India - Mumbai BOM 11 hour international transfer on route from LYS to KTM

Hi guys,

I'm getting ready for my trip to Nepal in November.

I'm flying LYS - IST - BOM on a business points ticket with Turkish, arriving at 04:15
then BOM - KTM on economy with Jet, leaving at 08:15 (separate ticket)

I'm planning to go with carry-on (hoping to be able to fit all of my stuff into two bags - ok in business), then find the transfer lounge, and try to work out how to check one of my bags for the trip to KTM. As I've got 4 hours for this, I'm assuming it won't be a problem.

Then 3 weeks later, on the way back - I'm flying again on 2 separate tickets
KTM - BOM on Jet (economy), arriving at 14:50 on Sunday afternoon
then BOM - MUC - LYS (business points), leaving at 01:45 really early on Monday morning

I'm planning to apply for a transit visa to let me get out of the airport on the way back. Hopefully the Indian embassy / http://www.vfs-in-fr.com agency will be able to do this in under 2 weeks. When I visited South India earlier this year they did me a full tourist visa in under a week.

I'm wondering if I need to go thru immigration in order to 'validate' the first entry on my transit visa - so that it will be good for the return flight.

I'm hoping the 15 day validity on the transit visa is 15 days until first entry - and that it will still be good when I get back from KTM... because there's no way to get a transit visa from KTM on the way back. I just don't have enough time. If it doesn't work, then I'll just have to suffer the airport for 11 hours.

This post on IndiaMike - implies that it will work.
* You will get a double journey visa. So, when you come back 25 days later the same transit visa should apply.
* Pasted from <http://www.indiamike.com/india/indian-visa-and-passport-questions-f9/do-i-need-a-transit-visa-for-india-t78544/>

As I've got 11 hours, I'm hoping to visit a little of India - at the very least to find a good Indian meal; grab a little sleep; and possibly find a geocache.

Given it's ~90 minutes drive into the city from discussions in other threads on this forum, I'm thinking it's not worthwhile going into the city.

One suggested
- You could, however, go across to Bandra, Juhu or even Worli (localities in Mumbai), get a whiff of the sea, and come back.

I've seen hotel recommendations here for
- Savoy Suites (4000-5000 rupees) 10 mins from airport
- Andheri is the closest place to the airport with a selection of decent, reasonably priced hotels (around 1,200 rupees), if you don't want to take a long cab ride in the wee hours of the morning. The Colaba section, downtown Mumbai, is where most visitors end up. You can book a hotel in Colaba from the Bookings Desk, too.
- Le Meridien for 1 night stays, because its cheaper and for stays of 3 days or more i use the ITC Maratha.
- Hyatt Regency at the international airport
- ITC Maratha has a good range of restaurants to choose from and is one of the places we often go to.
- In the Vile Parle area (halfway between the airport and the tip of Mumbai) I stayed at the ITC Grand Central. Near the airport, I've stayed at the ITC Maratha, Intercontinental and the Le Meridian. Hands down, the ITC Grand central was the best..
- I think I'd give the edge to the ITC Maratha. Food was good at the Maratha and Le Meridian and looked good at the Intercontinental. Room quality was best at the Grand Central, but Maratha following close behind and Intercontinental bringing up the rear.
- We ended up staying at the Leela Hotel in Mumbai.....VERY nice :-).

So - from this I'm thinking that rather than getting lost looking for a restaurant; I should aim for something like the ITC Maratha and eat inside the hotel.

Thoughts? Issues? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance for your help...

Andy.

Looking at spg.com it looks like I've got enough for either of these two hotels using points + cash

ITC Grand central 9,000 INR / 4,000 points + USD 60 / 9,000
Westin Mumbai Garden City 9,000 INR / 4,000 points + USD 60 / 10,000 points

but not quite enough for
ITC Maratha 12,000 INR / 10,000 points

According to Google - the ITC grand central is only 16 mins drive - so that sounds feasible.

have you read some of the threads here on the india & airlines of india forum????there are a number of people who have the exact same questions you have....you will find a lot of good info here....

also, do not rely on google maps when in comes to mumbai....they do not take traffic into consideration....the le méridien & itc maratha are right next to the airport but depending on traffic, it can take you more than a couple of hours to get to the itc grand central....