Delhi: The City That Overwhelms, Then Rewards

The first morning in Delhi will probably be too much. The traffic, the noise, the scale, the smell of diesel and marigolds and something frying somewhere – it arrives all at once and the instinct is to retreat to the hotel. Don’t. The city rewards persistence, and the people who leave after two days saying it was too chaotic have missed the thing that makes it worth the chaos.

Delhi is the capital and the largest metropolitan area in India, a city of 30 million people spread across what is effectively a palimpsest of different civilisations. The ruins of at least seven distinct cities lie within or near modern Delhi, from the 12th-century Qutb complex in the south to Shah Jahan’s 17th-century Mughal capital in the north. The British colonial administrative centre sits between them. Navigating it requires the metro, which is excellent; everything else is negotiable.

Old Delhi

Shahjahanabad – what everyone calls Old Delhi – was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan between 1639 and 1648, the same man who built the Taj Mahal. The main landmarks here cluster around Chandni Chowk and are walkable from each other.

Jama Masjid is India’s largest mosque, built 1644-1656, with a courtyard that holds 25,000 worshippers at prayer. Entry is free; dress modestly and remove shoes before entering. The view from the south minaret (small fee) over the mosque and the surrounding rooftops of Old Delhi is one of the better city panoramas available in India for a few rupees. The mosque is a functioning religious site, not a museum; act accordingly.

Chandni Chowk runs west from the Red Fort and is dense, loud, and rewarding if you go before 11am. The lanes running off it each specialise: silver jewellery in one alley, wedding supplies in another, spices in a third. The spice market (Khari Baoli) at the western end is the largest wholesale spice market in Asia and smells like nowhere else. Karim’s on Gali Kababian near the mosque has been serving Mughlai food since 1913. The nihari (slow-cooked mutton shank stew) and seekh kebabs are what you go for.

Red Fort (Lal Qila), built 1639-1648, is the main Mughal palace complex at the eastern end of Chandni Chowk. Entry is around 550 Rupees for foreigners. The grounds are large; the restored palace apartments – the Diwan-i-Am (hall of public audience) and Diwan-i-Khas (hall of private audience) – are worth seeing for the inlaid marble and the Mughal spatial logic of increasingly private access. Go as early as it opens (around 9:30am) to avoid the afternoon crowds.

New Delhi

Lutyens’ Delhi, the colonial administrative centre built from the 1910s onwards by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker, is entirely different from Old Delhi – wide boulevards, bungalows on large plots, and the grand imperial axis running from Rashtrapati Bhavan (the presidential palace) to India Gate. The scale is colonial in the most deliberate sense: it was designed to express power over a subcontinent.

India Gate is a memorial arch commemorating the 70,000 Indian soldiers who died in World War I. The surrounding parkland functions as a city park and fills with families in the evenings.

Humayun’s Tomb (built 1570) is one of the finest Mughal monuments in India and the direct architectural prototype for the Taj Mahal, built 83 years earlier. UNESCO-listed, far less crowded than Agra, and better in certain respects because you can actually see the proportions without fighting through crowds. Entry around 600 Rupees for foreigners. If you’re doing Agra anyway, Humayun’s Tomb gives you the template; if you’re not, this is worth the argument that the Taj’s predecessors are as important as the final achievement.

Qutb Minar, a 72-metre minaret from the 12th century in south Delhi, forms the centrepiece of a complex of early Delhi Sultanate monuments. Climbing has been prohibited since 1981, but the exterior carvings are extraordinary from ground level. Entry around 550 Rupees for foreigners. In the courtyard, the 7-metre Ashoka Pillar of solid iron – forged in the 4th-5th century and completely rust-free after 1,600 years – is one of those details that stops you. Metallurgists still don’t have a completely satisfying explanation for the corrosion resistance, though phosphoric content in the forging process is the current leading theory.

Where to Eat

Karim’s in Old Delhi (as above) remains the essential stop for Mughlai food. For modern Indian cooking, Indian Accent at The Manor in Friends Colony is consistently rated among India’s best restaurants – creative interpretations of Indian cooking using modern technique. Book several weeks ahead.

Bukhara at ITC Maurya in Chanakyapuri is the landmark Northwest Frontier cuisine restaurant. The dal bukhara (black lentils, slow-cooked for 18 hours) has been on the menu since the restaurant opened in 1977 and is replicated (badly) everywhere; the original justifies the reputation.

For something that costs almost nothing and is excellent: the parathas at the Moolchand Parathe Wali stall near the Moolchand flyover underpass. The lanes behind Khan Market have several good South Indian restaurants that serve dosas and filter coffee at neighbourhood prices.

Where to Stay

The Lodhi in Golf Links is the finest hotel in Delhi – 39 rooms in a low-rise building with a garden, genuine quiet in a noisy city. The Leela Palace near Khan Market is a close second for luxury at a large-hotel scale. Mid-range: The Manor in Friends Colony combines a good restaurant and 16 well-designed rooms. Bloomrooms near the metro offers clean, practical budget accommodation close to transit.

Getting Around

Delhi Metro is one of the best systems in Asia: clean, cheap, well-maintained, and covers most major sites. A tourist day card (around 200 Rupees) handles unlimited metro travel. Use Uber or Ola from within the app for taxis; avoid street taxis. Auto-rickshaws work for short distances – agree a price before getting in or insist on the meter.

Best months: October through March. April through June is hot enough (40C+) to make sightseeing actively unpleasant. July through September is monsoon: humid, wet, and sometimes flooded. Most people plan Delhi as part of the Golden Triangle (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur) and three days minimum makes the logistics worthwhile; two days feels rushed and rewards the negative first impression.