English-speaking guide · Delhi
English
A English-speaking guide in Delhi
A licensed English-speaking guide in Delhi costs ₹1,500 for a full day of eight hours and ₹900 for a half day of four. With an AC car and driver on the published package, a full day is ₹4,000. Delhi has 6 monuments on this page with their entry fees and opening hours, and the guide’s Ministry-of-Tourism licence card is sent to you before you pay anything.
Full day · 8 hours
₹1,500
Half day · 4 hours
₹900
With car and driver
from ₹2,400
Licence region
Northern Region
What it costs
English guide rates in Delhi
The guide fee is set by language, not by city — a English speaker is ₹1,500 a day in Delhi and the same in Delhi. The vehicle half of a bundled day is the published 4 hr / 40 km and 8 hr / 80 km rental package, so every figure below is two published rates added together and nothing else.
Half day
4 hours, 40 km included
₹900guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹2,400
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹3,100
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹3,700
Guide ₹900 plus the published 4 hr / 40 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
Full day
8 hours, 80 km included
₹1,500guide only
With a vehicle and driver
- Sedan (Swift Dzire / Honda Amaze) — 4 seats
- ₹4,000
- SUV (Ertiga / Innova) — 6–7 seats
- ₹5,000
- Innova Crysta — 7 seats
- ₹6,000
Guide ₹1,500 plus the published 8 hr / 80 km rental package. Monument entry tickets are paid at the gate and are not included.
The half-day guide fee is 60% of the day rate, rounded up to the nearest ₹50 — the rule is printed on the rate card so the arithmetic is checkable. Monument entry is extra and is listed by monument further down this page.
Ministry of Tourism, Government of India
Regional Level Guide (RLG)
English
- Language examined in
- English
- Licensing region
- Northern Region
- Full day · 8 hours
- ₹1,500
- Half day · 4 hours
- ₹900
Every licence card carries a photograph, a licence number, the issuing region and the languages the holder is examined in. We send a photograph of the card on WhatsApp when a booking is confirmed, before you pay anything, so you can check the number, the region and the language against the guide who meets you.
Why the licence matters here. Archaeological Survey of India monuments admit licensed guides and turn away unlicensed ones at the ticket gate. An unlicensed "guide" who approaches you outside the Taj Mahal or Amber Fort cannot accompany you inside, which is why the pitch is always made in the car park.
What you will see
The monuments of Delhi, with what they cost at the gate
Every fee and opening time below is the figure published on this site's own guide to that monument, linked from each row. Watch the closures: Red Fort is shut on Monday, Lotus Temple is shut on Monday, Akshardham is shut on Monday.
Delhi monuments · 1 of 6
Red Fort
- Entry — Indian
- ₹35
- Entry — foreign
- ₹550
- Hours
- 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM
- Closed
- Monday
- Time needed
- 2–2.5 hours
| Monument | Entry — Indian | Entry — foreign | Hours | Closed | Time needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red FortUNESCO | ₹35 | ₹550 | 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM | Monday | 2–2.5 hours |
| Qutub MinarUNESCO | ₹35 | ₹550 | 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM | Open all days | 1.5–2 hours |
| Humayun's TombUNESCO | ₹35 | ₹550 | Sunrise (about 6:00 AM) – Sunset (about 6:00 PM) | Open all days | 1.5–2 hours |
| India Gate | Free | Free | 24 hours | Open all days | 1 hour |
| Lotus Temple | Free | Free | 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM | Monday | 45 minutes to 1 hour |
| Akshardham | Temple free; exhibitions ₹260 adult, ₹160 child 4–11 | Temple free; exhibitions ₹260 adult, ₹160 child 4–11 | 10:00 AM – Last entry 6:30 PM | Monday | 4–5 hours with the exhibitions |
6 of 6 carry a published entry fee. 3 are free to enter. Where a fee is not shown it is because this site does not hold a verified figure for it, and we would rather leave a gap than print a number nobody has checked.
English in Delhi
What a English commentary does here that it does not do elsewhere
Delhi is the one city on this circuit where the most recent layer is the one written in English. The transfer of the capital from Calcutta in 1911, Lutyens and Baker’s imperial plan, and the 1945 trials of the Indian National Army inside the Red Fort are all documented in English by the people who did them, which means an English commentary here can quote the record rather than summarise it.
What your guide covers
Mughal and Rajput history reaches English through a settled vocabulary — jali, chhatri, pietra dura, charbagh — and the job is to use those words and then explain them, rather than flattening everything to "carving" and "garden".
The Red Fort as three buildings in one: Shah Jahan’s palace, the British garrison that replaced half of it after 1857, and the site of the INA trials — the last of which is why the fort matters to modern Indian politics.
Qutub Minar’s Iron Pillar and the Sanskrit inscription on it, which was read and argued over in English scholarship for a century before the metallurgy was settled.
The imperial axis from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan, and what Lutyens was deliberately borrowing from the Mughal buildings a few miles away.
The shape of the day
A half day and a full day in Delhi
Delhi is the only city on this list where a guided day is a choice between three cities that happen to share a name: the Mughal walled city, the Sultanate ruins of the south, and Lutyens’ imperial capital. They are forty minutes apart in traffic and belong to different centuries, and a guide’s first useful act is to tell you which one you came for.
Half day · ₹900 guide
Old Delhi in a morning
The only half day in Delhi that does not spend its time in traffic — everything below is within two kilometres of the Red Fort.
- 08:30
Hotel pickup
Guide and driver together at the lobby. Plan the morning over the first five minutes rather than on the move.
- 09:30
Red Fort
Gates open at 09:30. The first hour is the quiet one — Lahori Gate, the Diwan-i-Aam, the marble pavilions of the Rang Mahal.
- 11:15
Jama Masjid
Five minutes from the fort. Courtyard for 25,000; the southern minaret is climbable for the rooftop view over the old city.
- 12:00
Chandni Chowk on foot and by cycle-rickshaw
Dariba Kalan for silver, Kinari Bazaar for wedding trim, Paranthe Wali Gali for lunch. Walking is the only way in; the guide leads.
- 13:30
Drop
Back at the hotel, or onward — the guide signs off here and the car stays with you if you booked the full package.
Full day · ₹1,500 guide
Mughal, Sultanate and imperial Delhi in a day
Three cities in one day. The driving between them is what the day costs; the order below keeps it to about 35 kilometres.
- 08:00
Hotel pickup
An early start matters here — the Red Fort is calm at 09:30 and full by 11:00.
- 09:30
Red Fort
Two hours inside, finishing at the Rang Mahal and the Khas Mahal with the river-facing side explained.
- 11:30
Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk
Mosque courtyard, then the lanes on a cycle-rickshaw as far as Dariba Kalan.
- 13:00
Lunch in the old city or Connaught Place
Paranthe Wali Gali for the street version, Karim’s for Mughlai, CP if the group wants a table and air conditioning. Paid separately.
- 14:15
Humayun's Tomb
The building the Taj Mahal was drawn from, forty years earlier. One hour, including Isa Khan’s tomb on the same ticket.
- 15:45
Qutub Minar and the Mehrauli complex
The Sultanate layer — the minaret, the Iron Pillar, the Alai Darwaza, and the ruins of the mosque built from twenty-seven dismantled temples.
- 17:15
India Gate and the Rajpath drive
The imperial axis at the end of the day, when it is lit and the lawns fill up.
- 18:00
Drop at hotel
Guide signs off. The 8 hr / 80 km package covers the day as laid out above.
Orientation. Old Delhi sits in the north-east around the Red Fort and Chandni Chowk. The Sultanate monuments — Qutub Minar, Mehrauli, Hauz Khas — are fifteen kilometres south. New Delhi, with India Gate and the government buildings, lies between them. Humayun’s Tomb is east of centre, close to Nizamuddin.
The fare, stated plainly
What is in the price and what is not
What the fare covers
- A Ministry-of-Tourism licensed Regional Level Guide for the Northern Region, examined in English
- The guide’s licence card photographed and sent on WhatsApp at confirmation, before anything is paid
- An AC vehicle with driver on the published rental package, if you book the bundled rate
- Driver waiting time at every stop for the whole package duration
- Fuel, tolls within the package distance, and the driver’s allowance
- Help at the ticket counters, including which tier to buy and which gate to use
What it does not
- Monument entry tickets — these are paid at the gate and the figures for Delhi are in the table above
- Meals, and any shopping or activity you choose during the day
- Distance beyond the package’s included kilometres, charged at the published per-km rate
- Guide or driver gratuity, which is customary but never compulsory
- Monument camera and video charges where the monument levies them
About English guides
Working in English
The working language of most of India’s tourism trade, which means an English-speaking guide is also the easiest to verify: you can ask your own questions and judge the answers.
Who it serves
United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa
How names are handled
Place names are read as English speakers expect to hear them, with the Hindi or Urdu original offered once so you can use it with shopkeepers and drivers.
Notice we need
Usually available at short notice, including same day.
The licence, and how to check it
A Regional Level Guide licence is issued by the Ministry of Tourism after a written examination, an interview and a training course run through the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management. It is issued for a tourism region, not for the whole country, and it names the foreign languages the holder is examined in.
Every licence card carries a photograph, a licence number, the issuing region and the languages the holder is examined in. We send a photograph of the card on WhatsApp when a booking is confirmed, before you pay anything, so you can check the number, the region and the language against the guide who meets you.
Delhi is licensed under the Northern Region. Northern Region — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
Delhi in photographs
What the day looks like
Photographed on the Delhi routes these itineraries use.
Questions people ask
English guides in Delhi
Our team is here to help. Contact us for personalized assistance.
Other combinations
The same city in another language, or the same language in another city
The two directions a reader usually wants next. Every rate shown is the published day rate for that language.
Nine other languages in Delhi
Everything else in Delhi
Book a English-speaking guide in Delhi
Send your dates and the length of day you want. We come back with a named licensed guide, a photograph of their licence card, and the total in writing — ₹1,500 for the guide on a full day, or ₹4,000 with a sedan and driver included.
We send the guide’s licence card before you pay anything. Nothing is charged to confirm.