New Delhi: Half-Day Sightseeing Tour with Hotel Pickup

New Delhi in an afternoon

New Delhi is not a walking city. The distance from India Gate to Qutub Minar is 17 km, and between them sit a tomb, a temple and a president's house. A car with a guide for five hours is the only sensible way to see them in one go, and this is exactly that — no coach, no fixed departure with twenty strangers.

India Gate

The 42-metre arch at the end of Rajpath, carved with the names of more than 13,000 soldiers who died in the First World War and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. Lutyens designed it. Evenings, half of Delhi comes here to eat ice cream on the lawns.

Rashtrapati Bhavan

A drive-past of the President's residence — 340 rooms, and a dome that Lutyens borrowed from the Sanchi stupa. You cannot enter without a pre-booked permit, and any tour that says otherwise is misleading you.

Humayun's Tomb

The important one. Built in the 1560s by the emperor's widow, it is the first great Mughal garden tomb in India and the direct architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal — same charbagh layout, same double dome, sixty years earlier. UNESCO-listed, and a completely different experience from the Taj because it is rarely crowded.

Qutub Minar

A 73-metre victory tower begun in 1193, the tallest brick minaret in the world, standing in a complex built from the stone of twenty-seven dismantled temples. In the courtyard is the iron pillar that has stood over 1,600 years without rusting, which metallurgists still write papers about.

Two options

Without entry tickets, or with them included. Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar are ₹600 each for foreign nationals, so the included version is worth the arithmetic if you plan to go inside both.

Lunch is not included; your guide will point you somewhere good.