Choose your base in New Delhi

Delhi's Georgian ring of white colonnades — best metro links in the city, real bars, and the tourist-scam epicentre.

India's most notorious backpacker strip, opposite New Delhi station — filthy, cheap, superbly located, and not for everyone.

Delhi's great middle-class shopping bazaar: pedestrian Ajmal Khan Road, Gaffar's electronics, and honest mid-range hotel value.

Delhi's embassy quarter — vast lawns, five-star landmarks, no street life, and the quietest nights in the city.

Shahjahanabad's surviving lanes: spice markets, 1913 kebabs, silver bazaars and the best street food in India.

A 14th-century reservoir and madrasa with a bar village stapled to it — smaller than its reputation, still the best-looking south Delhi base.

South Delhi's mall belt beside the Qutub Minar — comfortable, air-conditioned, and closer to Mughal ruins than it looks.

Wealthy South Delhi grid of bungalows and two famous block markets — good food, guesthouse basements, and almost no tourists.

The best-located quiet address in south-central Delhi: bungalow lanes, one excellent market, twenty minutes from everything.

Delhi's loudest bargain bazaar, cheap clean rooms, mehendi stalls and Afghan bakeries — chaos with excellent metro links.

Asia's biggest computer bazaar wrapped in 1980s office towers — cheap laptop fixes, business hotels, Lotus Temple nearby.

Delhi's planned south-western sub-city: cheap modern rooms, wide roads, two metro lines and twenty minutes to Terminal 3.

A purpose-built strip of branded hotels eight minutes from Terminal 3 — expensive, frictionless, and not really Delhi at all.

Dozens of cheap hotels on the airport highway — five minutes to Terminal 3, no metro, and touts you must ignore.

Green, low-rise south-west Delhi twenty minutes from both terminals, with three malls, Qutub Minar close and almost no street life.

Vast planned north-west Delhi of numbered sectors, cheap rooms and Red Line access; almost no tourists, and almost nothing shuts you out.

Cheap, liveable east Delhi across the Yamuna, on two metro lines, ten minutes from Akshardham and the Noida border.

A separate city in Uttar Pradesh across the Yamuna: wide roads, giant malls, IT sectors, and the fastest start to the Agra drive.

Haryana's glass-tower boomtown 20 km from the airport: Cyber Hub dining, Sector 29 bars, high weekday rates, cheap weekends.

Haryana factory city on the Violet Line, worth it for the Surajkund crafts fair in February and the Aravalli lakes behind it.

Uttar Pradesh city on Delhi's east edge: cheap rooms, Blue and Red line metro, Anand Vihar trains and the Namo Bharat rapid rail.

Two hours down the Yamuna Expressway: the Taj at sunrise, a fort most people skip, and a city worth one honest night.

Rajasthan's capital, 270 km southwest: walled bazaars, hill forts, the best hotel value within a day of Delhi.

Two linked pilgrim towns 150 km south: temple bells, Yamuna ghats, and the wildest Holi in India.

A fifteenth-century hillside fort turned hotel on the Delhi–Jaipur highway: the classic two-hour escape from the city.