Delhi Travel Guide: Monuments, Markets and Planning Your Days

Delhi's sights are spread across a large city, so plan them by area: the Mughal tombs and gardens, the government quarter around India Gate, the walled city of Old Delhi, and the Qutb Minar with Mehrauli. Closing days and practical points below come from official sources; to see them with a guide, browse our Delhi tours and experiences.

Humayun's Tomb

Humayun's Tomb is the garden tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun, built in the 16th century: a red sandstone mausoleum under a marble double dome, standing in a charbagh, a square garden divided into four by causeways. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) credits it with setting the fashion that the Taj Mahal at Agra brought to its peak, and it has been a World Heritage Site since 1993. It opens every day from sunrise, and the nearest metro station is JLN Stadium.

Qutb Minar complex

The Qutb Minar rises 72.5 metres at Mehrauli. Qutbuddin Aibak laid its foundation in 1199, and his successor Iltutmish added three more storeys. The walled complex around it holds the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, the earliest surviving mosque of the Delhi Sultans, an iron pillar carrying a fourth-century Sanskrit inscription in the Brahmi script, the Alai Darwaza gateway of 1311 and Iltutmish's tomb of 1235. Together they are a World Heritage Site, and the nearest metro station is Qutab Minar.

India Gate and Kartavya Path

India Gate is a 42-metre sandstone arch designed by Edwin Lutyens as a memorial to the Indian soldiers who died in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War, and it was dedicated in 1931. Kartavya Path, the former Rajpath, runs from the National War Memorial beside it to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the Republic Day parade passes along it every 26 January. The memorial, inaugurated in 2019, honours the soldiers who have died for India since independence. The arch is floodlit after dark and the area is open all day, though some parts close to visitors at night.

Rashtrapati Bhavan and Amrit Udyan

The President's house, Rashtrapati Bhavan, was designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker and completed in 1929, with 340 rooms over four floors. Visits are booked in advance on its official visitor website, with separate circuits for the main building, the museum and the Amrit Udyan gardens, and a Change of Guard ceremony. The gardens open to the public only for announced periods, typically from early February, so check the dates before you plan around them. Our New Delhi travel guide covers this government quarter on its own.

Old Delhi

Shahjahanabad, the walled city the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan founded in 1638 and now known as Old Delhi, holds the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and the bazaars of Chandni Chowk. Give it at least half a day and explore it on foot or by cycle-rickshaw. Our Old Delhi travel guide covers its sights, lanes and food in detail.

Swaminarayan Akshardham

Swaminarayan Akshardham is a Hindu temple complex inaugurated in 2005, built around a traditional mandir, with exhibition halls, a cultural boat ride and a water show after sunset. It is closed on Mondays. Phones, cameras and other electronics are not allowed inside, though there is a cloakroom, and the dress code asks for shoulders, upper arms and knees to be covered. Akshardham metro station is about 350 metres from the entrance.

Lotus Temple

The Lotus Temple is the Bahá'í House of Worship, dedicated in December 1986. Its 27 free-standing, marble-clad petals, arranged in clusters of three, form nine sides with nine doors opening into a central hall, and people of every faith are welcome inside. It is closed on Mondays, and Kalkaji Mandir metro station is about 500 metres away.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

About half a kilometre from Connaught Place, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib stands on the site of the mansion where Guru Har Krishan, the eighth Sikh Guru, stayed in 1664 and helped the sick during a smallpox and cholera epidemic. Water from its sarovar, the holy tank, is still given to people seeking healing. The gurudwara is open round the clock, and volunteers serve free meals in its langar, the community kitchen, to thousands of people a day. Cover your head and shoulders before going in.

Lodhi Garden and Safdarjung's Tomb

Lodhi Garden is a public park dotted with tombs, mosques and bridges of the Sayyid and Lodi periods, among them the octagonal tombs of Muhammad Shah and Sikandar Lodi and the square, domed Bara Gumbad and Shish Gumbad. Safdarjung's Tomb was built in 1753–54 for Safdarjung, viceroy of Awadh under the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah, and is the last enclosed garden tomb in Delhi in the tradition of Humayun's, on a smaller scale. Both are open daily; Jor Bagh is the nearest metro station to the tomb.

Purana Qila

Purana Qila, the Old Fort, has massive gateways and walls built by Humayun for his new capital, Dinpanah, and the work was carried on by Sher Shah Suri after he displaced him. The fort is said to stand on the site of Indraprastha, the most ancient of Delhi's many cities. It is open every day of the week.

Hauz Khas and Mehrauli Archaeological Park

Hauz Khas, the royal tank, is a reservoir first dug under Alauddin Khalji to supply his city of Siri. Firoz Shah Tughlaq later cleared it and built a madrasa in 1352, a mosque, domed pavilions and his own tomb along its banks. Next to the Qutb complex, Mehrauli Archaeological Park spreads over about 200 acres with around a hundred monuments from five centuries, among them the Jamali Kamali mosque, Quli Khan's tomb and the Rajon ki Baoli stepwell.

Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah

The shrine of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya is one of Delhi's major attractions. Within its precinct are a tank, the tomb of the poet Amir Khusrau and the grave of Jahanara, Shah Jahan's daughter, and fairs mark the death anniversaries of the saint and of Amir Khusrau each year.

Jantar Mantar and Agrasen ki Baoli

Two short stops in central Delhi. Jantar Mantar is the observatory Maharaja Jai Singh of Jaipur built in 1724, a set of large astronomical instruments reached from Rajiv Chowk metro station. Agrasen ki Baoli, on Hailey Road, is a stepwell of 108 steps, 60 metres long and 15 metres wide, believed to date from the 14th century.

National Museum and Raj Ghat

The National Museum holds more than 200,000 artworks, sculptures and manuscripts, from the Indus Valley Civilisation to the Mughal empire, though only a fraction is on display at any time; it is closed on Mondays and national holidays, and it is reached from Central Secretariat metro station. Raj Ghat, near the Yamuna, is the austere memorial to Mahatma Gandhi where his last rites were held on 31 January 1948.

Eat your way through the old city: Chandni Chowk's parathas, chaat and sweets are reason enough for an evening, and our Old Delhi street food walk takes you there with a local guide. For history on foot, our Old Delhi heritage walk covers the main bazaar street, the Jama Masjid and the lanes behind them.

Shop for crafts at Dilli Haat INA, an open-air bazaar set up by Delhi Tourism with the NDMC and the Ministry of Textiles' handicrafts and handlooms offices, where craft stalls from all over the country sit beside food stalls from different states. It is open daily, next to Dilli Haat-INA metro station. The state government emporiums on Baba Kharak Singh Marg sell handicrafts from across India under one roof.

Make a day trip. Agra and the Taj Mahal are 203 km away by road, Mathura 147 km and Jaipur 258 km, and the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays. Our Agra travel guide, Jaipur travel guide and Mathura and Vrindavan travel guide cover each in depth.

Delhi Tourism recommends October to March, and the IMD's 1991–2020 averages for Safdarjung show why. January days average about 20°C and nights 7.5°C, while in May the daily maximum averages almost 40°C. July and August are the wettest months, with about 196 mm and 227 mm of rain, more than half of the year's 762 mm; the monsoon normally reaches Delhi around 27 June and withdraws around 25 September.

Winter has two catches. Safdarjung averages about 19 foggy days in December and 22 in January, and the IMD warns that dense fog can disrupt flights, trains and road journeys, so leave slack between connections. Calm, cold spells also trap pollution, and the Commission for Air Quality Management then imposes graded restrictions across the region. Our best time to visit Delhi guide takes the year month by month.

Two full days cover the main sights at an easy pace, and a third adds museums, markets and Akshardham. A plan that works around the Monday closures:

• Day 1: Old Delhi in the morning, Raj Ghat, then India Gate and Kartavya Path as the light fades.
• Day 2: Humayun's Tomb and the Nizamuddin shrine, Lodhi Garden and Safdarjung's Tomb, then Hauz Khas, the Qutb Minar and Mehrauli in the afternoon. Humayun's Tomb, Lodhi Garden and Safdarjung's Tomb open daily, so this day suits a Monday.
• Day 3: Akshardham or the Lotus Temple, the National Museum, Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and Connaught Place, and Dilli Haat in the evening.

If Delhi is one stop on a longer route, the six-day Golden Triangle Tour gives it one sightseeing day: Old Delhi in the morning, then India Gate and Humayun's Tomb in the afternoon, before the drive to Agra. With only a few hours between flights, see our India layover itineraries.