5 Days in Delhi: The First-Timer Itinerary
Five days gives Delhi room for a full market-and-food day on top of the standard monument circuit, which is where the city genuinely starts to open up. Old Delhi, New Delhi, Qutub Minar’s side of town, the Lotus Temple and Akshardham, and a day built around Khari Baoli, Dilli Haat and Nizamuddin. Shorter trip? The 4-day itinerary drops the market day. More time? The 6-day and 7-day versions add South Delhi and a flexible finish.
Book these before you go
- Five nights of hotel dates on Booking.com , long enough to actually justify a South Delhi or Hauz Khas base over a Paharganj guesthouse
- The Spice & Stories Old Delhi heritage food walk for day one, since you’ll cover the spice market again yourself on day five
- A guided Delhi Mughal monuments tour for India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb and Qutub Minar
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Old Delhi: Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Chandni Chowk |
| Day 2 | New Delhi: India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, Lodhi Garden |
| Day 3 | Qutub Minar, Mehrauli, Hauz Khas Village |
| Day 4 | Lotus Temple and Akshardham |
| Day 5 | Markets and food: Khari Baoli, Dilli Haat, Nizamuddin |
Day 1: Old Delhi
Red Fort at its 9:30am opening, foreigner ticket roughly ₹500-600, closed Mondays, then Jama Masjid, free courtyard entry, ₹300 camera permit. Chandni Chowk fills the rest of the day: a cycle rickshaw through the lanes, Paranthe Wali Gali for lunch, Karim’s Mughlai kebabs for dinner, about ₹350-500 a head.
Day 2: New Delhi and Humayun’s Tomb
India Gate and Kartavya Path in the morning, a short Delhi Metro hop from most central hotels, then Humayun’s Tomb (₹550 foreigner), the mausoleum that shaped the Taj Mahal’s design 60 years before it existed. Afternoon at Lodhi Garden, free, dotted with 15th and 16th-century tombs. Dinner in Connaught Place.
Day 3: Qutub Minar and Hauz Khas Village
Qutub Minar (₹550 foreigner) and Mehrauli Archaeological Park in the morning, ground-level viewing only since the minaret’s interior closed after a 1981 stampede. Afternoon and evening in Hauz Khas Village’s cafes and rooftop bars, beside the 13th-14th-century madrasa and reservoir.
Day 4: Lotus Temple and Akshardham
The Lotus Temple , free, no ticket, closed Mondays, is a Baháʼí House of Worship, not a Hindu temple. Akshardham is free for darshan but charges separately for the exhibitions and evening water show (roughly ₹100-250); online booking isn’t currently available, so leave queue time, and expect a strict no-phones-no-bags security check with lockers at the entrance.
Day 5: Khari Baoli, Dilli Haat and Nizamuddin
Spend the morning properly in Khari Baoli, Asia’s largest wholesale spice market, rather than just passing through it on day one. Head to Dilli Haat in the afternoon for handicrafts and regional food stalls from across India, then to Nizamuddin Dargah, the Sufi shrine, for the basti’s food lanes in the evening, a genuinely different texture of Old Delhi from Chandni Chowk’s.
Is a 5-day Delhi trip better spent adding a market day or a day trip to Agra?
That depends on whether you’ve already done Agra elsewhere. If this is a first India trip, the market and food day here goes deeper on Delhi itself; if you’re passing through again, swap day five for the Taj Mahal via the express train, covered in our Delhi as a gateway guide .
Do you need a guide for the Khari Baoli spice market?
Not strictly, but it helps on your first pass. The market is a genuine working wholesale district, not a tourist attraction dressed up as one, so a guide who can point you to specific spice traders and translate what you’re smelling adds real value beyond just navigation.
Buy spices at Khari Baoli in small quantities and vacuum-sealed if the vendor offers it; loose spice packed for a long flight home loses potency and, occasionally, the fight with customs.