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1. Red Fort
FortClosed Monday
Shah Jahan built the Red Fort as the fortified palace of Shahjahanabad, the walled capital he founded when he moved the Mughal seat of power from Agra to Delhi.
- 09:30 – 16:30
- ₹35 Indian · ₹550 foreign
- 2.5 hrs
Delhi, India
9 Places to Visit in New Delhi
Also known as Delhi · NCT Delhi · Dilli
New Delhi is technically only the administrative district designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker between 1911 and 1931 — the broad ceremonial boulevards, the white colonnaded bungalows of the diplomat belt, and the Rajpath axis from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
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3. Qutub Minar
Monument
Qutub Minar rises 72.5 metres over five tapering storeys, making it the tallest brick minaret in the world, and its surface reads as a stacked record of two dynasties rather than a single builder's vision.
- 07:00 – 17:00 daily
- ₹40 Indian · ₹600 foreign
- 1.5 hrs
- 4
4. Jama Masjid
Mosque
Jama Masjid was Shah Jahan's imperial mosque for Shahjahanabad, built between 1650 and 1656 in the same red sandstone and white marble register as the Red Fort a short walk north, and it remains India's largest mosque by historical scale, with a courtyard…
- 07:00 – 12:15 and 13:45 – 18:30 daily, with closures during
- Free
- 1 hr
- 5
5. Chandni Chowk
MarketClosed Sunday
Jahanara Begum, Shah Jahan's eldest daughter, laid out Chandni Chowk in the 1650s as the principal commercial street of Shahjahanabad, running from the Red Fort's Lahore Gate to the Fatehpuri Masjid.
- Shops generally 10:00 – 20:00
- Free
- 3 hrs
- 6
6. India Gate
Memorial
India Gate is a 42-metre sandstone and granite triumphal arch designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the same architect responsible for the broader New Delhi masterplan, and completed in 1931 as a memorial to some 74,000 Indian soldiers of the British Indian Army who…
- Open 24 hours as a public monument
- Free
- 1 hr
- 7
7. Lotus Temple
TempleClosed Monday
The Lotus Temple's structure comprises 27 free-standing marble-clad petals, arranged in three ranks of nine to form a shape read universally as a lotus flower, sitting atop a podium surrounded by nine reflecting pools.
- 09:00 – 17:30
- Free
- 1 hr
- 8
8. Akshardham Temple
TempleClosed Monday
Swaminarayan Akshardham occupies 100 acres on the eastern bank of the Yamuna and was completed in 2005, built entirely without structural steel — every load-bearing element is carved stone, following construction methods drawn from the ancient Shilpa Shastra…
- Temple monument and gardens: 09:30 – 18:30
- Free
- 3.5 hrs
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9. National Museum, Delhi
MuseumClosed Monday
The National Museum's collection began not in Delhi but in London, assembled for a 1947–48 Exhibition of Indian Art at the Royal Academy that toured artefacts loaned from museums and private collections across the newly independent country.
- 10:00 – 17:00
- ₹20 Indian · ₹650 foreign
- 2 hrs
- 10
10. Lodhi Gardens
Garden
Lodhi Gardens spreads across 90 acres of landscaped lawns, mature tree cover, and formal pathways built around four surviving 15th- and 16th-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, the two ruling houses that preceded the Mughals in Delhi.
- 06:00 – 20:00 daily
- Free
- 1.5 hrs
About New Delhi
In common usage, however, the name covers the entire National Capital Territory, a 1,484-square-kilometre patchwork of colonial planning, Mughal ruins, medieval villages absorbed by expansion, and contemporary high-rises that refuses to cohere into anything like a conventional city.
For monument visitors, the itinerary divides naturally by geography and era. Shahjahanabad — Old Delhi — contains the 1638–1648 Red Fort complex and the 17th-century Jama Masjid mosque, reachable via Delhi Metro's Yellow Line at Chandni Chowk. South Delhi's Mehrauli neighbourhood, a thirty-minute Metro ride away, holds the 12th-century Qutub Minar complex, representing the earliest phase of Islamic architecture in the subcontinent. Between these extremes, Nizamuddin — accessible from the Violet Line — delivers Humayun's Tomb, the 1570 garden mausoleum that served as the direct architectural prototype for the Taj Mahal, sitting alongside the living Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin Auliya.
The Delhi Metro is the correct answer to almost every transit question. The network's four key monument corridors — Chandni Chowk (Yellow Line), Qutub Minar via HUDA City Centre (Yellow Line to Qutub Minar station), and Jangpura/Nizamuddin (Violet Line) — connect every major site with journeys under 45 minutes for ₹20–₹60. Auto-rickshaw fares should be metered in theory; in practice, quote ₹100–₹200 for cross-neighbourhood short hops and expect negotiation. App-based autos (Ola, Rapido) consistently undercut street-flagged rates.
Day trips from New Delhi
| Destination | Distance | Drive | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sultanpur National Park (Bird Sanctuary) | 50 km | 1–1.5 hours via NH 48 and the Gurugram-Farrukhnagar road | A Ramsar-listed wetland reserve drawing migratory waterfowl — including painted storks, greater flamingos, and Siberian cranes in cooler years — between November and March; a manageable half-day trip that pairs well with an early departure and a return before evening traffic builds on NH 48. |
| Neemrana Fort-Palace, Rajasthan | 122 km | 2 hours via NH 48 | A 15th-century Rajput fort converted into a heritage hotel; the stepped structure drops fourteen levels down a hillside, with a pool suspended over the Aravalli foothills. |
| Sariska Tiger Reserve | 200 km | 3 hours | Rajasthan's closest tiger reserve to Delhi, with Project Tiger population recovery ongoing; morning safaris through dry deciduous forest and ruined temples within the reserve boundary. |
| Agra | 230 km | 3–4 hours by road; 100 minutes by Gatimaan Express train | The Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, and Fatehpur Sikri can be done as an ambitious day trip on the Gatimaan Express departing Hazrat Nizamuddin at 08:10, returning by 21:35 — though two days is far more honest. |
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