By now it's 4:30 p.m., and you have one more stop, where you'll see the city from the vantage point offered by Rashtrapati Bhavan, the president's house, part of a larger government complex built by Edwin Lutyens, whose architectural designs are an innovative but respectful marriage of the Mogul tradition and Western classicism. Lutyens was commissioned by the British to build a "new Delhi" in 1911, and his structures (which include the parliament building) stand on the city's highest point, looking down toward the 1931 India Gate, an arch that commemorates the 90,000 Indian soldiers who died during World War I.

You'll be back to your hotel by about 5:30, with time for a swim before dinner at Veda (H-27 Outer Circle; 91-11-4151-3940; entrées, $8–$17). The restaurant—whose name stands for Very Exotic Dining Ambience—looks like a Bollywood interpretation of a bordello, with button-dimpled black leather banquettes and piped-in techno. Somehow it all works, as do the fizzy lemon soda and the fish dishes, which come with a fiery mint chutney. The restaurant, about a $2.50 taxi ride from your hotel, will call you a cab for the trip back.

Day 2: Shah Jahan's Delhi
Meet your guide at 9 a.m., and you're off to the Red Fort, completed in 1648 for the great Shah Jahan, the fifth Mogul ruler and arguably one of history's most important urban planners and architectural visionaries. Like most public monuments in India, it is open from sunrise to sunset (except Mondays), and although there's invariably a long line, it moves quickly.

The Red Fort—so named for the terra-cotta sandstone from which it was built—has had many lives. In 1638, Jahan, who had previously ruled his empire from Agra, began moving his capital to Delhi and commissioned this complex of private and governmental buildings, all surrounded by a wall a mile and a half in circumference. The fort remained (more or less) in Mogul hands until 1857, when the last of the dynastic ruler's sons were shot, the Mogul himself was exiled, and British rule began, during which it was used as a headquarters by the British Army.

You'll enter at Lahore Gate, the primary of the fort's six entrances, which opens into Chatta Chowk, a covered bazaar that itself leads to a series of public reception halls and private pavilions (pictured bottom right). Of particular note is the open-air throne room (the throne itself, fashioned from white marble, is partly obscured behind a mesh scrim), a good example of Mogul architecture with its precise symmetry and fluted archways. Look on the side of the building for the sturdy iron hooks from which carpets could be hung to insulate the room from the cold. More impressive is the emperor's marble private reception hall, inlaid with jasper and malachite. Although the silver ceilings that once decorated it are long gone, one can imagine how they must have made the space glow, and how the light from them must have reflected on the water that once ran through the wide, shallow channel that bisects the room.