Chandni Chowk is the main street of the old walled city, running from the Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid, with wholesale markets packed into the lanes on both sides. Very few bookings here are homes. Most are hotel rooms taken by traders and travellers near Old Delhi railway station and on Asaf Ali Road.
By day the road from the Red Fort to Fatehpuri Masjid is one of the most crowded streets in the country. The stretch was rebuilt a few years ago and cars are kept off it for most of the day, so people walk or take a cycle rickshaw. Each lane off it has its own trade: Kinari Bazaar for wedding trim and gota, Dariba Kalan for silver, Bhagirath Palace for lights and wiring, and Khari Baoli for spices and dry fruit out at the Fatehpuri end. Buyers come in from Punjab, Rajasthan and UP for a day or two of purchasing, and they are most of the men who ring us from this part of Delhi.
Shutters come down between 8 and 9 PM, and the street empties fast after that. Chandni Chowk station on the Yellow Line sits right beside Old Delhi railway station, three stops north of Rajiv Chowk, and Chawri Bazar is the next stop south. Lal Quila station on the Violet Line serves the Red Fort end. By car from our Naraina side it takes about forty-five minutes in the evening and closer to thirty after 11 PM. The slow part is always the last few hundred metres, because the lanes are too narrow for a car.
The rooms we send girls to are mostly the budget and mid-range hotels facing Old Delhi railway station, the business hotels along Asaf Ali Road, and a few restored havelis near Jama Masjid. Station hotels see guests arrive at every hour, so a woman walking in at eleven at night looks like one more traveller with a train to catch. The haveli hotels are small and the staff know each guest by face, so meet her at the door there. Ask your desk whether visitors sign the register, so you know before she arrives.
If your hotel sits inside a lane, give us the name of the nearest gate, bank or shop on the main road. The driver drops her there and she walks the last few minutes, or you come out to meet her. Bookings after 9 PM are the easiest to arrange, once the day's crowd has gone home. Rates are on our price page. If you are staying nearer New Delhi station, Paharganj has its own page.
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