Delhi: Factory and Wholesale Market Tour with Lunch

This one is for people who are buying

Not a sightseeing tour. It is a working visit to Delhi's manufacturing and wholesale trade, and it suits importers, small brands, designers sourcing fabric, and anyone who wants to understand how the goods in Indian markets actually get there.

If you want monuments, book something else.

The textile units

Gandhi Nagar and Shanti Mohalla in east Delhi — Asia's largest garment market by some counts, and the small-scale end of it: fabric printing, dyeing and embroidery workshops, cotton, rayon and linen processing, bulk cutting, and stitching floors.

You can talk to unit owners directly about minimum order quantities, pricing and lead times. That conversation is the point of the tour, and your guide will interpret where needed.

On the export end, Okhla Phase 1 and 2 hold the larger garment factories that supply European and American labels.

Khari Baoli

The spice market — the largest in Asia, trading since the 1600s from a street barely wide enough for a handcart.

Sacks of turmeric, cardamom, dried chilli, asafoetida and saffron stacked three metres high, with the wholesale rates chalked on boards. The dried chilli sections will make you cough, and the traders will find that funny.

This is where every shop in north India buys, which means the prices you see are the real ones.

Furniture and other sectors

Depending on your interest, the day can take in furniture workshops and other wholesale lines rather than textiles.

Four options

A textile factory visit alone; the spice market alone; both without lunch; or both with lunch included.

Practical

Private car with driver and a guide throughout, from hotel pickup.

Bring cards if you are sourcing, and a notebook. Factory floors are hot, noisy and dusty — dress accordingly and wear closed shoes.

Nothing you buy is included, and your guide takes no commission from the units.