your final Indian city. Once you are through customs you are landside and can leave if the clock allows.
Warning: The separate-ticket trap catches people every week at BOM. If you have booked two international flights on unconnected tickets, your bags are not through-checked, which means you must clear Indian immigration to collect them. Without an Indian visa you will be denied boarding at your origin airport, not turned back in Mumbai. Book it as one ticket or get the visa.
If you do get out, the airport sits in Andheri. Juhu beach is close. The Bandra-Worli Sea Link, the Gateway of India and Colaba are a proper commitment in Mumbai traffic and not a three-hour layover activity. Our guide to leaving the airport during a layover covers the general rules.
What to do on a 2, 4 or 8 hour layover
Under 90 minutes, same terminal. Security and the walk. Do not plan anything. If you are hungry, grab something at the first counter past screening.
Two to three hours in T2. Eat properly at Moti Mahal or Kailash Parbat, then walk the Art Wall on the way to the gate. That is a good layover.
Three to five hours in T2. Add the duty free and a shower at Aviserv, or an hour in a sleep pod. Buy the mithai last so it does not sit in your bag all day.
Overnight in T2. Book Niranta by the hour. It is cheaper than a hotel and you skip the road twice.
Anything at T1. Eat at Amcha Katta or Raju Omlet, get a filter coffee, and accept that this is the whole offering.
A terminal change. Take three and a half hours off the top before you plan anything at all.
Practical tips before you fly
- DigiYatra works at both terminals for domestic flights. Register before you get to the airport and you skip the ID queue at entry and at security.
- Terminal entry is time-gated. CISF will not let you into the building much more than three hours before departure. Turning up six hours early means sitting outside.
- Check the terminal twice, on booking and on the day. With Akasa having moved in August and Air India Express moving in October, a lot of Mumbai itineraries are changing terminal this year.
- The monsoon is real. From June to September, add an hour to any road transfer, including the inter-terminal coach.
- T2 is big. From security to the far gates is a long walk. If you have mobility needs, request assistance at booking rather than at the door.
Frequently asked questions
Which terminal is international at Mumbai airport?
Terminal 2, at Sahar. All international flights use T2. Terminal 1 at Santacruz is domestic only.
Can I walk from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2?
No. They are 6 km apart by road with no airside connection. Use the free inter-terminal coach, the Metro Aqua Line, or a taxi.
Is the inter-terminal bus at Mumbai airport free?
Yes. CSMIA has run a free 24/7 inter-terminal coach since April 2022, roughly every 25 minutes, for passengers with a valid same-day ticket or boarding pass.
How long should a layover at Mumbai airport be?
For a same-terminal connection, 60 minutes domestic and 90 minutes international is our published minimum. If your flights are at different terminals, allow three and a half hours.
Can I leave Mumbai airport during an international layover?
Only if you hold a valid Indian visa. There is no visa-free transit for city sightseeing for most nationalities. You can stay airside in T2 without a visa if both flights are at T2 and your bags are checked through.
Is there a hotel inside Mumbai airport?
Yes, Niranta Transit Hotel in T2, with a landside wing at arrivals and a separate wing for international transfers airside. Rooms book by the hour.
Are there showers at Mumbai airport?
Yes, in T2. Aviserv on Level 2 landside sells standalone showers and sleeping pods around the clock, and Niranta rooms have en-suite showers. Terminal 1 has none.
Is there duty free at Mumbai Terminal 1?
No. Duty free is T2 only, in both international departures and arrivals.
What can I buy at Mumbai airport that I cannot buy at home?
Indian brands: Amrapali and Isharya jewellery, Fab India handloom, Kama Ayurveda and Forest Essentials skincare, and mithai and namkeen from Haldiram's, Bikaji, Lal Sweets or Chitale Bandhu.
Written and fact-checked by Tripmojo’s editorial team. Drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed by Simran Raheja before publishing.
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