City Information

Don't let your first impressions of Delhi stick like a sacred cow in a traffic jam: get behind the madcap facade and discover the inner peace of a city rich with culture, architecture and human diversity, deep with history and totally addictive to epicureans.

Both Old and New Delhi exert a beguiling charm on visitors. Lose yourself unwinding the secrets of the city's Mughal past in the labyrinthine streets of Old Delhi before emerging in the wide open spaces of imperial New Delhi, with its ordered governmental vistas and generous leafy avenues.

It's an excellent base for visiting Agra and the Taj Mahal, and the Rajasthani colour of Jaipur is less than five hours away. If you're heading north to the Himalaya or east to the ghats of Varanasi, you'll probably pass through Delhi.

Area: 1,483 sq km
Population: 13.8 million
Country: India
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +5.5 (Standard)
Telephone Area Code: 11

Delhi stands at the western end of the Gangetic Plain, bordered on the eastern side by the state of Uttar Pradesh and on the other three sides by the state of Haryana. Travellers to Delhi get two cities for the price of one. 'Old' Delhi, the capital of Muslim India between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries, is full of formidable mosques, monuments and forts. It's a lively area of colourful bazaars, narrow streets and barely controlled chaos. In contrast, New Delhi, the imperial city created by the British Raj, is composed of spacious, tree-lined avenues and imposing government buildings, and has a sense of order absent from other parts of the city.

The city is expansive but easy to navigate. The hub of New Delhi is Connaught Place, where you'll find most of the airline offices, travel agents and banks. 'Old' Delhi is a couple of kilometres north, and its main thoroughfare is Chandni Chowk. The two main centres for accommodation are Paharganj, near New Delhi Railway Station (budget), and Janpath, on the southern side of Connaught Place (budget and mid-range). There are a number of cinemas and performing arts centres around Connaught Place, but Delhi's strict licensing laws effectively curtail nightlife.

The main bus station, the Interstate Bus Terminal, is at Kashmiri Gate, north of the 'Old' Delhi Railway Station.