New Delhi

The currency is the Indian rupee (INR, ₹), and ₹100 was worth about R$5.40 in late September 2026. Common price ranges: street chai ₹10–30, street meal ₹60–150, dish at a simple restaurant ₹200–400, dinner for two at a mid-range place ₹1,500–2,500, beer at a bar ₹300–600, metro ₹11–64, short auto-rickshaw ride ₹60–150 and 5 km by Uber ₹150–250. A hostel bed runs ₹500–900, a clean mid-range hotel in Connaught Place or South Delhi ₹3,000–7,000 and high-end addresses from ₹20,000. Local payments run on UPI (PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm), which requires an Indian bank account. Foreigners can get a prepaid UPI wallet at airport counters, but the simplest approach is a card at larger restaurants and shops plus cash in small notes of ₹10, ₹20, ₹50 and ₹100 for the street, autos and temples. ATMs are easy to find and usually cap withdrawals at ₹10,000 per transaction, with the local bank's fee added to your own. A 5% to 10% tip is customary at restaurants with table service, and ₹50–100 for a porter or guide. A court ruling made the service charge printed on the bill optional, and you can ask to have it removed without argument.

From the airport: Airport Express at T3, Magenta Line at T1

Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) lies about 16 km southwest of Connaught Place and has three terminals in operation, two of them with the metro at the door. The orange line, the Airport Express, links Terminal 3 to New Delhi Railway Station in about 20 minutes for ₹60–70, running from about 4:45am to 11:30pm; Terminal 1 is on the Magenta Line. A ride-hailing taxi costs ₹500–900 to the center and takes 40 to 80 minutes depending on the hour. Late at night, go for the police prepaid taxi counter inside the arrivals hall. Long-distance trains leave from four stations: New Delhi (NDLS), Old Delhi (DLI), Hazrat Nizamuddin (NZM) and Anand Vihar. Buy tickets on the IRCTC website or app, and you'll dodge the fake agencies on the Paharganj sidewalk. Since February 22, 2026, the full Namo Bharat corridor, the 82 km regional train, links Sarai Kale Khan to Meerut in about 58 minutes, for ₹20 to ₹150.

Metro: about 390 km and ten lines

The metro is the practical way to get around: about 390 km, more than 280 stations and ten color-coded lines, running from about 6am to 11pm, with two new Phase 4 stretches opened on March 8, 2026. Fares were revised in August 2025 and run from ₹11 to ₹64 a ride, with 10% off on the smart card. There are 1- and 3-day tourist passes (about ₹200 and ₹500, with a refundable deposit) and QR-code tickets in the DMRC Momentum 2.0 app. At the entrance, bags go through an X-ray scanner and passengers pass through a metal detector and security screening, and the first car is reserved for women; a man who boards by mistake is politely asked to leave. Above ground, DTC buses and electric buses cover what the metro doesn't reach and offer free travel through Pink Saheli to eligible Delhi residents aged 12 and older; visitors should not count on this benefit. Auto-rickshaws have meters (about ₹30 flag fall), but in practice you negotiate, while on Uber, Ola or Rapido the fare is fixed in the app. Walking works well in Lutyens's Delhi, Lodhi Garden, Mehrauli and the lanes of Old Delhi, and badly almost everywhere else: the sidewalk vanishes mid-block, crossing the street means negotiating with traffic and cycling only makes sense in parks.

Delhi is a big, manageable city, and the most common risks are minor: travel-agency and rickshaw-driver scams, pickpockets in crowds (New Delhi Railway Station, Paharganj, Chandni Chowk, packed metro cars) and traffic. Crossing the street is the most dangerous thing you'll do all day, because India has one of the highest road-death rates in the world. Never cross alone: go in the middle of a group of locals and at their pace. Women traveling solo report verbal harassment and groping in tight spaces. The practical measures local women use are the first metro car, reserved for them, ride-hailing apps with shared trips instead of hailing a car on the street after 10pm, and avoiding empty buses at night. Note the numbers before you head out: general emergency 112, police 100, ambulance 102, women's helpline 1091; there are tourist police posts at the main monuments. After a car exploded next to the Red Fort metro station on November 10, 2025, killing fifteen people, bag screening became stricter at metro stations, monuments and markets, and periodic alerts lead to occasional street closures. Expect longer lines and carry ID. On the health side, the most concrete risks are the air from November to January and badly handled food or water in summer.

Shoes off, always

Take your shoes off at the entrance of temples, mosques, gurudwaras, dargahs and most homes. Free or ₹10–20 shoe check is usually available; bring socks, because stone floors scorch in the afternoon and turn icy in January.

Head covered at gurudwaras and dargahs

At Bangla Sahib and in Nizamuddin, men and women cover their heads; scarves are lent at the door. At Sikh temples you also wash your feet in the channel before entering.

Right hand for eating, giving and receiving

The left hand is considered unclean. Hand over money, a card or food with your right hand, even if you're left-handed, and eat with your right hand when eating with your fingers.

Namaste instead of a handshake

Press your palms together at chest height and say namaste: the gesture works with everyone and settles the question of how to greet. Many women don't shake hands with men, so wait for a hand to be offered before offering yours.

Clothing covering shoulders and knees

Covered shoulders and knees are required in temples, mosques, gurdwaras and dargahs, and they are also the practical norm in Shahjahanabad and residential neighborhoods. Men's shorts are rare outside gyms and tourist areas, and light pants handle the heat just fine.

Bargain where bargaining is expected

Bazaars like Chandni Chowk, Janpath, Sarojini Nagar and Karol Bagh expect haggling, and the first price quoted to a foreigner is usually two to three times the real value. In shops with price tags, restaurants, pharmacies and the metro, the price is fixed, and bargaining looks bad.

Whoever approaches you near the station

Accepting information from someone who approaches you on the street near New Delhi Railway Station or in Paharganj. The standard scam is claiming your hotel has closed, burned down or been shut by the authorities, then steering you to a “government tourism office” that sells an expensive package. The only official office is India Tourism at 88 Janpath. Any other address offered to you on the sidewalk is a con.

Rickshaw with no price and no app

Getting into an auto-rickshaw with no agreed fare and no app. Drivers rarely switch on the meter for foreigners, and the route can turn into a stop at a carpet shop that pays the driver a commission. Settle the price first or book through Uber, Ola or Rapido.

Planning by kilometer

Planning the day by distance in kilometers. Twelve kilometers in Delhi can take 70 minutes by car at rush hour and 20 by metro, so build the itinerary around metro lines, not the map.

On Mondays, the Red Fort and Akshardham close

Showing up on a Monday. The Red Fort and Akshardham close Mondays, Humayun's Tomb and the Qutub Minar open every day, and the Jama Masjid suspends visits during the five daily prayer times.

Tap water and raw salad

Drinking tap water, accepting ice of unknown origin, or eating raw salad at a street stall. Choose sealed bottled water, thoroughly cooked food served hot, and fruit you peel yourself. A busy stall may turn food over quickly, but a line does not prove good hygiene or eliminate contamination risk.

नमस्ते: namaste (namastê)

Hello and goodbye, palms together; works for anyone, any time of day

शुक्रिया / धन्यवाद: shukriya / dhanyavaad (chukriá / dhanniavád)

Thank you; the first is Urdu and more common on the street, the second is Hindi and more formal

कितने का है? Kitne ka hai? (kitnê ka rê?)

How much does it cost? The phrase that opens any bazaar negotiation

बहुत महँगा है: bahut mehenga hai (baút mehengá rê)

That's very expensive: the polite counter to the first price offered

मीटर से चलिए: meter se chaliye (mítar se tchalie)

Please go by the meter: said when getting into an auto-rickshaw

मुझे नहीं चाहिए: mujhe nahin chahiye (mujê nahín tchahiê)

I don't want it, thanks: a firm, polite refusal to insistent vendors

The Yamuna and the ridge

Delhi sits on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, at about 216 m elevation, cut north to south by the Yamuna River, which runs along the east side of the territory and long ago stopped being usable: the urban stretch takes sewage from more than twenty drains, and pollution foam is visible at the ghats. The only relief is the Delhi Ridge, a quartzite spur of the Aravallis that enters the city in four segments and underlies the Northern Ridge, Sanjay Van park and the Mehrauli area. It's also what's left of dry forest and the reason the city has monkeys and peacocks in residential neighborhoods.

Climate and the monsoon

The climate is semi-arid with a monsoon: June to September account for nearly all the roughly 650–800 mm of annual rainfall, and the pre-monsoon summer reaches 45–48°C.

Delhi has three street grids glued together

The city's layout combines three incompatible logics pressed up against one another: the organic lanes of Shahjahanabad, Lutyens's radial geometry of hexagons and circles, and the grid colonies built after 1947 and in the 1980s, each with its own central market block. Around it, the NCR sprawls across Haryana and Uttar Pradesh with no administrative seam, which is why transport and air quality are managed by interstate councils.

The institutional capital of culture

Delhi is the institutional capital of Indian culture: home to the Sahitya Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi, the National School of Drama (founded in 1959) and the theater cluster of Mandi House (Kamani, Sri Ram Centre, Shri Ram Bharatiya Kala Kendra) where you'll find a Hindi-theater, kathak-dance or Hindustani-music season running almost every week. The National Museum, on Janpath, holds the bronze Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-daro, from around 2500 BCE, and Buddhist relics attributed to the Buddha himself; there's long been a plan to move the collection to the North and South Blocks, so check the situation before you go. The National Gallery of Modern Art, in Jaipur House beside India Gate, covers Indian art of the last two hundred years, and the India Art Fair, in February, is South Asia's leading art fair.

Urdu poetry: Delhi's oldest living layer

The oldest and liveliest layer is Urdu poetry and Sufi music. Mirza Ghalib died in 1869 at his haveli in Ballimaran, now a small museum, and the tradition of mushaira (the gathering where poetry is recited and the audience answers aloud) survives in neighborhoods like Nizamuddin and Jamia Nagar. On Thursday nights, the qawwali sung at the Nizamuddin dargah links straight back to the 14th century, when Amir Khusrau formalized the genre. In parallel, Delhi has become, since the 2000s, the center of Hindi and Punjabi rap, with scenes born in outer neighborhoods like Khirki and Trilokpuri.

Cricket, multiplexes and a short night

Day to day, the city splits its time between cricket at Arun Jaitley Stadium (the former Feroz Shah Kotla, from 1883), movies in mall multiplexes and a nightlife concentrated in Hauz Khas Village, Aerocity and Connaught Place. Note that the legal drinking age in Delhi is 25, and that January 26, August 15 and October 2 are dry days. The city is also a working religious mosaic: Hindu temples, the Jama Masjid, the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the Bahá'í Lotus Temple (1986), Anglican cathedrals and Jain temples share the same neighborhood without anyone locally remarking on it.

City of Djinns: William Dalrymple (1993)

A year of living in Delhi, weaving the city's present together with its layers: 1947, 1857, the Mughals, the Sultanate. It's the book that teaches you to see the seven overlapping cities.

Twilight in Delhi: Ahmed Ali (1940)

A novel written in Shahjahanabad itself, about a Muslim family between 1911 and 1919, published while the culture it describes was still standing. It records what Partition would dismantle seven years later.

Monsoon Wedding: Mira Nair (2001)

A middle-class Punjabi wedding in south Delhi, filmed in real houses, gardens and markets. It shows the city built by the refugees of 1947, which barely appears in the guidebooks.