Tucked away just off Colaba Causeway, downtown Mumbai's main shopping and nightlife thoroughfare, this charming, popular boutique hotel is a welcome alternative to the city's standard five-star options. The 28 rooms are split into three loosely themed floors: The Mediterranean level has bright stucco walls and Provençal color schemes, the Country rooms have gingham lamp shades and patchwork quilt wall hangings, and the Scandinavian suites combine clean-lined furniture with black-and-white photography. What can be jarring, however, is the music pumping till 3 am in the hotel's nightclub, Polly Esther's, which is usually packed on weekends with Mumbai's retro-obsessed partyers. Insist on rooms on the left side of the building on a higher floor to keep the revelry at bay. Avoid, too, the hotel's restaurant, All Stir Fry, which often teems with unruly children, and choose instead from one of the neighborhood's culinary marvels.

A growing number of visitors to India's financial capital are choosing to stay within striking distance of the city's new business district, the Bandra-Kurla Complex, about an hour from downtown. The Grand Hyatt is the best luxury option nearby, with 547 plush, modern suites, a beautiful spa, and a top-notch martini bar that draws in wealthy patrons from across the city. Some of the finest examples of contemporary Indian art and sculpture adorn its Jaisalmer stone walls. But the real buzz is around China House, a decadent split-level nightspot with a Szechuan specialty restaurant upstairs and a basement lounge that pulls in movie stars who frolic in private enclosures, as regular-joe millionaires pretend to look away. However, the long row of tarpaulin-roofed houses facing the hotel from a distance are a reminder that this is a city of sometimes grotesque contrasts.

The relatively new Hyatt Regency, close to the airport, delivers serious bang for your buck. The dramatic lobby has glass walls and an Italian marble floor, and the guest rooms have a hip, minimalist design, with a neutral palette, teakwood floors, glass desks, and white marble bathrooms. Room rates include breakfast and airport transfers. It's worth paying a little extra for a Regency Club room, which comes with use of a private lounge, a special concierge, all-day tea and coffee service, and cocktails and canapés. The hotel's Club Prana spa is the perfect place to recover from jet lag or decompress after a day of sightseeing in frenetic Mumbai.

Reopened in spring 2010 after a multimillion-dollar makeover helped erase the damage caused by the 2008 terrorist attack, the Oberoi, a Mumbai landmark, has been reinvented as the city's most tranquil hotel. The reception area—a light-filled atrium of white Thassos marble punctuated only by a red lacquer grand piano, sets a serene tone that's continued in the well-appointed spa, 24-hour fitness center, and three restaurants. (At Ziya, Michelin-starred chef Vineet Bhatia blends northern and southern flavors into a contemporary take on Indian cuisine.) All 287 of the renovated guest rooms seamlessly pair soothing, contemporary decor (teak floors, an ivory and moss palette, white leather headboards) with elegant Indian accents (cabinets and mirrors inlaid with mother of pearl, Agra marble tables, lithographs of local landscapes). The glass-enclosed marble bathrooms star freestanding ceramic tubs, and in the rooms, tech updates pop up everywhere, from Wi-Fi and iPod docking stations to flat-screen TVs. There's butler service, too, but the best accessories, if you book one of the front rooms, are the expansive picture windows, which make you feel like you're in a ship floating on the Arabian Sea.—Raphael Kadushin