My 5 Highlights of New Delhi – India

When you visit India you definitely will visit New Delhi too. You can not visit India and not see and experience these highlights of New Delhi. It is a wonderful and vibrant city with the ancient old part of Chandni Chowk where you’ve got the feeling to be back in ancient times but also the new part of Connaught Place with its bright white buildings with famous shops such as Starbucks.

My 5 Highlights of New Delhi – India

I’ve visited Delhi for a couple of times and started to really love the city. Traveling by metro you’ll be in no time in any suburb you want to be. Every time you visit you can choose to visit a couple of great hightlights that the city offers. I’ve visited a couple of times and by now I think I can produce a list with my Top 5 Highlights you should definitely visit when visiting New Delhi!

What you definitely should visit in Delhi:

1. Temples and Tombes

Temples are unmissable and should not be missed when in India. There are plenty of beautiful, large and impressive temples in Delhi too. I have been to quite a few and found this one the most impressive and really worth a visit if you only have one or two days to spend in this big city!

Hanuman Temple – Delhi, Karol Bagh

You cannot avoid this temple when you are in Delhi. I had seen it several times, driving around the city in a taxi and now I was finally going to visit it! The monkey god Hanuman towers high above everything and has good visibility. He is over 32 metres tall!

Standing in front of it, you can’t even see how high it is so you just step inside through the god’s two legs and into monkey’s mouth. You walk over the tongue into the body and of course have to ring the bell upon entering. The building has several small rooms you can walk to through small passages and corridors. Each room has lovely statues, different gods and beautiful shapes. Highly recommended to be inside this place.

What I had never noticed about the huge Hanuman statue, i.e. the temple in itself, is that Hanuman’s fingers can open and then show two images. I saw it in a video on the internet. So watch this 🙂

Bahai Lotus Temple – Delhi, Shambhu Dayal Bagh

It is a super beautiful building. Situated in a beautiful park, this white lotus temple stands out beautifully. I saw it later that same year from an aeroplane and then you can see even better how amazingly beautiful it is. The lotus leaves lying flat are filled with blue water, which of course can be clearly seen from above.

Inside, it is actually a boring building to say the least. No statues, no beautiful colours and no impressions that overwhelm you and so I actually expected. You can compare it to the church in the Netherlands and not even the Catholic one where there are still statues.

Laxmi Narayan Mandir – Delhi, bij Connaught Place

This large complex and in beautiful yellow and dark red colours is defenitely one of the highlights of New Delhi. At the back of this temple, you have a nice park where you can also take a stroll around. I took my lunch there, a paratha that I had packed at a restaurant the day before. In the nice spring sunshine, I sat on a wall eating my sandwich and enjoying this lovely, cheerfully colourful view!

Inside, you are not allowed to take photos there which of course is a shame! When you go inside, you have to leave your shoes behind. They have lockers for that and you can leave your camera there too. Since a guard keeps a bit of an eye on things here, a small fee is expected from you but this is not compulsory.

Garudwara Bangla Sahib, Shikh House of Worship – Delhi, Connaught Place

In this huge complex, you meet all kinds of different people. I found it super to walk around it. I saw some men there with robes, tall walking sticks and barefoot…. This just remains so impressive for me to see! It is an image that makes you go back so much to times that no longer exist in our ‘modern’ world.

The man gave me the feeling that I was part of the scene

As I entered the temple a man beckoned me, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor watching the rituals being performed passionately and accompanied by lots of bell sounds and incense burning. He indicated that I could sit on the floor next to him for a while. The man tried to explain everything to me but unfortunately could not make himself understood. It did give me a welcome and nice feeling to be able to sit there for a while as if I was part of this whole thing.

Of course, I had to take off my shoes at the entrance here and wore a cloth over my head. You are expected to have this with you, though. So tip is to always carry a sarong or scarf with you that you can put on as a headscarf or skirt if you wish.

Humayun’s Tombe – Delhi, Nizamuddin

When I was in Delhi in January 2015, I visited this tomb for the first time. What an amazing place. The weather was finally nice too and walking through the gardens and surrounded by the amazing buildings I felt super! You sometimes have those intense moments of happiness and I had them there for a while. Apart from that, it’s just an amazing building. The whole structure of the place reminds you of the Taj Mahal with the water in front of the main building and the plateau on the second floor. They are also both tombs, of course.

 5 x Highlights of New Delhi – History and Culture

2. Streets of Old Delhi – Chandni Chowk

When you visiti Delhi you have to go and do a walk or rickshaw trip into Old Delhi. Enter the streets in front of the famous Red Fort and just go wandering around. A cycle Rickshaw can take you around those small and busy streets. You also enter the Jama Mashid, the Friday Mosque, and when you do go up for a while. It is a great temple and you’ll be surprised of the peace and quitteness you’ll find up there. Before entering make sure to look back and see all those busy streets and all the electrics wires hanging there!

3. Qutub minar – New Delhi, Mehrauli

This is a ancient old  Minar that has been build in the 12th century. At first you only see the high pilar but when entering closer you see the different colours and the stones perfectly fit together. The shapes and parts are wonderful and beautifully put together and it looks like it is just brand new!

At the Qutub Minar you can see other remains of buildings and squares, it is certainly worth a walk around the place.

4. Raj Ghat Gandhi memorial – New Delhi, Dariya Ganj

When visiting India you will see and hear a lot about Gandhi and that is no surprise. What a great man he was and ofcourse he is a (inter)national hero! Gandhi gave India a place in this world, he fought for the rights of all men/women regardless where they came from!

5. Connaught Place – Rajiv Chowk – New Delhi

This is a very different Delhi from what you are used to. Here you will come across the shops you know from around the world. The shops are situated around a large roundabout and the buildings are white with beautiful arches and subways. Once you start walking you will quickly lose which corner you started on next…everything looks the same. My landmarks were the Metro entrances which are numbered 🙂

So to grab a coffee at the Starbucks or do some quiet shopping, this is the place to be. I’ve been here quite a few times not for the shops but because my travel agency was on a small side street here. Incidentally, I did see a scene here in one of those side streets that you then don’t expect here…. which, incidentally, you don’t expect in a city at all…

This car, what is left of it at least, is here for more then 7 years. They are in court to get it out of the streets and to get the owner responsible for it… but still it remains here in the middle of this street..

Do you also see the monkeys on top of the car?

For me this is the Ultimate Feeling of #IncredibleIndia 🙂

Being is such a richer area and still be able to find such an extreme example 🙂

Book your Old & New Delhi tour to complete your visit to the highlights of New Delhi – India

Where to stay New Delhi?

Tara Palace $$

Tara Palace is a fine hotel in the heart of Chandni Chowk. I have been here 3 days (2019) and found it a wonderful place! The hotel is within walking distance of Red Fort and Jama Masjid. The hotel offers you a good breakfast, a hot shower and helpful staff.

Book your stay at Tara Palace

Hotel Persona International $$

Hotel in the Karol Bagh district. In 2015 I stayed here one night with my father. Very neat hotel, nice breakfast in a boring room with chairs that aren’t comfortable and tables with large rugs over them. This is something you’ll see a lot in India 🙂

When I went for a walk in the area I came across these pigs… haha!

Book your stay at hotel Persona International

Hotel Shhaurya $$

In the district Dwarka (sector 13) I stayed in this hotel for a week. I was invited here for a wedding and so I was there for a week. On the different days the hotel was transformed into the setting for the many traditions that comes with an Indian wedding.

From this hotel I could easily discover the city by metro because the metro station Dwarka Sector-13 was within walking distance (10 minutes). I was there in January and got a heater in my room. Food was very good here!

Book your stay at Shhaurya

Florence Inn $$

This hotel is also located in the district Karol Bagh and I stayed a few nights in 2009. Nice hotel and also as a starting point to visit Delhi a beautiful place. From there I made a lot of trips in Delhi but also very nice walks! This was during my first visit to India at the time!

Book your stay at Florence Inn

What is your favorite highlight in New Delhi?

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