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monthly magazine carrying comprehensive reviews and listings. Delhi Diary is a city guide published weekly, and The Delhi City Complete Guide and Magazine (Rs 20) is published every 2 weeks; both are available at hotels and tourism offices and include events listings. You can also check out the latter’s website at www.thedelhicity.com. A good Web-based source of information on Delhi is www.gocityguides.com for general advice as well as what’s on the cards for the month, but reviews are even less critical than Time Out. For travel further afield, Outlook Traveller (www.outlooktraveller.com) is a top-quality locally produced travel magazine.

Police See “Emergencies,” above.

Post Office Try the post office at Parliament Street ( 011/2336-4111) or the GPO at Gol Khana, 5 minutes from Connaught Place. But best to ask your hotel to mail items.

Restrooms Avoid free public restrooms but in emergencies, you can use the Pay & Use facilities (Rs 2) or independently managed Sulabh Shauchalya (“shauchalya” means toilets), which are slightly better maintained.

Safety Delhi, like the rest of India, is relatively safe, though the city has seen an increase in crime. It’s unwise for women to travel alone at night.

Taxis See “Getting Around,” above.

Weather Delhi’s summers are notoriously unbearable; October/November to February are the best times to go.

Yoga & Meditation Sivananda Yoga Sevashram ( 98/1132-8067; www.yogayogini.com), Studio Abhyas ( 011/2696-2757; http://abhyastrust.org), Sri Aurobindo Ashram ( 011/2652-4807), Tushita Meditation Centre ( 011/2651-3400; www.tushita.info)—all offer short- and long-term classes.

THE TOP ATTRACTIONS

India’s capital has more sights than any other city in India, but they are concentrated in three distinct areas—Old Delhi, New Delhi, and South Delhi (known as the Qutb Minar Complex)—which should be tackled as separate tours (or at a push, two could be grouped together). Most organized tours spend a half-day covering the top attractions in New Delhi, and another half-day exploring the 17th-century capital, Shahjahanabad. Commonly referred to as “Old Delhi,” Shahjahanabad lies a mere 5km (3 miles) north of centrally located Connaught Place, the commercial heart of New Delhi, but it feels a few hundred years away (400 to be exact). If you do only one sightseeing excursion, make it here, for this is most authentically India, where imposing Lal Qila (Red Fort) and Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, pay testament to the vision and power of Shah Jahan, and the chaos and pungent smells from the overcrowded and ancient streets are a heady reminder that you are far from home. Surrounding and immediately south of Connaught Place is New Delhi, built by British imperialist architects Baker and Lutyens. Its primary attractions are the architectural gems centered around Rajpath and Rashtrapati Bhavan, official residence of the president of India. Of Delhi’s remaining cities, all of which are today deserted and in ruins, only the 12th-century Qutb Minar, a World Heritage Site monument built in Delhi’s first city and surprisingly intact, is definitely worth inclusion in your itinerary.

Museum Monday

Most of the important museums in Delhi close on Mondays; if you’re at loose ends, there are a handful of hangouts for the culturally inclined, or simply curious. First up is the totally unique and utterly original Sulabh International Museum of Toilets (Sulabh Gram, Mahavir Enclave, Palam-Dabri Marg; beyond the airport 011/2503-1518; Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, www.sulabhinternational.org), which takes visitors on a journey through everything “loo”-related, from Thomas Crapper’s first flushable commode to present-day innovations in Indian sanitation technology. If you have an interest in Tibetan art (particularly Buddhist thangka paintings and religious objects), and staying at or shopping in south Delhi area, visit the Tibetan House Museum (Tibet House, 1 Institutional Area, Lodhi Rd.; 011/2461-1515; Mon–Fri 9:30am–5:30pm).

Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi)

Still surrounded by crumbling city walls and three surviving gates,