Insider Tours of Delhi with Travel With D

Neck and neck with Mumbai as India’s largest city, Delhi is a gigantic metropolis which is challenging to navigate without the help of a great local Delhi tour guide. I got my feet wet on my first trip to Delhi, so on my second trip, I wanted to discover more unique sites in Delhi. I called on my good friend Deepak who’s just launched his own company, Travel With D, to give me an insider tour of Delhi. His suggestion for a single traveler in Delhi? A scooter tour! Hop aboard and be sure to watch my new video of the experience too!

Deepak-Gupta

About Deepak and Travel with D

When I first met Deepak Gupta back in the spring, I knew I’d come across a special person. Kind, gentle, patient and intelligent, Deepak is an old soul, the sort of person you can immediate trust. This extends from his work as a tour guide to his mentorship of the next generation of steadfast Delhi youth. Deepak knew he’d need good English to advance in today’s world, and he got his chance to achieve this through Manzil, a non-profit, youth-led learning center that helps Delhi’s youth improve their English and other skills. He then applied this to being able to lead tours to help put him through university.
With a number of guiding years under his belt and studies in tourism which have taken him to the US and Canada, Deepak has started his own company, Travel With D, which also employs savvy young student guides from Manzil, bringing his experience with them full circle.

Unique Tours in Delhi and Beyond

Deepak and his team aim to offer visitors a real window into India. They provide a chance to meet today’s youth and see Delhi and other destinations through their eyes. While they can do more “standard” sightseeing tours, they excel at giving insider experiences and something more off the beaten path. This is exactly the kind of experience I’m looking for when I travel which is why I was extra keen to do more touring with Deepak on my return to Delhi.

Travel with D Scooter Tour of Delhi

He suggested trying a scooter tour, well-suited to a single traveler, but he can also do this tour with another scouter-guide for couples or friends traveling together and he can custom this or any other tours on foot and public transit to suit your interests. What’s great about a scooter tour is that you can get around much of Delhi’s hellish traffic. Plus, if you’d like to visit Old Delhi, this could also be useful since the area extremely difficult to get through by car (and easy to get lost in on foot if you’re alone. However, I had something different in mind…

Offbeat Sites in Delhi

Having done many of the “classic” must see Delhi sites on my first trip, I was looking to explore something different. “No problem!” said Deepak and he easily adapted along the way. He started by taking me to one of his favorite places for a little quiet time in bustling Delhi and then we work our way through my request for sites on early Delhi history — I encourage you to watch the above video so you can learn more about where we went and take a virtual tour to these beautiful places (just click the red arrow on the video post above and it’ll start playing on this page).
Lily-with-English-Students

 Connecting with Locals

Deepak saved the best for last. While I can be a bit of a history geek, it’s with the living that we can learn the most and through whom we can have the most enriching experiences. We ended our tour by stopping by a class at Manzil, so I could see for myself the work they do. I met around 20 eager-to-learn teens and early twenties, the promising youth of tomorrow’s India. This was topped off by going out with a handful of the group for further conversation over what they assured me were the best momos in Delhi. As you can see from the huge smile on my face, this encounter was the highlight of my day.

A big thank you to Deepak and the students and teachers of Manzil for the amazing look into the real Delhi. Learn more about the tours offered by Travel with D here. They can lead tours in other places in India, so don’t be afraid to check with them about other destinations in your India itinerary or on including some volunteering with Manzil (or donating them some books or supplies) during your trip.

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