Delhi shops in layers: wholesale spice courtyards in the old city, government emporia where every state sells its own craft, and urban villages where couture studios sit above buffalo sheds. Three days, three registers — bargained, fixed and designer.
Asia's largest wholesale spice market, trading since 1650 around Gadodia Market's crumbling courtyard. Traders open around 09:00; sacks of Kashmiri chilli, saffron and black cardamom sell by the kilo under a haze that makes everyone sneeze.
A permanent open-air craft bazaar of 62 stalls that rotate every 15 days, so Kutch mirror-work, Kashmiri pashmina and Nagaland shawls arrive straight from the makers. Open 10:30–22:00, entry ₹30 for residents and ₹100 for foreign nationals.
Six floors of Jawahar Vyapar Bhawan filled with government-vetted handicrafts: Pochampally ikat, Channapatna lacquer toys, sandalwood carving, Kashmiri papier-mâché. Fixed prices, no bargaining, open 10:00–19:00 daily including Sundays.
Export-surplus clothing at ₹150–400 a piece, sold from tarpaulin stalls running nearly a kilometre. Labels are cut but the stock is the same run that shipped to Europe. Closed Mondays; the export lanes at the rear beat the front row.
Delhi's most expensive retail strip and the one worth walking: Good Earth for block-printed homeware and brass, Anokhi for hand-blocked cotton, Fabindia for kurtas. Most shops trade 10:30–20:00 and open late on Sunday mornings.
A strip of designer studios inside converted 1940s shopfronts — Nappa Dori for leather trunks and camera bags, Bandit for menswear, Ogaan for stocked Indian labels. Quieter and cheaper than Khan Market, two blocks away.
An urban village where couture ateliers occupy converted village houses down unsignposted lanes. Sample sales, hand-embroidered lehengas and export seconds sit behind plain doors — Anjali Jain, Ekru and a dozen studios along Gali No. 3.
Lanes above the 13th-century reservoir stacked with vintage stores, indie labels and Delhi's densest concentration of secondhand vinyl and denim. Most shops trade 12:00–20:00, after which the crowd tips firmly toward the bars.
Opens 09:30 with a rear courtyard of resident artisans — a Madhubani painter, a Bidri metalworker, a Kutch weaver — selling directly beside a curated museum shop of textiles and terracotta. Closed Mondays.
Twenty state-run showrooms in a single row: Rajasthali for Jaipur blue pottery, Kairali for Kerala coir and brass lamps, Poompuhar for Tamil bronzes, Cauvery for sandalwood. Fixed prices, 10:00–18:00, closed Sundays.
A 1950s crescent of antique and jewellery dealers behind Purana Qila — Ladakh Art Palace for silver and turquoise, Kanwar Lal for miniatures and bronzes. Paperwork matters here: certified antiquities cannot legally leave India.
A tea room in a restored haveli on Netaji Subhash Marg, trading since 1981: single-estate Darjeeling first flush, Nilgiri and smoky Assam weighed at the counter and packed into hand-painted tins. Tastings are free before you commit.