Delhi

Old Delhi, the British capital and the sultanate ruins by metro

Treat the city as three districts joined by the metro. The walled Mughal quarter needs a morning to itself. The planned capital that the British laid out in 1911–12 fills an afternoon of avenues and museums. The sultanate-era monuments further south sit far apart from each other, so give them a separate half-day.

• One day: the Red Fort at opening time, the Jama Masjid before midday prayers, lunch in the lanes off Chandni Chowk, then the metro south to Humayun's Tomb for the late-afternoon light.
• Two days: add New Delhi on the second morning, walking from India Gate up Kartavya Path towards Rashtrapati Bhavan, then ride the Yellow Line down to Hauz Khas and the Qutb Minar.
• Three or four days: slow the pace. Give a morning to the Lotus Temple or Akshardham, browse the cloth shops of Karol Bagh, and set aside one full day for Agra, which is two to five hours each way by train.

Fast trains to Agra and Jaipur fill up in the cool months, so reserve seats once your dates are fixed. Bazaars are packed on Saturdays. Plan the Red Fort around its Monday closure and the Jama Masjid around prayer times.

Keep a car with driver for the outlying sites.

Delhi's short sweet spot, crop-burning haze and the March heat

February and March are the sweet spot. Days are warm, evenings cool, and the haze of late autumn has usually lifted. October and early November look just as good on a temperature chart, yet crop burning in the surrounding farmland runs from late September into early November and can tip the air into the "severe" band.

From mid-to-late March the heat builds fast. Late May is normally the hottest stretch: average highs reach 42 °C and nights barely fall below 27 °C. The monsoon breaks at the end of June and delivers most of the city's 774.4 mm of yearly rain in July and August, often waterlogging the roads. Winter starts in late November and is short. January mornings can sit near 7 °C under fog thick enough to hide the far side of the road, and flights and trains run late, so leave slack before any onward connection.

Two national days reshape the centre. Republic Day on 26 January opens three days of ceremony in which regiments and state tableaux march from Rashtrapati Bhavan along Kartavya Path to India Gate, with a beating retreat to close. On 15 August the Prime Minister addresses the nation from the Red Fort, and the sky above it becomes a no-fly zone. Book lovers can aim for the New Delhi World Book Fair at Bharat Mandapam in mid-January. Diwali falls in October or November: a festive time, though often one of the worst weeks for air quality.

Parathas, Karim's kebabs and the dairy-rich cooking of Delhi

Eat on foot in Old Delhi: stuffed parathas in Paranthe Wali Gali, Mughal-style kebabs at Karim's beside the Jama Masjid, and chaat from the street counters. At a sit-down restaurant, order butter chicken or dal makhani with naan. Meat, bread and dairy are Delhi's strengths, because the nearest sea lies roughly 1,000 km away.

The cooking here grew out of the Mughal kitchen. Leave seafood for Mumbai or Goa. At Kake Di Hatti one of their huge naans will feed two people.

Paranthe Wali Gali (gali means lane) has sold fried stuffed breads since the 1870s. Karim's, trading since 1913 in Gali Kababian beside the Jama Masjid, cooks Mughal-style meat dishes; the badam pasanda is a house favourite and a whole stuffed goat needs a day's notice. Old Famous Jalebi Wala sells jalebi cheaply. Haldiram's first Delhi branch, opened in 1924 on Chandni Chowk, keeps sweets downstairs and a vegetarian restaurant upstairs. It is a cleaner place to try raj kachori or chole bhature.

Street snacks are the local pride: gol gappe, aloo chaat, dahi bhalla and samosa. Finish with gulab jamun or a glass of lassi. Skip anything left uncovered.