Delhi travel guide and things to do: Why everyone should visit this chaotic, full-on city

My best advice for making the most of Delhi, both Old and New – leave it. If you've visiting India for the first time Delhi is probably going to be your gateway, but the capital is a full-frontal assault on the senses - noisy, noxious and memorable chiefly for its world-beating traffic jams. Go somewhere else in India, spend a couple of weeks exploring Rajasthan or the mountains. When you come back you won't be fazed by the noise, the traffic and the crush, and you can enjoy one of the most sublime and entertaining cities on the planet.

Delhi is packed with world-class wonders - Qutab Minar, Humayan's Tomb, the Red Fort, the parliament buildings, the Jantar Mantar – but these are the places I visit every time I'm there.

Bangla Sahib Gurudwara is one of Delhi's major Sikh temples, plated with marble from top to bottom. Enter the prayer hall, sit silently for a while and absorb the atmosphere and the music. Centrepiece is a shrine with the holy book of the Sikh faith, the object of veneration of the Sikh religion.

Outside, stop for a small morsel of kadha prasad, a kind of halwa, dispensed at one side of the pond of holy water – and make your way downstairs to the food hall. It's food production on an industrial scale, huge vats of dahl and veg curry bubbling away and chapattis being expertly flipped by a production line of cross-legged women. More than 20,000 people are fed in the giant food hall on an average day, all for free. When I was there in 2019 I was shooed aside by a security detail and Prince Charles marched through, looking hot and red-faced and wearing the regulatory cloth headpiece required for all non-Sikh visitors.

Lodi Gardens is a green lung where Delhi-wallahs come to perform their daily yoga asanas, jog, chat and lie about on green lawns set with the tombs of the Lodhis and the Sayyids, the two Islamic dynasties who ruled in Delhi before they were displaced by the Mughals. The gardens are conveniently close to the Khan Market, where smart Delhi comes to shop and nosh in fashionable cafes, great for clothes and jewellery. The ATMs are reliable and there's an excellent bookshop, Bahrisons Booksellers, and books are a bargain in India.

Old Delhi is a maze of narrow alleyways lined with three-metre wide shops selling shoes, clothes, sweets, hardware and food stalls, a kaleidoscope of colour. The classic walk takes you from Jama Masjid, the Friday Mosque, to Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi's main artery, and you need a guide. Don't miss the Kinari Bazar, the street of the wedding goods sellers, lined with shops selling bangles, beads, saris and all the other regalia for the well-dressed bride. It's much changed, and for the better. Pre-pandemic, Chandni Chowk - the name means "Moonlight Bazaar" - was a suffocating stew, clamorous and clogged with traffic from dawn to after dusk. Today, it's remade. Tuk tuks have been banned, replaced by silent cycle rickshaws, the road has been narrowed, the pavements widened and it's a joy to visit. I ran into Rick Stein shopping in the spice bazaar at the end of Chandni Chowk in late February, wearing a Cheshire Cat grin and being shepherded around by Manjit Singh Gill, one of India's leading chefs.

Nizamuddin is a Muslim enclave built around the tomb of Muhammad Nizamuddin Auliya, a 14th century Sufi saint, much revered today. Getting to the tomb involves threading through ever-narrowing alleyways lined with merchants' tiny shops and abandoning shoes before arriving at the shrine itself, which is thronged with devotees. Only men are allowed to pass into the shrine and around the tomb. It's a powerfully spiritual place. In the evening there are often qawwali musicians performing sacred music. Nearby is a curiosity, the grave of Jahanara Begum, modest and open to the sky, as she requested. Jahanara was the daughter of Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, who cared for her father after he was deposed and imprisoned by his son. You need a guide for Nizamuddin, and Delhi by Foot [delhibyfoot.in] can make it happen.

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