India
Delhi
Eight centuries of capitals stacked on one plain, with the subcontinent's deepest run of monuments and its best street eating.
Delhi is not one city but several stacked on the same plain: the walled Mughal capital and its lanes, the wide colonial avenues laid out for an empire that lasted sixteen more years, and the vast modern metropolis that has grown around both. That layering makes it the most historically dense city in India and also the most demanding one, loud and hot and sprawling, with a metro that quietly makes it manageable. Most visitors come for the monuments and stay for the eating.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Hindi, English
Currency
INR
Timezone
UTC+5:30
Why you'll love Delhi
History sultanate ruins, Mughal forts and imperial avenues all standing within one city, most of them still in daily use
Monuments three World Heritage sites inside the city limits, plus dozens of overlooked tombs scattered through parks and suburbs
Food the north's great street-eating city, from fried breakfasts in the old lanes to charcoal kebabs and slow-cooked Punjabi classics
The metro a fast, air-conditioned network that turns an overwhelming city into a navigable one
Best time to visit
Oct-Mar
20-33° days
28.614° N, 77.209° E
UTC+5:30 · Asia/Kolkata
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Weather & when to go to Delhi
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Oct-Mar
Watch for Nov-Feb smog risk · Apr-Jul extreme heat risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Delhi
May and June are the hard months, when dry heat well over forty degrees makes daytime sightseeing a grind, and the monsoon that follows swaps the heat for humidity and flooded underpasses. Delhi's air quality is at its worst from late October into January, which is an air problem rather than a weather one, and the dense fog of late December and January regularly delays flights and trains.
Top things to do in Delhi
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Red Fort - the Mughal seat of power
history 👍 PopularShah Jahan's red sandstone citadel anchored the walled city he built around it, and its marble audience halls still read as imperial theatre. The Lahori Gate is where the prime minister raises the flag each Independence Day. Closed Mondays.
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Jama Masjid - the great Mughal mosque above Old Delhi
history culture artsShah Jahan's last major commission looks over the old city from a raised plinth, and the narrow stair up the southern minaret opens onto the best rooftop view of those rooflines. Dress modestly and leave your shoes at the gate.
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Chandni Chowk - eat your way through the old lanes
food ⭐ Highly recommendedThe walled city's spine is really a food crawl: stuffed parathas fried in Paranthe Wali Gali, mutton korma and kebabs at Karim's behind the mosque, jalebi down at the Fatehpuri end and chaat in between. Go hungry, go early, and let a cycle-rickshaw handle the navigation.
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Qutub Minar - the tower that announced the Sultanate
history 👍 PopularA fluted victory tower of red sandstone and marble begun in 1199, still the tallest brick minaret anywhere, rising over the ruins of Delhi's first Islamic complex and a fourth-century iron pillar that famously refuses to rust.
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Humayun's Tomb - the garden tomb that led to the Taj
history ⭐ Highly recommendedThe first great Mughal garden tomb in India, and the template Shah Jahan's architects refined a century later in Agra. The restored Sunder Nursery park next door turns a one-hour stop into a slow afternoon.
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India Gate and Kartavya Path - the ceremonial axis
history scenic 👍 PopularLutyens' war memorial arch closes the long processional avenue running up to the presidential palace. It is at its best after dark, when Delhi families spread out on the lawns and the ice-cream carts come out.
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Lodhi Gardens - tombs in a working park
history scenicFifteenth-century Sayyid and Lodi tombs scattered through ninety acres of lawns and old trees, used every morning by joggers, yoga groups and courting couples. The best hour in the city that costs nothing.
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Nizamuddin Dargah - Thursday-evening qawwali
culture artsThe Sufi saint's shrine sits at the end of a lane in a medieval village enclave, and on Thursday evenings qawwals sing to a packed courtyard. It is a working shrine rather than a performance: cover your head, go modestly dressed and follow what everyone around you is doing.
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Gurudwara Bangla Sahib - the langar kitchen
culture artsDelhi's main Sikh shrine, a golden dome over a rectangular bathing tank. Anyone can cover their head, walk in and eat in the community kitchen, or put an hour in rolling roti for the thousands it feeds every day.
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Akshardham Temple - modern stone on an epic scale
culture artsA vast carved sandstone and marble complex completed in 2005 using traditional methods and no structural steel. Security is airport-grade and phones and bags are not allowed inside, so travel light. Closed Mondays.
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Lotus Temple - a Bahai flower in marble
culture artsTwenty-seven marble petals folded into a lotus, opened in 1986 and among the most-visited buildings on earth. Inside is a single silent hall with no altar, images or sermons. Closed Mondays.
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Mehrauli Archaeological Park - ruins with nobody in them
history off beaten pathA wooded sprawl of tombs, stepwells and a Mughal summer palace immediately behind the Qutub complex, largely unlabelled and largely empty. The easiest place in Delhi to have eight centuries of building to yourself.
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Delhi's markets - crafts, cottons and export surplus
shoppingDifferent markets do different jobs: the state emporia on Baba Kharak Singh Marg and the Dilli Haat stalls for handicrafts, Khan Market for books and design, Sarojini Nagar for export-surplus clothes bought by the armful, and the old city's specialist bazaars for spices, wedding cloth and silver.
Best areas to stay in Delhi
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Connaught Place
First-time visitors $$Colonnaded colonial hub on the metro spine
Explore hotels in Connaught Place →
Khan Market and Lodhi Colony
Calm and upscale $$$Leafy Lutyens streets, boutiques and bookshops
Explore hotels in Khan Market and Lodhi Colony →
Hauz Khas and South Delhi
Nightlife and design $$Bars and design shops beside a ruin-lined lake
Explore hotels in Hauz Khas and South Delhi →
Paharganj
Backpacker budget $Cheap, chaotic backpacker strip by the station
Explore hotels in Paharganj →
Aerocity
Airport nights $$$Sterile modern hotel district by the airport
Explore hotels in Aerocity →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Delhi
Getting to & around Delhi
Getting there
Fly into DEL, then the Airport Express metro into the centre in about 20 minutes
Flight
Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)
About 16 km southwest of the centre. The Airport Express metro line runs from Terminal 3 to New Delhi Railway Station in roughly 20 minutes; app cabs and the prepaid taxi counter take 45-60 minutes in traffic. Dense fog can hold arrivals here for hours on late December and January mornings.
Train
New Delhi Railway Station
The main long-distance station, with fast services to Agra, Jaipur, Amritsar and the hill lines. Hazrat Nizamuddin, Old Delhi and Anand Vihar carry the rest, so check which station your ticket actually names
Coach
Kashmere Gate ISBT
Interstate buses for Himachal, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Rajasthan leave from Kashmere Gate, while Anand Vihar and Sarai Kale Khan cover the eastern and southern routes
Drive
The Yamuna Expressway runs south to Agra and the Jaipur highway west. Self-drive is rare; most visitors hire a car with a driver for the day
Getting around
Metro
Fast, air-conditioned and by far the best way to cross the city; every train has a women-only carriage at the front
TBC
Auto-rickshaw
Everywhere, and fine for short hops, but the meter is usually a negotiation - settle the fare before you get in, or book one through an app
TBC
App cabs
Uber and Ola cover the whole city and are the default after dark; expect long waits and surge pricing when it rains
TBC
Cycle-rickshaw
The only sensible way through the old city's lanes, where nothing wider fits
TBC
Walking
Works within a district - the old city lanes, the Lodhi and Khan Market streets - but the gaps between districts are far too big to cover on foot
Free
Day trips from Delhi
Agra
Full dayTaj Mahal and Mughal forts
The Taj Mahal at sunrise, then Agra Fort looking back at it across the river, and the small marble tomb of Itimad-ud-Daulah if the stamina holds. The Taj is closed to visitors on Fridays.
Getting there
train | car | tour
2 hr each way by fast morning train, or about 3.5 hr by road on the Yamuna Expressway
Jaipur
1-2 daysRajasthan's pink city
Amber Fort, the city palace, the observatory and the old pink bazaars make a very long day and a far better overnight. Most people pair it with Agra as the Golden Triangle.
Getting there
train | car | bus | tour
4-5 hr each way by train or road
Mathura and Vrindavan
Full dayKrishna pilgrimage towns
Krishna's birthplace and the town of his childhood stories, dense with temples, river ghats and monkeys that will take your glasses. Devotional and crowded rather than scenic.
Getting there
car | train | tour
2.5-3 hr by road, or a train to Mathura Junction
Neemrana
Full dayHillside fort palace
A fifteenth-century fort stepped into an Aravalli hillside and restored as a hotel, open to day visitors for lunch, the hanging terraces and a zip line over the ramparts.
Getting there
car | tour
2.5 hr by road down the Jaipur highway
Sultanpur National Park
Half dayBirdwatching wetland
A shallow lake and scrub reserve that fills with migratory waterbirds through the winter months, and the quickest escape from the city's noise.
Getting there
car | tour
1-1.5 hr by road through Gurugram
A little history of Delhi
Delhi is traditionally counted as seven cities, built and abandoned in turn across the plain between the Yamuna river and the Aravalli ridge. Rajput kings raised the first in the twelfth century; the sultans who displaced them built Siri, Tughlaqabad, Jahanpanah and Firozabad, each a few kilometres from the last, and the ruins of all of them still stand among today's suburbs.
The Mughals ruled from Agra until Shah Jahan moved the capital back in the 1640s to a new walled city, Shahjahanabad, which is the Old Delhi of today. The British took the city in 1803 and briefly lost it in the revolt of 1857; half a century later they moved the capital here from Calcutta and had Lutyens and Baker lay out an imperial quarter of roundabouts and bungalows to the south. Independence in 1947 brought Partition and a refugee influx that remade the population and the map again.
Delhi falls to the armies of Muhammad of Ghor; work on the Qutub Minar begins soon after
Shah Jahan moves the Mughal capital from Agra to his new walled city of Shahjahanabad
Nader Shah's Persian army sacks the city and carries off the Peacock Throne
The revolt against British rule ends in a siege; the last Mughal emperor is exiled to Burma
Britain announces the move of its Indian capital from Calcutta to Delhi
New Delhi is formally inaugurated as the imperial capital
Independence and Partition; refugee arrivals transform the city almost overnight
The first Delhi Metro line opens, beginning the change that made the city navigable
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type D / M
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+91
Smog risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
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FAQs about Delhi
▸ When is the best time to visit Delhi?
October through March is the comfortable stretch, with dry sunny days and cool mornings, and February and March add flowering parks to it. May and June are the ones to avoid, when dry heat makes daytime sightseeing genuinely punishing, and the July to September monsoon trades the heat for humidity and sudden downpours. Air quality is a separate question from weather, and it happens to be worst inside that pleasant winter window.
▸ How bad is Delhi's air quality?
Bad, and worst in exactly the months the weather is best. From late October into January, smoke from crop stubble burning in the surrounding states, traffic and construction dust, and a winter temperature inversion that traps all of it, push fine-particulate readings to among the highest of any large city in the world. Late October and November are the peak. This is an air problem rather than a weather one: those same days are dry, mild and sunny. Most short-trip visitors accept it, carry a well-fitting particulate mask for the worst days and choose a hotel with air purifiers. Anyone with asthma or another respiratory condition, and families with small children, should take it seriously and consider February and March instead, at the clean end of the same good-weather window. The air is at its cleanest during and just after the monsoon.
▸ Does winter fog really disrupt flights and trains?
Yes, and it is worth planning around. Dense fog settles over the northern plains on late December and January mornings, and both the airport and the trains running out of Delhi can lose hours to it, occasionally most of a day. In that window book departures for the afternoon rather than dawn, leave real slack before any onward connection, and treat an overnight train's stated arrival time as optimistic.
▸ How many days do you need in Delhi?
Two full days covers the headline monuments in the old city and the south at a brisk pace. Three is the honest minimum if you also want to eat properly and see the quieter tombs, and four or five lets you add Agra and a slower second look.
▸ Is Delhi safe for visitors?
Violent crime against tourists is rare; the everyday problems are scams and hassle. The classic one works the area around New Delhi Railway Station and the airport: a driver or a walk-in tourist office tells you your hotel is closed, full or burnt down and offers an alternative. Book direct, use app cabs or the official prepaid taxi counter, and never let a driver take you somewhere you did not name. Delhi also has a poor record on harassment of women, and solo women travellers generally prefer app cabs to street autos after dark and use the women-only carriage at the front of every metro train.
▸ Is Delhi expensive?
The top end of the hotel and restaurant scene is among the priciest in India, but the everyday city is cheap. The metro, street food and the state craft emporia all cost very little, and you can eat extremely well without going near a hotel restaurant.
▸ Can you visit the Taj Mahal as a day trip from Delhi?
Easily, and most people do. A fast morning train reaches Agra in about two hours, which leaves time for the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort before an evening return. The Taj is closed to visitors on Fridays, and trains book out well ahead in the winter season.
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