Delhi: 9 Things Worth Doing (and 3 to Skip)
Most Delhi guides try to sell you all seven of its historic cities stacked on top of each other. You don’t need that in 3-4 days. You need nine things that earn their slot on a short trip, three that don’t, and the logistics guides usually skip: what the Metro actually costs, what an ASI monument ticket runs for a foreigner, and the scam that starts before you’ve cleared the airport arrivals hall.
| Delhi essentials | |
|---|---|
| Days needed | 3-4 for the city itself (Agra and Jaipur are separate trips) |
| Best months | October, February-March (skip April-June heat and November smog) |
| Daily budget | Budget INR 2,500-4,000 / Mid-range INR 7,000-10,000 / Luxury INR 18,000+ |
| Watch for | The “your hotel is closed” tout at the airport and New Delhi station |
9 things actually worth doing in Delhi
- Red Fort at opening time, before the tour buses
- Jama Masjid, including the minaret climb
- The Chandni Chowk food crawl
- Humayun’s Tomb
- Qutub Minar complex (viewed from ground level)
- Lotus Temple
- Akshardham’s exhibition halls and evening water show
- A morning walk through Lodhi Garden
- An afternoon in Hauz Khas Village
Old Delhi is why most people actually come
The Red Fort opens at 9:30am and closes at 4:30pm, Tuesday to Sunday, closed Mondays. Foreigner entry runs around INR 600 against INR 35 for Indian and SAARC nationals, plus INR 25 if you’re carrying a video camera. Go right at opening. By 11am the Diwan-i-Am is a scrum of school groups and the Chandni Chowk heat has already set in.
Jama Masjid, a 10-minute walk away, is free to enter the courtyard, a detail that trips up a lot of visitors who’ve read that foreigners pay separately. What you do pay for: a photography permit (INR 300) and climbing the southern minaret (INR 100), which is worth every rupee for the rooftop view over Old Delhi’s rooftops and satellite dishes. Modest dress is required and robes are available at the entrance if you show up in shorts.
Between the two, Chandni Chowk is the actual highlight. Paranthe Wali Gali has sold stuffed fried parathas from the same handful of shops since the 1870s, a plate with curd and pickle for under INR 150. Karim’s, tucked in the lanes south of the mosque, has run continuously since 1913 and its nihari (slow-braised beef stew) is worth the queue. A cycle rickshaw through the lanes isn’t just transport here, it’s the way to see the market without getting flattened by a handcart; agree the fare before you get in, since rickshaws in Old Delhi aren’t metered. If navigating solo sounds like a headache, book an Old Delhi food and heritage walk on GetYourGuide and let someone else find the good stalls.
The monuments actually worth the ticket price
Humayun’s Tomb (foreigner entry around INR 550, open daily sunrise to sunset, no closure day) is the Mughal garden-tomb that architecturally previews the Taj Mahal by seventy years, and it’s routinely less crowded than the Red Fort despite being arguably more beautiful. Late afternoon light is the best time to see it.
Qutub Minar (also around INR 550 foreigner entry, open daily, roughly 7am to sunset) is a 73-metre brick minaret from 1193, and you cannot climb it. The staircase has been sealed since a stampede on December 4, 1981, killed 45 people, mostly schoolchildren, after a power cut plunged the stairwell into darkness. Anyone telling you to save time for “the view from the top” is working from an outdated guide. View it from ground level, and don’t skip the Iron Pillar nearby, a 4th-century column that hasn’t rusted in over 1,600 years for reasons metallurgists still argue about.
Lotus Temple is free, no ticket required, open 9am-7pm April through September and 9am-5:30pm October through March, closed Mondays without exception. Akshardham’s main darshan hall is also free; the exhibitions (around INR 250 for adults) and the evening water show (around INR 90) are separately ticketed. The one thing nobody warns you about: phones, cameras, and bags aren’t allowed inside Akshardham at all, and you’ll need to use the lockers at the entrance. Plan for that before you’re standing at security with nowhere to put your phone.
Book tickets for the ASI monuments online through asi.payumoney.com’s Red Fort booking page or the Humayun’s Tomb page rather than queuing at the gate. Online booking is a little cheaper and meaningfully faster.
New Delhi and Connaught Place, briefly
India Gate and the ceremonial boulevard running to Rashtrapati Bhavan is called Kartavya Path, renamed from Rajpath in September 2022. It’s free, open-air, and best visited early evening when local families take over the lawns rather than at midday in the sun. Connaught Place, the colonial-era circular market, is worth an hour for the architecture and people-watching more than the shopping itself, which is unremarkable by international standards.
Getting around: the Metro beats everything else
Delhi Metro fares run INR 11 for 0-2km up to INR 64 for 32km-plus, revised in August 2025 for the first time in eight years. A rechargeable smart card knocks 10% off every fare; a one-day Tourist Smart Card costs INR 200 (INR 50 of that a refundable deposit), a three-day version INR 500, genuinely worth it if you’re sightseeing hard. The first carriage in the direction of travel on every train is reserved for women, a real and enforced rule, not a suggestion.
Autorickshaws technically run on meters, but drivers routinely claim theirs is “broken.” Agree a fare before you get in, or use Uber/Ola’s auto option and skip the negotiation entirely. A short meter hop starts around INR 25-30. For anything near a Metro station, take the Metro; it’s faster in Delhi traffic, fixed-price, and air-conditioned.
Is the tap water safe to drink in Delhi?
No. Tap water in Delhi isn’t potable anywhere in the city, full stop. Drink bottled water only, and check the cap seal is intact before you open it, since refilled bottles are a known scam in tourist areas. Avoid raw salads and pre-cut street fruit, which are typically washed in tap water; that’s the actual mechanism behind “Delhi belly,” not spice level. Eat food that’s freshly cooked and served hot at busy, high-turnover stalls instead.
Is Delhi safe for tourists?
Mostly yes, with a handful of specific scams to know by name. The big one: a stranger at the airport or New Delhi Railway Station tells you your hotel is closed, burned down, or unreachable, then redirects you to a “travel agency” selling fake tickets and inflated tours. Walk away and verify your booking yourself. A close second is the fake “government tourist office” near Connaught Place and Paharganj; the only real one sits at 88 Janpath. Also watch for drivers who claim the ride-hailing app “crashed” mid-trip to demand inflated cash instead of the metered fare.
When to go: dodging the smog and the heat
October and February-March are the genuinely good windows: cooler, mostly dry. Summer (April-June) is brutal, with Delhi recording its hottest May and June in 74 years in 2026 and highs past 44C. November brings a real, serious air-pollution season, not generic big-city smog: AQI hit 428 (“severe”) on November 11, 2025, and 2025’s average PM2.5 sat at roughly 9 times the WHO annual guideline. If you have asthma or respiratory issues, check daily AQI (IQAir, aqicn.org) before committing to an October-through-February trip and consider an N95-style mask on the worst days.
3 things to skip
- The “five monuments in one day” bus tour. Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb, and Qutub Minar each deserve 1.5-2.5 unhurried hours; stacking all of them plus Akshardham into one day means seeing none of them properly.
- Any detour a driver suggests to a “government emporium” or gem shop. These pay commission to the driver and mark up hard on tourists; politely decline and ask to go straight to your actual destination.
- Renting a self-drive car. Delhi’s traffic patterns are genuinely unfamiliar territory even for confident drivers, and the Metro plus apps cover nearly everything a visitor needs.
Where to stay in Delhi
Connaught Place and the area around Khan Market put you closest to New Delhi’s sights with good Metro access; South Delhi (Greater Kailash, South Extension) runs calmer and more local-feeling. Paharganj is the cheapest base near the train station but also the most tout-dense part of the city, worth knowing before you book rather than after. Check current Delhi hotel rates on Booking.com and weigh the savings against the neighborhood.
How many days do you need in Delhi?
Three to four days covers the nine things above without rushing any of them. If you’re deciding between lengths, our 2-day , 3-day , 5-day and 7-day itineraries lay out exactly what fits at each length. For a closer look at whether one specific monument earns its ticket price, see our Red Fort verdict .
The one thing worth repeating from everything above: skip the rush. Delhi rewards two monuments a day and a proper lunch over five monuments and a granola bar in the back of a taxi.