You can read about day 1 here and day 2 here.
I awoke early and went to the gym to train before breakfast, enjoying an excellent workout followed by another round in the steam room and sauna. The Hyatt Regency Delhi has a solid fitness center.
I then enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel, which oddly added only about 5 USD to my room rate at the time of booking (but would have cost 4x that had I just opted to pay on the spot). The buffet spread was lovely, though today I stuck to Western only…I wasn’t in the mood for Indian food this morning.
My walks in other neighborhoods had been so enjoyable that, despite the heat, I decided to walk around the neighborhood where the hotel was.
I wasn’t look for anything in particular but eventually decided it was time for another cup of coffee and navigated to a place called Fika, which had an avocado latte on the menu served in an avocado that I thought would be interesting.
This café was in an area called Haus Khas Village, which is a very cool enclave of Delhi that includes trendy cafés and boutiques juxtaposed to 14th-century Mughal-era ruins.
Turns out Fika had been closed for several weeks and was not serving coffee…bummer. Thankfully, I found another place around the corner called Byterra and enjoyed a great coffee here. I highly recommend visiting Haus Khas Village…a cool part of the city.
Haus Khas Village is connected to Deer Park and I enjoyed a stroll through the shaded park, which true to its name does have deer…and peacocks. The shade made the hot July day much more bearable.
Back on the street, I took an Uber to the hotel to the hotel, for it was time to move Hyatt properties once again.
Today, I’d be moving over to the Andaz Delhi in Aerocity, a so-called “premium business and hospitality district” that felt like I was in a whole different place, almost like being in Melrose Arch within Johannesburg or even Dubai.
The Andaz was nice…spacious guest rooms and nice common areas with a big pool and excellent gym/wellness.
I went out later and walked around this Aerocity a bit…it included posh luxury retail stores, restaurants, and salons…a bit sterile, but another interesting part of town.
I stopped at a Le Marche, which is made to resemble a French grocery store and is filled with imported goods and a European-style butcher (though still no beef). Some of the items were just absurdly expensive, but I had a cappuccino and blueberry smoothie that were not only reasonably-priced, but delicious.
Returning to the hotel, I used the steam room and sauna before having a later dinner at the Andaz.
While my dinner (braised lamb shank) was fabulous, my neighbors sitting at the seat next door had a far less satisfactory dinner…I’ll write separately on that because it really rubbed me the wrong way.
While my three days in Delhi were perhaps not filled with the usual tourist activities, I quite enjoyed what I saw…and stumbled upon…during my time in the Indian capital.
Ohhh man, I could go for some masala dosas right now! Yummers!! (Have stayed at that Andaz and the JW at Aerocity; if you’d must enter India on a long-layover, it gets the job done. Haven’t tried the Pullman, maybe next time!)
Matt, what cell phone plan do you use for your travel? I imagine since you run a business while traveling, an esim isn’t the best option for you. Trying to find better alternatives for U.S. cell phone service. Thanks!
Not to speak for Matt but I find T-Mobile’s international pricing very reasonable as compared to other carriers. I have friends who speak highly of Google Fi but I have a highly grandfathered plan on TMO and have been advised never switch but I’ll ever get my rate again.
With many higher end phones being dual SIM, some are dual eSIM and others are one physical SIM and one eSIM, having a SIM just for data and the other connected to your US line is not a big deal anymore.
Chris is correct – I just use T-Mobile. No charge for calls when connected to Wi-Fi. Data has worked fairly well in India, though not high speed.
@Chris. I use Google Fi,, but they cut your access to data after being out of the US for about 60 days. It resets immediately upon connecting again in the US. However, Airalo charges $66 (but rewards make it about $60 subsequently) for a global data only eSIM with 365 day expiry. That’s cheaper than the $10/GB Fi charges, so I use it exclusively when outside the US. In the US, my phone is set to pick the faster. I’m happy with it in all ways.
@1990 im with you. Masala dosa works at any time of the day!!!!
Great review. Nothing wrong with walking and stumbling to get a taste of a city.
My go-to before DEL flights at is the freshly made masala dosas at the T3 Encalm lounge. I’m grateful that their chefs make them nearly any-time-of-day-or-night, not just for breakfast.
I notice you keep posting pictures of swastikas. I’m not suggesting you don’t the know the context, but in case you or the readers don’t – what you see is an ancient Hindu religious symbol. Nazis took the Hindu swastika and turned it on an angle. So what you see painted is different than the anti-semitic version and is not related to anti-semitism at all. It’s a Hindu symbol. In fact, India has a sizable Jewish population. Over centuries, and during WWII a lot of individuals of the Jewish faith who fled the Middle East went to India as it was the closest most accepting nation East of the region. Even now Israelis make up a large portion of tourists to India, in particular to Goa, given the closeness between India and Israel and Hindus and Jews.
Love the stories Matt. I’ve been to Delhi but hadn’t been to Deer Park.
Next time get some gelato at Firenze
Too bad India is playing England in cricket now in England.