Delhi 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Seven days is the full city, in the city, no Agra scramble tacked onto the end. Days 1 through 6 cover Old Delhi, the four ASI monuments, Akshardham, the crafts markets, and Agrasen ki Baoli; day seven is a deliberate slow buffer for a repeat visit and last-minute shopping rather than another new neighborhood. For a tighter trip, see our 6-day itinerary; for the essentials only, our 3-day .
Book these before you go: an Old Delhi food and heritage walk , a second operator on Viator , and a hotel near Connaught Place or South Delhi for a full week’s worth of Metro access.
| 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 5 | Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Dilli Haat, Khan Market | Central Delhi |
| Day 6 | Agrasen ki Baoli, Greater Kailash food crawl | Central & South Delhi |
| Day 7 | Repeat visit, National Rail Museum, last-minute shopping | Flexible |
Day 1: Old Delhi
Red Fort opens 9:30am, closed Mondays, foreigner entry around INR 600 (book online through ASI ). Go at opening. Jama Masjid, a short walk away, has free courtyard entry, a INR 300 photography permit, and a INR 100 minaret climb worth every rupee.
Lunch at Karim’s, running since 1913, then Paranthe Wali Gali for parathas under INR 150. A cycle rickshaw through Chandni Chowk beats walking blind; agree the fare first.
Day 2: New Delhi and the monuments
Humayun’s Tomb, foreigner entry around INR 550, bookable through ASI , previews the Taj Mahal’s design by seventy years with far fewer crowds. Qutub Minar (also around INR 550) fits the same morning; the minaret has been closed to climbing since a fatal 1981 stampede, so the visit is the Iron Pillar and the view from ground level.
Afternoon: India Gate and Kartavya Path, best at early evening, then Connaught Place for dinner.
Day 3: Spiritual Delhi and Hauz Khas Village
Lotus Temple is free, closed Mondays without exception. Akshardham’s darshan hall is free too; exhibitions (around INR 250) and the water show (around INR 90) cost extra, and phones, cameras, and bags aren’t allowed inside, so use the lockers. Afternoon: Hauz Khas Village’s madrasa, reservoir, and cafe scene.
Day 4: Lodhi Garden and the markets
Morning walk through Lodhi Garden’s Lodhi and Sayyid-era tombs. Afternoon: one market, Sarojini Nagar or Karol Bagh, not both.
Day 5: Bangla Sahib and the crafts markets
Gurudwara Bangla Sahib’s free langar feeds thousands daily through volunteer labor; eat there with real respect. Dilli Haat and Khan Market fill the rest of the day with crafts shopping and a proper lunch.
Day 6: Agrasen ki Baoli and South Delhi
Agrasen ki Baoli is a 14th-century stepwell hidden behind the office towers near Connaught Place, 108 steps down to near-silence; almost no first-timer knows to look for it, and entry is free. Afternoon: Greater Kailash-1 M Block Market for a genuine cross-section of North Indian street food at half the price of Central Delhi.
Day 7: The flex day most itineraries skip
Don’t book anything new for day seven. Go back to whichever monument from days 1-3 you liked most, ideally at a different time of day than your first visit; Humayun’s Tomb in late-afternoon light or the Red Fort at a quieter hour both reward a second look. If you’d rather see something new, the National Rail Museum is a genuinely underrated, uncrowded alternative to another monument. Save the afternoon for last-minute shopping and packing, and use the official prepaid taxi booth or the Airport Express Metro for the trip back to the airport, not anyone who offers first.
What do you actually do with a 7th day in Delhi?
Repeat a favorite, don’t add a new neighborhood. By day seven you’ve covered Old Delhi, the major monuments, the modern sights, and the markets; the marginal value of squeezing in one more new place is lower than revisiting the best thing you saw at a quieter hour or better light.
Is a week too long for just Delhi?
Not if you use it properly. A full week lets you see the city at a genuinely unhurried pace, two monuments a day at most, with slack days built in for the heat, the crowds, or a langar meal that runs long. It only feels too long if you try to fill every hour with a new sight instead of letting a couple of days breathe.
Getting around and staying safe
At seven days, a three-day Tourist Smart Card (INR 500) covers under half the trip; top up as needed, since fares run INR 11 to INR 64 by distance (see DMRC’s official fare schedule ). Drink bottled water only, and treat the “your hotel is closed” tout at any transit hub as a hard no, every single time.
For a tighter version of this trip, see our 5-day and 6-day Delhi itineraries, our full Delhi guide , or whether Red Fort actually earns its ticket price.