Delhi 4 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Four days is where Delhi stops feeling like a checklist. The first three days cover Old Delhi, the major ASI monuments, and the Lotus Temple/Akshardham pairing; day four peels off into Lodhi Garden and the local markets that most 3-day trips skip entirely. Shorter or longer versions of this same spine live in our 3-day and 6-day itineraries.
Book these before you go: an Old Delhi food and heritage walk , an alternative operator on Viator , and a hotel near Khan Market or South Delhi with easy Metro access for the market-heavy fourth day.
| Day | Focus | Neighborhood |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk food crawl | Old Delhi |
| Day 2 | Humayun’s Tomb, Qutub Minar, India Gate, Connaught Place | South & New Delhi |
| Day 3 | Lotus Temple, Akshardham, Hauz Khas Village | New Delhi & South Delhi |
| Day 4 | Lodhi Garden, Karol Bagh or Sarojini Nagar markets | Central & West Delhi |
Day 1: Old Delhi
Red Fort opens 9:30am, closed Mondays, foreigner entry around INR 600 (book online through ASI to skip the queue). Go at opening, before the tour groups and the heat both arrive. Jama Masjid is a short walk away: free courtyard entry, a INR 300 photography permit, and a INR 100 climb up the southern minaret for the best rooftop view over Old Delhi.
Lunch at Karim’s, running since 1913, then Paranthe Wali Gali for stuffed fried parathas under INR 150. A cycle rickshaw through Chandni Chowk beats walking blind through the crowd; agree the fare first, since nothing here is metered. Evening: the lanes as the shops light up.
Day 2: New Delhi and the monuments
Humayun’s Tomb, foreigner entry around INR 550, bookable through ASI , opens at sunrise and previews the Taj Mahal’s design by seventy years while drawing a fraction of the Red Fort’s crowds. Qutub Minar (also around INR 550) sits close enough for the same morning; the minaret has been closed to climbing since a fatal 1981 stampede, so the visit centers on the Iron Pillar and the ground-level view of the tower.
Afternoon: India Gate and Kartavya Path, best at early evening. Finish at Connaught Place for dinner.
Day 3: Spiritual Delhi and Hauz Khas Village
The Lotus Temple is free, closed Mondays without exception. Akshardham’s main hall is also free; the exhibitions (around INR 250) and the evening water show (around INR 90) are separately ticketed, and phones, cameras, and bags aren’t allowed inside at all, so use the entrance lockers. In the afternoon, Hauz Khas Village pairs a 14th-century madrasa and reservoir with a dense cluster of cafes and boutiques, a genuinely odd and worthwhile combination.
Day 4: Lodhi Garden and the markets
Start with a morning walk through Lodhi Garden, scattered with 15th and 16th-century Lodhi and Sayyid-era tombs and considerably calmer than anywhere you’ve been the last three days. From there, pick one market rather than both: Sarojini Nagar for fashion or Karol Bagh for electronics and everyday shopping, each with a genuinely different character. Bargaining is expected at both; a vendor’s opening price is rarely their real one.
Should you add Akshardham if you’re short on time?
Yes, if you can spare half a day, because the free darshan hall alone is worth the trip even without the paid exhibitions. The catch most guides don’t mention: no phones, cameras, or bags of any kind are allowed inside, and everything gets locked up at the entrance, which surprises a lot of first-time visitors who show up planning to photograph it.
Is one market enough, or should you do both?
One, unless you have real time to spare. Sarojini Nagar and Karol Bagh are both worth a visit but serve different purposes (fashion versus electronics and household goods), and treating them as one exhausting crawl in a single afternoon means rushing both instead of properly browsing either.
Getting around and staying safe
Metro fares run INR 11 to INR 64 by distance (per DMRC’s official fare schedule ); at four days, a three-day Tourist Smart Card (INR 500) plus single tickets for the last day is the cheapest combination. Drink bottled water only, and keep an eye out for the “hotel is closed” tout scam at transit hubs and the fake “government tourist office” near Connaught Place; the only genuine one sits at 88 Janpath.
For a tighter or longer version of this trip, see our 3-day , 5-day and 6-day Delhi itineraries, our full Delhi guide , or the honest verdict on Red Fort .