Two days of Mumbai on the cheap means walking instead of touring, riding the suburban train instead of a taxi, and picking one paid ticket for the whole trip rather than five. Day 1 costs close to nothing: a free heritage walk covers two of the city’s three UNESCO listings before lunch. Day 2 is either the Elephanta ferry or a genuinely free day built around a laundry, a market and an Irani cafe.

Three days in Mumbai on a cheap-and-local budget means walking the free UNESCO streets twice, riding the suburban trains instead of taxis, and spending real money on exactly one ferry and one seafood dinner. This plan nests the two-day South Mumbai core (the free Fort and Art Deco walk, the Gateway of India, Marine Drive, street food) inside a third day built around Dadar, the Dhobi Ghat viewpoint and Banganga Tank.

Four days of cheap, local Mumbai (formerly Bombay, officially renamed in 1995) means walking the free heritage core first, spending your one real ticket on the Elephanta ferry, then trading postcard sights for the city’s actual daily rhythm: a flower market, a laundry, a stepped water tank, and a train ride into the northern suburbs most visitors skip. Come October through February. Avoid the monsoon, roughly June through September, when heavy rain floods streets, delays trains, and stops the Elephanta ferry outright, so build slack into any of these days if you’re visiting then.

Mumbai, called Bombay until the government renamed it in November 1995, does not need a big budget to see the best of it. Most of what makes this city worth visiting costs nothing: the harbor views, the UNESCO architecture, the trains locals actually ride. Below are 13 genuinely free or cheap things to do, no invented restaurant names, no rounded-up prices. Give the list 2-4 unhurried days, more if the monsoon forces a rain day indoors.