Read this before you book New Delhi

Two nights, one hotel, and roughly 14 hours of actual sightseeing. Here is the route that covers Old Delhi, Lutyens' Delhi and the Mughal south without a wasted taxi ride.

Seven days is enough to see all four historic Delhis, take two day trips and still have an afternoon doing nothing in Lodhi Garden. Here is how to spend the week, area by area.

Three days in Delhi for about ₹2,200 a day, all in. Here is where the ₹700 dorm beds actually are, which monuments charge nothing, and how to eat well for ₹300.

The same three days with a car, a guide and a hotel worth staying in. Rooms from ₹12,000 to ₹35,000, and the six meals that justify the flight.

Agra is 165 kilometres south on the Yamuna Expressway and 100 minutes by the fastest train. Here is the timetable that works, and the ₹1,300 of tickets you will need.

Jaipur is 280 kilometres south-west and now under five hours by expressway. It is a long day — here is the 06:05 train plan that makes it work, and the ₹1,000 composite ticket.

Krishna's birthplace and the town of his childhood sit 150 kilometres south on the Yamuna Expressway, close enough for a comfortable day. Here are the darshan timings that decide your schedule.

A fifteenth-century Rajasthani fort-palace 122 kilometres down NH-48, with India's first zip-line course and a nine-storey stepwell. Two and a half hours each way, and the easiest escape from Delhi.

Keoladeo National Park is a UNESCO-listed wetland 180 kilometres south, with 370-plus recorded bird species and a ₹100 bicycle. Here is how to do it between dawn and dinner.

Ten neighbourhoods compared on honest nightly rates, from ₹700 dorm beds in Paharganj to ₹30,000 suites on Dr Zakir Hussain Marg — and the metro-distance trade-offs nobody mentions in the listing photos.

Delhi has four distinct weather personalities across 12 months, temperatures spanning 5°C to 46°C, and a six-week smog window most guidebooks skip. Here is when to come, and when hotel rates halve.

The Metro moves 6 million people a day across 10 colour-coded lines for ₹10–₹60 a ride. Here is how to combine it with autos, app cabs and e-rickshaws without losing hours to traffic.

What things actually cost in Delhi, from a ₹20 samosa to a ₹6,500 tasting menu, plus daily budgets at 3 spending levels and the tipping norms locals genuinely follow.

Delhi's real risks are scams, traffic and air quality, not violent crime. Here are the 6 hustles you will actually encounter, the numbers to save, and how to move through the city like you have been here before.

Butter chicken was invented in Daryaganj, dal makhani a street away, and 28 state cuisines have canteens in this city. A dish-by-dish guide with addresses and prices.

From Asia's largest spice market to a Sunday book bazaar with 250 stalls — 12 Delhi markets worth your time, with opening days, closing days and what to actually pay.

Delhi is the best-value food city in India: 20 addresses where two people eat well for under ₹500 total, plus the hygiene rules that keep you out of trouble.

More than 20 of Delhi's best hours cost nothing at all — a 200-acre ruin field, a 24-hour free kitchen, and Thursday qawwali. Here is what is genuinely free, what costs ₹20, and which neighbourhood to book so you can walk to most of it.

Most Delhi bars call last orders by 12:30am and the metro stops around 11pm, so a good night here needs planning. Here are the six areas worth your evening, the ones that have coasted on reputation since 2016, and where to book a room if you would rather walk home than argue with an autorickshaw.

Delhi's sun sets anywhere between 5:25pm in late December and 7:25pm in mid-June, and half the good viewpoints lock their gates at the same moment. Here are 12 places to be at golden hour, with gate times, ticket prices and the neighbourhoods worth booking so you can walk back.