New Delhi and Old Delhi Private Tour 4-8 Hour - Customizable

Two cities with one name

Old Delhi is Shah Jahan's walled capital of 1648, lanes three metres wide, still trading. New Delhi is Lutyens's imperial grid of 1931, avenues sixty metres wide and roundabouts named after princes. They are eight kilometres and three hundred years apart, and this tour lets you choose one or take both.

Old Delhi

Jama Masjid, finished in 1656 and still India's largest mosque: red sandstone and white marble around a courtyard that holds twenty-five thousand people. Shoulders and knees covered; robes are lent at the gate for a small charge.

Chandni Chowk, best by cycle rickshaw, which is the only sensible way to travel that street. Laid out in the 1650s by Shah Jahan's daughter Jahanara with a canal down its centre that reflected moonlight, and still organised trade by trade — silver in Dariba Kalan, wedding trim in Kinari Bazaar, and Khari Baoli, the largest spice market in Asia.

Raj Ghat, the black marble platform where Gandhi was cremated in 1948, with a flame that has not gone out since.

New Delhi

India Gate and the drive along Rajpath past Rashtrapati Bhavan — 340 rooms under a dome Lutyens borrowed from a Buddhist stupa.

Humayun's Tomb, built in the 1560s by the emperor's widow: the first great Mughal garden tomb in India, and the direct model for the Taj sixty years later.

Qutub Minar, begun in 1193 — the tallest brick minaret in the world, standing in a complex built from the stone of twenty-seven dismantled temples, with the iron pillar that has not rusted in sixteen hundred years.

Four options

Half day in Old Delhi; half day in New Delhi; a full day covering both; or a full day with entrance tickets included.

Practical

Red Fort is closed on Mondays; Jama Masjid shuts to visitors during prayers. Your guide will order the day around whatever applies.