Hotels in Delhi

Delhi has been the seat of power in northern India for the better part of a thousand years, and every dynasty that held it left something behind. The result is a city of roughly 33 million where a twelfth-century minaret, a Mughal fort and a Lutyens-designed government quarter all sit within a few kilometres of each other.

Old Delhi is the Mughal city — the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid and the rickshaw-clogged lanes of Chandni Chowk. New Delhi, laid out by the British in the 1910s, is wide, green and orderly by comparison, holding India Gate and the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Humayun's Tomb and the Qutub Minar, both UNESCO sites, anchor the south.

The metro makes the city far more manageable than its reputation suggests, and it is the natural starting point for the Golden Triangle — Agra and the Taj Mahal are two hours away by express train, Jaipur about four hours by road.