How to Visit Delhi, India
- 1). Arrive in Delhi. Flights from New York to Delhi (economy round-trip) range from about $800 to $1,500 or more, depending on the carrier and time of year. You'll land at Indira Gandhi International Airport. Catch a cab (there are lines of them waiting outside the terminal) to your hotel.
- 2). Visit Old Delhi. This is perhaps the most culturally intense area of the city. With the Jama Masjid (India's largest mosque) in its center, Old Delhi is an amalgam of winding streets and alleys bursting with shops and crammed with people buying and selling everything from sweets and silver to clothes, books, fireworks, and auto parts. Old Delhi is also home to the Red Fort, an impressive Mogul edifice.
- 3). Visit the Qutab Minar. The Qutab Minar is a tall spire built centuries ago by a conquering Muslim invader and ruler, but the spire is only part of the attraction. Surrounding the Qutab Minar are numerous ruins dating back hundreds of years.
- 4). Visit Sarojini, Connaught Place and Dilli Hat. All three of these are bazaars, or markets, usually teeming with people and wares of every kind. Sarojini tends to lean more toward clothing, while Dilli Hat is a specialized market that invites craftsmen and shopkeepers from all over India to come and sell for a certain period of time; as such, you can find all sorts of things there. Connaught Place is perhaps Delhi's most famous market, huge in size as well as in variety.
- 5). Visit Tuglakabad, located on the outskirts of the city. Tuglakabad is one of the most impressive ruins you may ever see--an entire city abandoned and crumbling out in the desert. Its walls and ramparts are massive and its old rooms and passageways are impressive and often in remarkably good shape. But beware--the place is crawling with monkeys.
- 6). Eat buttered naan and murgh makhni at Moti Mahal, one of India's most famous restaurants. Murgh makhni is the place's specialty, and it never disappoints.
- 7). Visit the Lodi Gardens, Humayun's Tomb, India Gate, the embassy district and the imposing government buildings area. The truth is, you could spend weeks in Delhi and not see everything worth seeing.