6 Days in Delhi: The First-Timer Itinerary
Six days lets you add a full South Delhi day on top of the five-day route: Greater Kailash’s calmer shopping streets, Select Citywalk mall, and the genuinely hidden Agrasen ki Baoli stepwell. Nothing here is filler, it’s the contrast day that shows you Delhi isn’t only monuments and markets. Building toward a full week? The 7-day itinerary adds a flexible last day. Tighter on time? Drop back to 5 days .
Book these before you go
- Six nights on Booking.com , South Delhi (Hauz Khas, Greater Kailash) is a genuinely good base at this length
- The Old Delhi walking tour with rickshaw and street food for day one
- 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 6 | South Delhi: Greater Kailash, Select Citywalk, Agrasen ki Baoli |
Day 1: Old Delhi
Red Fort at 9:30am opening, foreigner ticket roughly ₹500-600, closed Mondays, then Jama Masjid’s free courtyard (₹300 camera permit). Chandni Chowk for the rest of the day: a cycle rickshaw through the lanes, Paranthe Wali Gali lunch, Karim’s kebabs for dinner, ₹350-500 a head.
Day 2: New Delhi and Humayun’s Tomb
India Gate and Kartavya Path, then Humayun’s Tomb (₹550 foreigner), the direct design ancestor of the Taj Mahal. Lodhi Garden’s tombs and jogging paths fill the afternoon; Connaught Place for dinner.
Day 3: Qutub Minar and Hauz Khas Village
Qutub Minar (₹550 foreigner) and Mehrauli Archaeological Park in the morning, ground-level only since the 1981 stampede closure. Afternoon and evening in Hauz Khas Village’s cafes, bars and 13th-14th-century ruins.
Day 4: Lotus Temple and Akshardham
The Lotus Temple is free, closed Mondays, and a Baháʼí House of Worship, not a Hindu temple. Akshardham is free for darshan, though the exhibitions and evening water show run roughly ₹100-250 and online booking isn’t currently available; phones, cameras and bags stay in the entrance lockers.
Day 5: Khari Baoli, Dilli Haat and Nizamuddin
A proper morning in Khari Baoli’s wholesale spice market, an afternoon at Dilli Haat’s regional food and craft stalls, and an evening at Nizamuddin Dargah’s Sufi shrine and its surrounding basti food lanes.
Day 6: South Delhi, Greater Kailash and Agrasen ki Baoli
This is the day that breaks the tourist-trail pattern. Greater Kailash and South Extension are calmer, more residential shopping districts than Connaught Place, a useful reset after five days of monument crowds. Select Citywalk covers mall shopping and a cinema if you want an air-conditioned afternoon. Agrasen ki Baoli, a 14th-century stepwell hiding between office towers near Connaught Place, is free and takes 20 minutes but photographs like nothing else in the city. If anyone near Connaught Place tells you a “government tourist office” needs to register your trip, ignore them, the only real one is at 88 Janpath , and that scam has been running for years.
Is South Delhi worth a full day, or just a quick stop?
A full day is worth it once you’ve already done Old and New Delhi, because the contrast is the point. Greater Kailash and Hauz Khas show you the Delhi that 30 million residents actually live in day to day, calmer streets, local shopping, none of the ASI ticket queues, which reads very differently after five days of monuments.
Is Agrasen ki Baoli safe and easy to find on your own?
Yes, it’s a short walk from Connaught Place and doesn’t require a guide or a ticket. It’s easy to miss from the street though, tucked behind an unremarkable gate, so use a map app rather than trying to spot it by eye.
Visit Agrasen ki Baoli in the late afternoon when the light angles down into the stepwell; midday sun flattens the stone steps in photos.