Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan (Rani Baug)

Spread across some fifty acres of Byculla, Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan is the oldest public garden in Mumbai and still the greenest thing for a long way in any direction.

• It opened to the public in 1862 as Victoria Gardens, laid out from 1861 by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India with support from the city's merchant families, and was renamed in 1969 for Jijabai, the mother of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
• Almost nobody uses the full name.
• To Mumbai this is Rani Baug — the Queen's Garden — and generations of families have measured out Sunday mornings along its looping, tamarind-shaded paths while the traffic on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Road grinds past the gates.
• The garden's real collection is arboreal.
• Hundreds of species stand here, many planted in the nineteenth century and carrying small signboards with botanical and Marathi names, so a slow circuit doubles as an open-air lesson in tropical trees: broad-crowned rain trees, kadamba, baobab, cannonball and flowering tabebuia among them.
• Set among the greenery are survivors of the garden's Victorian layout, including an ornamental bandstand and cast-iron water features, and near the main gate stands the 1872 museum building now known as the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, restored in the 2000s and ticketed separately.
• On the lawn outside it rests the garden's most travelled resident: the weathered basalt elephant that once stood on Gharapuri island and gave Elephanta its European name, moved here by the British in the 1860s after the sculpture had cracked, and reassembled on this spot.
• Mumbai's only zoo shares the grounds, so the garden can be busy with school groups and families, especially at weekends and during school holidays; a Humboldt penguin enclosure added in 2017 draws long queues.
• Come on a weekday morning soon after opening if you want the trees to yourself.
• The grounds are flat and largely walkable, benches and shade are plentiful, and the whole visit sits comfortably in two hours.
• Note that the garden and zoo are normally closed on Wednesdays, and that ticketing and timings are revised from time to time by the municipal corporation, so it is worth checking before you travel.
• Byculla is a mixed eating neighbourhood where seafood, meat and egg dishes are common, so never assume a stall or café is vegetarian — read the board and ask at the counter before you order.
• There is no shortage of safe options if you look.
• Snack carts near Byculla station turn out vada pav, batata bhaji and cutting chai, and the farsan and mithai shops of the Byculla and Lalbaug lanes sell dhokla, khaman, patra, chivda and pedha, though it is worth asking about egg in bakery items.
• For a proper sit-down meal, ride two or three stops on the Central line to Dadar or Matunga for Udupi-style tiffin rooms serving idli, medu vada and rice plates, or head south towards Bhuleshwar and Kalbadevi for Gujarati and Marwari thali counters.
• Many of these are strictly vegetarian kitchens, but the polite habit of confirming before ordering serves you well everywhere in this city.