Splurging on Hotel Marine Plaza – Mumbai, India

I have said it before and I will say it again…traveling through the magnificent country of India is exhausting. The sights, sounds, smells, chaos, touts, confusion, etc have a literal physical affect that simply drains you. After two weeks of following our ambitious itinerary through India Lindsay and I were hammered. We had one final night in Mumbai and decided to splurge on a nice hotel (it was about $200 a night which is very expensive for Lindsay and I). The nicest area of Mumbai is called Marine Drive. This busy half moon shape road hugs the shoreline and is surrounded by palm trees, art deco apartments and nice hotels. The hotel we settled on was called Hotel Marine Plaza and it sat right in the middle of Marine Drive. The main doorman for the hotel was a very large Sikh (religion) man who had a fantastic mustache and always had a huge smile on his face. The exterior of the hotel is quite unassuming but once we stepped inside we were blown away. It truly looks like a 5 star hotel and the interior is a full atrium that goes all the way to the roof of the building. The ceiling of that atrium is actually the glass bottom of the rooftop pool. It was very unique and very cool. After checking-in we sluggishly walked to our hotel room and when we opened the door we almost passed out by what we saw. The room was spotless and the AC was on full blast. The bathroom was huge and we had a gigantic clean bed just waiting to be slept in. We had a gigantic window in the room that looked directly out over Marine Drive and the ocean. Across the bay you could see the high-rises of the city. This room was 10X nicer than anything we had stayed in during our two weeks in India and we spent about an hour taking it all in. I just sat on the bed looking out the window and enjoying the AC. Eventually we made our way to the rooftop pool and bar to take a look around. We never actually went swimming but the view from on top of the hotel was spectacular. We only had one night in this magnificent hotel but it was the perfect ending to an amazing trip through India. We came home refreshed and exhilarated instead of exhausted and depleted (which is very common after traveling through India). Splurging for a night at Hotel Marine Plaza in Mumbai is something we will never forget and never regret.