Delhi: Best Customize Delhi Evening | Night Tour With Guide

Delhi is a better city after dark

The heat drops, the monuments are lit, the markets run until ten, and the traffic that ruins a daytime itinerary thins out. Almost nobody sells an evening tour, which is why this one is worth knowing about.

It is also entirely customisable, so the shape below is a menu rather than a route.

Lit monuments

India Gate is at its best in the evening, when half of Delhi is on the lawns eating ice cream. Humayun's Tomb and the Qutub Minar complex are both floodlit from outside. Akshardham runs its water and light show after dark — note that no phones, cameras or bags are permitted inside, with airport-grade security.

The markets

Chandni Chowk in the evening is the best version of itself: sweet shops frying, the whole street lit, and the crowd at full volume. Dilli Haat has crafts from every Indian state under one roof. Khan Market and Connaught Place for the other end of the city.

Food

If you want the evening built around eating: parathas at Paranthe Wali Gali, kebabs at the lanes behind Jama Masjid — Karim's and Al Jawahar both date from the last days of the Mughal kitchens — chaat, and jalebi with rabri at a shop that has been at it since before Partition.

Nizamuddin on a Thursday

If your evening falls on a Thursday, ask for the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya, where qawwali has been sung after sunset for seven hundred years. It is free, it is crowded, and it is the single most extraordinary hour in the city.

Two options

Guide only, if you have transport, or guide with a car.

Practical

Around five hours. Shoes off and head covered at the dargah; women should carry a scarf.

Get a cab back rather than walking. Delhi at midnight is safe enough but it is not a walking city at that hour.