Delightful Elephanta Caves Excursion Mumbai (Guided Half Day Sightseeing Tour)

Mumbai, India

4 hours (approx.)
Group discounts
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

Set sail for Elephanta Island, known for its ancient Hindu and Buddhist cave temples, with your own private guide. You'll take a ferry out to the island from the Gateway of India, where you'll have time to explore the caves and learn about their significance with the help of your guide. Boat tickets are included and tour packages with and without hotel pick-up are available.

Learn about the Elephanta Islands from your private guide
Ferry tickets are included
Private tour ensures personal attention from your guide
Flexible start times are available to suit your schedule

What's Included

Ferry Ride to Elephanta Caves
Snacks

Light Snacks tasting
Bottled water
Storyteller to make this experience engaging who can speak English and Hindi

Entry fee to any historical site like caves
Gratuities

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

Gateway Of India Mumbai
Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Meet us at the Entrance Gate of Gateway of India, Mumbai

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

Itinerary

Elephanta Caves

4 hours • Admission Ticket Not Included

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Near public transportation
Not recommended for travelers with back problems

Not recommended for pregnant travelers
Travelers should have a moderate physical fitness level
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 15 travelers

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Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Gallery picture 1 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 2 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 3 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 4 (from a traveler's review)

Gallery picture 5 (from a traveler's review)

Reviews

3.3

based on 26 reviews

Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor

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Not enough information

Lilani_H, Feb 2025

Was not given specific meeting point just at gateway to India This is a vast area I had to make several calls before finding out the exact location Not good enough

Great excursion

Vinod_P, Jan 2025

Guide was extremely knowledgeable. The trip was a treat. Booking was easy. Great religious background

While the island is...

Barbara_G, Aug 2023

While the island is amazing and the tour guide was very knowledgeable, the tour company was a complete mess. I was contact the day before to change the hour, which I didn't mind but the car picked me up 20 min late and I had to request the driver's license plate more than once. In addition, I was informed by the tour guide I have to take the ferry on my own, pay for it and he was going to reimburse me once in the island. I bought the ticket and requested the money in more than one opportunity and he kept saying later. At the end, when I got to the ferry to go back to the city, I got in fast because it was about to leave and only then I realised I never got the money. I think it's the company/tour guide responsibility to pay back as soon as the person arrives (at this point is not about the amount of money but the attitude. I feel they probably do this to several tourist). Finally, I found out the tour included only pick up but no drop off (usually when you hire the first, it includes the second one), so I found myself at Gateway India trying to find my way back to the hotel. I do recommend people visiting the island, just not with this company.

Response from Host, Sep 2023

We apologize for the inconveniences you faced during your tour. We'll address the issues you raised to ensure a smoother experience for future guests. Thank you for your feedback, and we hope you'll consider giving us another chance in the future.

Great excursion from the bustling city of Mumbai

Justin_H, Apr 2023

A very enjoyable tour of the island and caves with a knowledgable guide with extensive photography skills to help capture the moment. Highly recommend visiting the island and caves if you have a half day to spare in Mumbai. The ferry trip provides great views of the city and is a lovely way to get around.

Terrible tour company, brilliant guide

Jonaki_M, Mar 2023

Let me start by saying I only reduced one star because the actual tour company is awful, but our guide was just wonderful. The company overcharges massively, they wouldn't put me in touch directly with the guide until I called and texted several times, and they tried to get our guide to ask us to come on a combined group tour two hours earlier than what we signed up for. Avinash Madhvi was our guide, he's native to the island and knows so much about the caves you wouldn't be able to learn or read on your own. Try reaching out to him via his FB page directly. Highly recommend him

Definitely recommend going to Elephanta Caves but on different tour if you want to get what you payed for.

Sofija_R, Feb 2023

Elephanta caves were definitely worth visiting but the tour was not delivered in a way promised and paid for. Guide was very polite while explaining that he made me a favour picking me at hotel and joining me for taxi ride to the Gate of India for ferry and that the tour ends at the caves and that I am suppose to arrange my way back (while the tour purchased was with the beginning and ending at pick up point - hotel). Guide did call an agency to consult and was given instructions that it does not matter what is written on my ticket. So, instead of organised vehicle one is suppose to take a taxi (140 INR), go for a ferry ride accompanied by a guide (260 INR) and go back by themselves (140 INR). On the island you can get a guide so if you are to do all of the above written by yourself there is no need to waste thousands of INR for what you do not get during the tour because there is no tour. Snack included were not defined but I assume it should have been more than a tea. All in all, at the end of the day I felt like my trust was misused and would strongly advise you to select your local vendors more carefully.

wonderful statues that...

Ana_M, Nov 2022

wonderful statues that teach the story of shiva, in an amazing place. People really kind. The local guide has a lot of knowledge

Terrible operator. Do not...

Enrique_K, Sep 2022

Terrible operator. Do not recommend. Time slot was not honored and tried to get me to meet at island instead of agreed meeting spot. Poor English proficiency.

Excellent Half Day - you’ll regret not seeing this with a guide

Jonah_H, Sep 2022

Elephanta Caves are an amazing site to see. This tour ensured that I made the correct ferry, and had a knowledgeable guide (Avi) to explain the many Shiva in the caves. This tour is a must-do. Avi even showed me the local village on the island!

My guide was an excellent photographer.

Clare_R, Apr 2022

Avinash, my guide, was anxious to make sure I had the right information so our meeting would be easy. He was a knowledgeable guide and I learnt a lot from his talk. He is a magnificent photographer: if he is your guide, I suggest you hand him your phone and leave the photos to him! Good shopping in the shade on the way to and from the ferry. No drink or snacks offered.

Great thing to do but not with this tour operator

Oksana_I, Dec 2019

Communication is quite poor and things are poorly organised. Entry fee to the caves are not included and it is not clear at all how much extra one is going to pay on a spot, so comes as a bit of unexpected surprise that you still have to pay another INR600 to get into the caves. Bottled water and snacks are not provided as they advise.guide was late and instead of 1000am ferry we took 1100am ferry. Practically, the company only organises return ferry tickets that are easy to get anyway, and would cost cheaper if doing it without them. I would recommend this tour but not recommend this company.

Response from Host, Dec 2019

Dear guest we apologize for the inconvenience caused to you, this is not the Yo Tours experience we provide, we acknowledge that there was a delay in the start of the tour due to last minute change of storyteller who had to attend to an emergency, however this cannot be used as an excuse to make up for the loss of your precious time which went in waiting. The entry fee is specifically excluded and can be read on clicking the exclusions tab on viator, but bottled water and snacks is definitely included in the price. We take feedback very seriously and will ensure necessary action is taken against the storyteller who did not offer the same to you, please help us know how we can correct our mistake. i apologise once again on behalf of our on ground team, we feel terrible.

trip did not happen due to communication issues. Refund requested

_calisue57, Nov 2019

I did not get the e-mail send the day before changing the time, so I was there at 9, and finally paid my way on the boat and the Island. Requesting refund.

Response from Host, Dec 2019

Dear guest thanks for writing, our Guide was waiting at meeting point since 9 AM, we called on the given number and even to the hotel, tried every possible scenarios to reach out to you, but we haven't received any response from your side, our guide waited for 1.5 hours just for you and even we contacted the Viator customer support to reach out to you. The 9 AM was requested for your pickup from hotel a day prior and we haven't received any single response from your end till today. Once again our apologies for the inconveniences caused.

Caves, monkeys and good company

Alan_A, Oct 2019

I took a 9am ferry over with guide Sameer and was accompanied by 3*tourists with Reality Tours, this made it much more enjoyable sharing the experience with other English speaking tourists. Once on the island Sameer showed us the caves and gave very good account of the history, explaining other important Indian context such as the Diwali festival of lights coming up. Seen a few monkeys around the stairwell and had an enjoyable dinner with one of the families on the island. The boat trip is 1hr each way to Mumbai which is cumbersome but other than that a great tour

Horrible and Cheating

Venkateswarlu_C, Oct 2019

Booked for AC Private guided trip and what I got was normal non ac ferry with 200 people and a shared Guide. To make things worse, I was asked to pay and buy tickets at ticket window. What is that they organised? A shared guide? The guides are available for INR 500. I was charged INR 9600. Is it fare? Is this lowest guaranteed? After protest, I was returned INR 500 out of 615INR I had spent for buying tickets in addition to tour price. Will never recommend the organisers, Viator to anybody. Keep away from them. They would loot you

Response from Host, Oct 2019

First of all, its never mentioned private AC Boat ride, it was private AC Vehicle to Gateway in case of option with tranport has been choosen (which was not the case), usually we request guest to meet us a Gateway but out of courtesy, our guide went to hotel to pickup hotel and avoid any hassle. No one runs a private boat to caves it was private guided tour not privae boat ride (Though we will still work on specifically mentioning that the ride would shared government ferry ride). Coming to the guide price its controlled by government body and local caves organization and standard price is 1600 person just for guiding, not sure where guest can get the guide as it required only license guide at caves which comes under the ASI monument. It was private guided tour for the guest for 4 hours, we have given the full services. It's very easy to call everything a scam or cheapting, we have runs hundreds of tour and this is first time we are receiving this kind of feedback. We would request guest to check if any Elephanta tour services are available at cheaper than our price we will do the refund of amount. Still our sincere apologies in case we won't able to provide our services upto the guest expectation.

Amazing experience

david_m, Jun 2019

This is a "do not miss" experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot say enough positive things about my guide Vrushali. She was so knowledgeable and hospitable...she made the trip a great experience.