Start from 76 curated places around New Delhi, IN, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Karim's
Established in 1913 by the descendant of the last Mughal court cook, Karim's Jama Masjid location is the original and still the most atmospheric — a warren of rooms and open-air cooking areas serving nihari, seekh kebabs, and mutton biryani to a clientele that has changed little in a century. The cooking is over open flame and masonry tandoors in full view.
Lakhori - Haveli Dharampura
A rooftop restaurant and courtyard dining room inside a 200-year-old haveli a five-minute walk from Jama Masjid, Lakhori serves elevated Old Delhi street food and Mughlai cooking in a space that has been awarded UNESCO recognition for its restoration. The live Kathak performance on weekend evenings is an unexpected addition that works.
Trails & outdoors
Lodhi Garden Trail
A 2.4km loop through Lodhi Garden's flat, tree-lined paths connecting the five medieval tombs scattered through the park — suitable for a morning run, a midday bird walk, or an evening circuit after work. The density of mature trees creates an almost complete canopy that keeps the path significantly cooler than the surrounding streets.
Sunder Nursery Heritage Walk
A 90-acre heritage park walk through Mughal-era gardens, lotus ponds, and six World Heritage Monuments adjacent to Humayun's Tomb — the marked trail connects the monuments while the unmarked paths meander through dense tree canopy and around the main lake. The pace is slower here than in Lodhi Garden; this is a park people use for extended afternoons, not a route to complete.
Things to do
National Gallery of Modern Art
One of the world's largest modern art museums, housed in a 1936 Jaipur House with 17,000 works tracing South Asian art from the 1850s to the present — the Raja Ravi Varma oils, the Amrita Sher-Gil canvases, and the Rabindranath Tagore watercolours form a collection that cannot be seen anywhere else in this depth. The building itself, with its circular central gallery and double-height staircase, is part of what you are visiting.
Kiran Nadar Museum of Art
India's first private museum of modern and contemporary art, based in Saket with a Noida satellite, holding a collection that emphasises South Asian artists who receive little institutional attention elsewhere — the rotating exhibitions are curated to a standard that competes with serious international galleries. Entry is free and the visitor density is low enough to see every work properly.
Landmarks & sights
Qutub Minar
A 73-metre sandstone tower begun in 1193, the Qutub Complex holds the oldest surviving mosque in India and an iron pillar that has stood for over 1,600 years without rusting — metallurgists still argue about how. Plan two hours to wander the ruins of the surrounding madrasa and the hulking Alai Darwaza gate, which crowds often skip.
Red Fort
The 17th-century walled city-within-a-city built by Shah Jahan served as the Mughal seat of power for nearly two centuries, and the evening Sound and Light Show narrates that arc with dramatic projection across the red sandstone ramparts. The Diwan-i-Khas (Hall of Private Audiences) and its elegant white marble columns are worth seeking out past the main crowd flow.