Half a century on the golf course
A modern hotel for a young republic: The Oberoi opened in 1965, when New Delhi was less than forty years old and its skyline was still low.
The Oberoi name: the group founded by M.S. Oberoi grew into one of India's best-known hotel companies, and its service style is famous across the country.
- Opened
- 1965
- Closed for renovation
- Early 2016, after its fiftieth year
- Reopened
- January 2018
- Redesign
- By the designer Adam D. Tihany
- Fifty years on: after celebrating its golden anniversary, the hotel closed in early 2016 for a complete renovation.
- A new interior: it reopened in January 2018 with interiors by the designer Adam D. Tihany, quiet, contemporary and polished.
- What stayed the same: the setting. The hotel still looks over the trees of the Delhi Golf Club on one side and the city on the other.
- Why it matters to you: you get a modern, calm hotel in one of the most historic quarters of Delhi.
The green side of Delhi
The golf course: the Delhi Golf Club spreads out beside the hotel, a long stretch of trees, lawns and old tombs.
Humayun's Tomb: the great Mughal garden tomb of the sixteenth century, a few minutes away and the finest sight in this part of the city.
- Lodhi Garden: a park around the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi sultans, where Delhi walks at dawn.
- Sunder Nursery: the restored Mughal-era garden beside Humayun's Tomb, with lawns, pavilions and old tombs.
- Nizamuddin: the shrine of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya, where qawwali is sung in the evenings.
- Khan Market: a short drive for bookshops, design stores and cafes.
- Why it matters: you can start your day in a Mughal garden and be back for breakfast.
What staying at The Oberoi is like
The service: precise and anticipatory, in the way Oberoi hotels across India are known for. Staff remember your name and your tea.
The design: calm, contemporary interiors in soft tones, with Indian art and craft woven in rather than shouted.
- The rooms: comfortable, quiet and well equipped, with views over the golf course or the city.
- The pool: an outdoor pool for a jet-lagged afternoon.
- The spa: the hotel has a spa. We book a treatment for your first afternoon.
- The atmosphere: business travellers in the week, families and couples at the weekend, and never a sense of rush.
- What it isn't: a historic building or a palace. For history, The Imperial is the choice.
Choosing your room
The golf course side: our first request, for the trees, the birds and the quiet.
A higher floor: the higher you go, the wider the green view.
- Our usual ask
- A room on the golf course side
- Why
- Trees instead of traffic
- For families
- Connecting or nearby rooms, booked ahead
- Book ahead for
- October to March
- A suite for a celebration: a good choice for the first or last night of a long journey.
- For families: connecting or nearby rooms, which we request when we book.
- For late arrivals: we ask for the room to be ready, so you go straight to bed.
- Our honest view: if you want Old Delhi on your doorstep, The Imperial is closer. If you want calm, stay here.
Dining at The Oberoi
threesixty°: the all-day restaurant, redesigned in the renovation, for breakfast, lunch and dinner with an open kitchen feel.
Specialist restaurants: the hotel has had Indian and Chinese restaurants since reopening. Venues and chefs change, so we confirm current names when we book.
- Breakfast: Indian and international, the right start before a day of monuments.
- A light first dinner: after a long flight, we suggest dinner early at the hotel and an early night.
- Outside the hotel: our Delhi food guide covers the city's great restaurants and street food.
- Old Delhi: for parathas and jalebis in the lanes, see our Old Delhi food walk.
- Book ahead: at weekends and in the wedding season, when Delhi fills its restaurants.
Spa, pool and rest
First afternoon: a massage or a swim helps reset the body clock more than a nap.
The midday rule: see the sights early and late, and keep the hottest hours for the hotel.
- A walk at dawn: Lodhi Garden, before the city wakes, is the best cure for jet lag we know.
- Before a flight home: a day room or a last night here lets you shower, rest and pack calmly.
- More on spas: our spa and Ayurveda page covers the best spas on our journeys.
Delhi on the doorstep
Humayun's Tomb
What it is: the tomb of the second Mughal emperor, in a walled garden divided into four.
- Why it matters: the first great garden tomb of the Mughals, and an ancestor of the Taj Mahal.
- When: the first or last hour of light.
Sunder Nursery
- What it is: a restored garden of the Mughal era, with lawns, pools and tombs.
- When: a morning walk, especially in spring.
Lodhi Garden
- What it is: a city park around fifteenth and sixteenth-century tombs.
- When: at dawn, with Delhi's walkers, joggers and birdwatchers.
Nizamuddin Dargah
- What it is: the shrine of the fourteenth-century Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya.
- When: in the evening, when qawwali is sung. Cover your head, remove your shoes and go with our guide through the lanes.
Lutyens' Delhi
- What it is: Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Secretariats, Kartavya Path and India Gate.
- When: a drive at dusk, when Delhi families come out to walk.
Old Delhi and Qutub Minar
- What they are: Shah Jahan's walled city to the north and the Sultanate minaret to the south.
- How: early starts for both. Read our Chandni Chowk and Qutub Minar guides.
Seven centuries around the hotel
The Sultanate tombs: Lodhi Garden holds the tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi rulers who held Delhi in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
The Sufi saint: Nizamuddin Auliya lived and taught here in the fourteenth century, and his shrine has drawn pilgrims ever since.
- Humayun's Tomb
- 1560s, finished around 1570
- Commissioned by
- Bega Begum, Humayun's widow
- UNESCO
- Humayun's Tomb, listed 1993
- Best hour
- The last two hours of daylight
- The Mughal tomb: Humayun's widow, Bega Begum, built his tomb close to the saint's shrine. Its architects were Mirak Mirza Ghiyas and his son Sayyid Muhammad.
- Why it matters for your journey: its Persian plan, double dome and four-part garden became the model for the Taj Mahal, which you may see days later.
- The nobles' tombs: around the great tomb stand smaller tombs of courtiers and servants, among them Isa Khan's octagon and the blue dome of Nila Gumbad.
- The garden revived: Sunder Nursery, beside the tomb, has been restored as a public park with Mughal-era monuments among its lawns.
- The twentieth century: to the west, Lutyens laid out New Delhi, and The Oberoi rose on its edge in 1965.
Your first evening after a long flight
At the airport: our representative meets you at arrivals, with the car close by.
At the hotel: a quiet check-in, with the paperwork handled ahead, and straight to your room.
- First hour: a shower, a pot of tea and the curtains open onto the trees.
- Late afternoon: a short walk in Lodhi Garden to reset your body clock in daylight.
- Early dinner: something light, then bed by ten.
- Next morning: Humayun's Tomb at opening time, when jet lag wakes you early anyway.
A calm Delhi day from The Oberoi
- More plans: our Delhi itinerary and Delhi in two days give longer versions.
Morning, gardens and tombs
Dawn: Lodhi Garden on foot.
- Breakfast: back at the hotel.
- Mid-morning: Sunder Nursery and Humayun's Tomb, before the heat.
Afternoon, rest
- Lunch: at the hotel or Khan Market.
- Rest: the pool or the spa through the hottest hours.
Evening, the old city or the saint
- Late afternoon: a drive past India Gate and Kartavya Path.
- Evening: qawwali at Nizamuddin, then dinner.
What most visitors miss
The golf course at dawn: from your window, the mist over the trees and the old tombs among them.
Isa Khan's tomb: an octagonal tomb in its own enclosure within the Humayun's Tomb complex, often empty.
- Nila Gumbad: a small blue-tiled dome nearby, easy to pass without noticing.
- The Lodhi Garden birds: parakeets, barbets and kites, with Delhi's birdwatchers at first light.
- Khan Market's bookshops: the best place to buy books on Rajasthan before your journey.
Shopping close to the hotel
Khan Market: books, design shops, tea and cafes, a favourite of Delhi residents.
Dilli Haat: an open-air market where artisans from across India sell from small stalls.
- Central Cottage Industries Emporium: the government crafts store on Janpath, with fixed prices.
- The state emporia: a row of state-run craft shops on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, each selling its own region's work.
- Our rule: we never take you to commission shops. Our shopping guide explains where we buy and why.
Families and celebrations
For children: a pool, gardens nearby and short drives, which matter after a long flight.
- For grandparents: lifts, calm public spaces and attentive staff.
- For a celebration: a suite and a private dinner on the last night of a long journey.
- Our family journeys: explain how we pace Rajasthan for children and grandparents together.
When to stay at The Oberoi
October and November: warm days and clear evenings. Air quality can dip in November, so we plan more indoor time when needed.
December and January: cool, with fog some mornings. Flights can be delayed, so we keep a buffer.
- Best months
- October to March
- Foggy mornings
- December and January
- Hottest
- April to June
- Monsoon
- July to September
- Busiest
- Winter, and the wedding season
- February and March: Delhi's spring, with flowers in Lodhi Garden and Sunder Nursery.
- April to June: very hot. Sights at dawn only, and long afternoons at the pool.
- The monsoon: green and humid, with heavy showers.
- Month by month: our guide to the best time to visit Delhi has more.
Who will love The Oberoi, and who won't
First-timers: a gentle, efficient introduction to India after a long flight.
Couples: quiet rooms, a garden view and Humayun's Tomb at sunset.
- Families: a hotel that simply works, with space and a pool.
- Repeat visitors: a familiar, reliable base before the road.
- Garden lovers: Lodhi Garden and Sunder Nursery on your doorstep.
- You may not love it if: you want a historic building, a palace mood or Old Delhi a short ride away.
- Alternatives: for history, The Imperial. For grandeur, The Leela Palace, New Delhi. Our Delhi hotels guide compares them all.
How The Oberoi fits our journeys
The Golden Triangle and Udaipur: our nine-night journey often begins here.
The classic Golden Triangle: on our six-night route, The Oberoi suits a calm start.
- On to the Taj: continue to Agra and The Oberoi Amarvilas, where every room looks towards the Taj Mahal.
- On to Jaipur: our Jaipur favourites include The Oberoi Rajvilas, so the style carries through the journey.
- Break the road: a night at Neemrana Fort-Palace on the way to Jaipur turns the drive into an arrival.
- Our role: we meet you at arrivals, brief you on the first evening and stay with you on WhatsApp throughout.
Getting to The Oberoi
From the airport: about forty minutes late at night, longer in the day. We meet you at arrivals.
By train: the fast trains to Agra and Jaipur leave from New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations, both a short drive.
- Airport
- About 40 minutes at night
- Daytime traffic
- Can double the drive
- To Agra
- Three to four hours by road
- To Jaipur
- Four to five hours by road
- To Agra: about three to four hours on the expressway, or by fast train.
- To Jaipur: four to five hours by road, often less on the new expressway.
- More detail: our airports and flights guide explains timings.
What we tell friends before they stay
Ask for the golf course side: it makes the biggest difference to your stay.
Book Humayun's Tomb for sunset: it is minutes away, so you need very little time.
Dress for shrines: a scarf for the head at Nizamuddin, shoulders and knees covered.
- Keep an eye on the air: in November and December, check air quality and carry a mask if sensitive.
- Book dinner ahead: at weekends and in the wedding season.
- Dry days: on some national holidays, alcohol is not served. Our dry days guide explains.
- Carry small notes: for shoe-minders at shrines and tips in the old city, where cards are less useful.
- Let jet lag work for you: if you wake at five, go to Lodhi Garden. It is the best hour of the Delhi day.
- Keep the first day light: one sight, a long lunch and an early night set you up for the road.