Guides ·Food & drink

Chandni Chowk: the mother market and its specialist lanes

Chandni Chowk is not one market but a dozen, each lane specialising since Mughal times. Dariba Kalan sells silver and gold and has done for three centuries; Kinari Bazaar handles wedding trim, zari, sequins and tinsel; Nai Sarak is paper and textbooks; Bhagirath Palace is electrical goods and one of Asia's biggest lighting markets; Chawri Bazaar deals in wedding cards and brass. Most of it operates 11:00 to 20:00 and closes on Sunday, which is the single most useful fact in this guide and the one most visitors learn the hard way.

Go on a weekday morning, take the Yellow Line to Chandni Chowk station, and start at the Red Fort end. Hire a cycle rickshaw for ₹100–₹150 for a slow half-hour through the narrow lanes where walking is genuinely difficult at peak. Prices are wholesale-adjacent, which means good value but limited patience for browsing; shopkeepers here sell in bulk to traders. Fixed prices are common on paper and hardware, negotiable on textiles and jewellery. Keep bags in front of you and phones out of back pockets in the crush.

Khari Baoli: the spice market

At the western end of Chandni Chowk, Khari Baoli is the largest wholesale spice market in Asia and has traded on the same street since the seventeenth century. Sacks of Kashmiri chilli, black cardamom, star anise, dried fruit, nuts, tea and asafoetida are stacked to the ceiling in courtyard warehouses built as caravanserais. The air will make you cough — that is the chilli dust, and it is the authentic Khari Baoli experience. Trading runs roughly 10:00 to 19:00, Monday to Saturday, with mornings busiest and most photogenic.

For buying, saffron, cardamom, dried figs and good tea are the sensible souvenirs; a small quantity of decent Kashmiri saffron runs ₹300–₹600 depending on grade, cardamom ₹200–₹400 for 100 grams, and vacuum-packed masala blends ₹100–₹250. Ask for sealed packaging if you are flying. Some warehouses will let you climb to the rooftops for views over the rooftops of Old Delhi for a small tip — ₹50–₹100 is fair. Combine with Paranthe Wali Gali for lunch and Jalebi Wala at the Dariba corner for dessert at ₹60–₹100.

Dilli Haat and INA: crafts and produce side by side

Dilli Haat opposite INA is a government-run craft bazaar, open daily from roughly 10:30 to 22:00 with an entry fee of about ₹30 for adults. Around 100 stalls rotate on a fortnightly basis so that artisans from different states cycle through: Kashmiri papier-mâché, Rajasthani block prints, Bengal kantha, Northeast weaves, Channapatna wooden toys. Prices are higher than a village market but bargaining is expected and 20–30 percent off the opening quote is normal. The food court sells state specialities — Momos, litti chokha, Bengali fish curry — at ₹120–₹300 a plate.

Directly across the road, INA Market is where Delhi's diplomats and chefs shop. It is the best food market in the city: imported cheeses, fresh fish on ice, banana leaves, Thai basil, whole spices, Sunday morning chaos and porters with head baskets. It runs daily except Monday, roughly 09:00 to 20:00. Even if you are not cooking, walk it for twenty minutes; the seafood section and the dried fish stalls are a straightforward education. INA station sits on the Yellow and Pink lines, which makes this the easiest market pairing in Delhi.

Sarojini, Lajpat Nagar and Janpath: cheap clothes and bargaining

Sarojini Nagar is the export-surplus market: brand-label clothing that failed quality checks or was overproduced, sold at ₹100–₹500 an item on pavement racks. It is chaotic, extremely cheap and rewards patience — the technique is to dig, not to browse. Closed Mondays, busiest Saturday and Sunday afternoons, best around 11:00 on a weekday. Bargain hard; a first quote of ₹600 for a shirt should settle near ₹250. Sarojini Nagar station is on the Pink Line and the walk from the exit is five minutes.

Lajpat Nagar Central Market, closed Mondays, is the place for salwar suits, fabrics, tailoring, mehndi artists and shoes, with a permanent street-food strip along the way. Prices sit between Sarojini and Khan Market. Janpath, running south from Connaught Place, is the tourist-facing option — Tibetan silver, brass, mirror-work cushion covers, oxidised jewellery — where opening quotes to foreign visitors run two to four times realistic value. For fixed prices without the theatre, the Central Cottage Industries Emporium and the state emporia on Baba Kharak Singh Marg charge 20–30 percent more and guarantee quality.

Khan Market, Sunder Nagar and Shahpur Jat: the polished end

Khan Market is the most expensive retail per square foot in India and functions as central Delhi's living room: bookshops like Bahrisons and Full Circle, Anokhi and Fabindia for block-printed clothing, Good Earth for homeware, and cafés on every corner. It closes on Sunday. Expect to pay ₹1,500–₹4,000 for a good kurta and ₹2,500 up for homeware. The back lanes hold the tailors, dry cleaners and old chemists that made it work before it was fashionable, and Khan Chacha's rolls at ₹250–₹400 are still the best cheap thing in it.

Sunder Nagar Market, ten minutes away opposite the zoo, is a small crescent of antique dealers, jewellers and tea shops — the place for silver, old textiles and Mehrachandra-style curio browsing, with prices to match. Shahpur Jat and Hauz Khas Village hold designer studios in an urban village setting: independent labels, ₹3,000–₹12,000 for a piece, and small cafés between. These three are for people who want quality over volume and would rather spend an unhurried afternoon than a chaotic one.

Sadar Bazaar, Nehru Place and the Sunday book bazaar

Sadar Bazaar, north-west of Chandni Chowk, is the wholesale market Delhi traders use: toys, party goods, kitchenware, plastics, decorations, all in quantities of a dozen or more. It is the least visitor-friendly market in this guide and the most interesting to walk if you like commerce as spectacle. Closed Sunday; go on a weekday morning and expect to be the only foreigner in sight. Nehru Place, on the Violet Line, is the electronics equivalent — components, repairs, secondhand laptops, and Delhi's best cheap phone-fixing in a brutalist plaza.

The Sunday book bazaar, historically on Daryaganj's pavements and now running from Mahila Haat on Asaf Ali Road, spreads roughly 250 stalls of secondhand and remaindered books from about 09:00 to 18:00 every Sunday. Paperbacks go for ₹50–₹150, coffee-table books ₹200–₹500, and the browsing is the point. Combine it with Old Delhi's Sunday-quiet lanes and lunch at Karim's. It is one of the few genuinely great things to do in Delhi on a Sunday, when most other markets are shut.

How to shop: days, hours and bargaining

Learn the closing days before you plan a shopping day: Chandni Chowk, Khan Market and Sadar Bazaar shut on Sunday; Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar and INA shut on Monday. Dilli Haat opens every day. Most retail markets run 11:00 to 20:00, wholesale markets 10:00 to 19:00, and nothing serious happens before 10:30. Fridays are quieter in the Muslim quarter around Jama Masjid, where many shops close for midday prayers.

On bargaining: in fixed-price emporia and mall shops, do not. In street markets, expect the opening quote to run two to four times the real price for foreign buyers. Counter at around 35 percent, settle near half, and be prepared to walk — the walk is the strongest tool you have. Carry small notes, because ₹500 change is a problem everywhere; use UPI QR codes where offered. And buy what you actually want on the spot: Delhi markets are large enough that you will not find the same stall again.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Aerocity Hotel Delhi Aerocity

4.0/5 ₹2188/ night

Noida Hotel Core One Bliss

4.7/5 ₹2949/ night

Mahipalpur Hotel Luxe Stay

4.7/5 ₹2854/ night

24 with a full page

More guides to New Delhi

All guides

Itineraries · 9 min read 48 hours in 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.

Itineraries · 10 min read One week in New Delhi

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.

Itineraries · 9 min read New Delhi in 3 days on a budget

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.

Find a hotel