The best 5 star hotels in Delhi sit in four distinct pockets, and choosing the right pocket matters more than choosing the right brand. Lutyens Delhi and Lodhi Road give you the colonial boulevards, the monuments and the good restaurants. Chanakyapuri, the Diplomatic Enclave, gives you embassy-belt space and the grandest palace-style hotels. Aerocity puts you seven minutes from the airport terminals. Gurgaon, over the Haryana border, is for meetings in Cyber City. Delhi traffic can turn a nine kilometre hop into an hour, so your address decides how much of the city you see.
Below are ten properties worth the money, grouped by location, with what each one does well. This is an editor’s read of the market, not a room-by-room review; our review methodology explains the difference.
The best 5 star hotels in Delhi at a glance
- The Oberoi, New Delhi: 220 rooms and suites, attentive service, with views over Humayun’s Tomb and the Delhi Golf Club.
- The Leela Palace New Delhi: a palatial arrival of marble and domes, plus a rooftop pool.
- Taj Mahal, New Delhi: a Lutyens Delhi address, walking distance from India Gate.
- The Imperial New Delhi: heritage building, serious art collection, steps from Connaught Place.
- The Lodhi: large rooms and suites, most with private plunge pools.
- ITC Maurya: Bukhara, Dum Pukht and Avartana under one roof.
- Taj Palace, New Delhi: gardens, two ballrooms and the space for big events.
- Andaz Delhi: a design-led Aerocity option, with runway views.
- JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity: 487 rooms and 24,000 square feet of meeting space beside the airport.
- The Oberoi, Gurgaon: ten minutes from Cyber City, with a pool bigger than Olympic size.
Lutyens Delhi and Lodhi Road: the central heritage addresses
New Delhi as built for the imperial capital: low buildings, roundabouts, green verges, most first-timer sights within a twenty minute drive.
The Oberoi, New Delhi
On Dr Zakir Hussain Marg, facing the Delhi Golf Club with Humayun’s Tomb beyond it, this is the one to book if you want a single pick from this list and no debate. Open since 1965, it reopened in 2018 after a rebuild that took the interiors back to the frame. There are 220 rooms and suites, and the service ratio shows.
Dining is the other reason to stay. Baoshuan is the rooftop Chinese restaurant, Omya does contemporary Indian cooking, and 360 is the all-day restaurant. Air purification runs throughout the building, which in Delhi is a specification to check.
Taj Mahal, New Delhi
Known to every Delhi taxi driver as Taj Mansingh, this is a classic Lutyens Delhi hotel, on Man Singh Road with India Gate about fifteen minutes away on foot. A refurbishment costing a reported 250 crore rupees reworked its 213 rooms, suites and residences, redid the restaurants, and added air purification throughout.
House of Ming has served Sichuan and Cantonese food here for decades, Varq does contemporary Indian under a large commissioned mural, and Machan runs the late-night menu. For government meetings the location does most of the work.
The Imperial New Delhi
The Imperial has been on Janpath since 1936, under ten minutes on foot from Connaught Place. Victorian, Lutyens-era and Art Deco detail run through a building holding more than 5,000 original artworks and artefacts from the 17th and 18th centuries, plus a museum and gallery. Of the room categories, the Deco suites are the ones to ask for.
The Spice Route, the South East Asian restaurant off the lobby, is the room most guests want to see. Janpath is busy and the hotel sits right on it, so request a room facing the garden and pool.
The Lodhi
The Lodhi, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, spreads across roughly seven acres on Lodhi Road between Lodhi Gardens and Humayun’s Tomb. Its point of difference is space: the rooms and suites are generously sized, and most categories come with a private plunge pool and balcony. Our guide to hotels with private plunge pools puts it in international context.
There is also a 50 metre lap pool, a spa with a hammam, three tennis courts and two squash courts. The design is restrained rather than ornate, and the seven acres of grounds keep Lodhi Road at a distance.
Chanakyapuri: the Diplomatic Enclave five star hotels
Chanakyapuri holds most of Delhi’s embassies, and its hotels are built on a bigger scale. You are further from Old Delhi, closer to the airport, and on wide roads that move well outside peak hours.
The Leela Palace New Delhi
Opened in 2011 in a deliberately palatial style, The Leela Palace goes all in on marble, domes and gold leaf. It stands in the Diplomatic Enclave in Chanakyapuri, and it has a temperature-controlled rooftop pool.
Jamavar does Indian, Le Cirque Franco-Italian, Megu Japanese and The Qube all-day world food, with The Library Bar for cocktails and Aujasya by The Leela for the spa. If you want visible grandeur rather than discretion, this is the pick of the ten.
ITC Maurya
ITC Maurya, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, is set up for state visits and large delegations, and its security and arrival logistics show it. With 411 rooms and 26 suites it is not the place for intimacy. The draw is the food.
Bukhara, the North West Frontier grill room, cooks kebabs and dal over tandoors, and it takes booking well ahead. Dum Pukht cooks Awadhi, and Avartana brings ITC’s South Indian tasting menus to Delhi. Book Bukhara before you book the room. The hotel is also certified LEED Platinum in the existing-buildings category.
Taj Palace, New Delhi
Taj Palace has run on Sardar Patel Marg since 1983, across more than six acres of garden, and it is built around large events. Two ballrooms, a run of conference halls, a big outdoor pool and a nine-hole putting green let it absorb a 500-person conference or a three-day wedding without the rest of the hotel feeling taken over. For two people it is more hotel than you need; for a group it is the right booking.
Aerocity: 5 star hotels in New Delhi closest to the airport
Aerocity is a purpose-built hotel district beside Indira Gandhi International. No heritage, no monuments, and the right answer more often than travellers expect: a layover, an early flight, or a trip split with Gurgaon. The Airport Express metro reaches New Delhi railway station in roughly fifteen to twenty minutes, and the Dwarka Expressway tunnel has cut the run to Gurgaon by about fifteen minutes.
Andaz Delhi
Andaz Delhi, Hyatt’s design-led brand, sits around seven minutes from the terminals and puts its money into the interiors, with an art programme running to 401 commissioned pieces. Rooms are generously sized, and the view rooms look over the runway, which is either the selling point or the reason to ask for the other side.
JW Marriott Hotel New Delhi Aerocity
Roughly 2.5 kilometres from the main terminal, the JW Marriott works at scale: 487 rooms and 29 suites, four restaurants, two bars, a spa, and a ballroom of around 12,000 square feet inside 24,000 square feet of meeting space. For a conference or a large family group that wants everyone minutes from check-in, it is an efficient booking. Solo travellers will find it corporate.
Gurgaon: where to stay for Cyber City meetings
The Oberoi, Gurgaon
Gurgaon, now officially Gurugram, holds much of the region’s corporate headquarters, and commuting there from central Delhi in the morning is a bad idea. The Oberoi, Gurgaon in Udyog Vihar Phase 5 sits about ten minutes from Cyber City and Cyber Hub, and roughly twenty-five minutes from the airport.
It is a glass-and-water-court building rather than a heritage one, with 202 rooms, a temperature-controlled outdoor pool larger than Olympic size and the Asmi spa. Ziya, the Indian restaurant, carries Vineet Bhatia’s name. Service is Oberoi standard, and the water courts screen off the corporate district outside.
How to choose between Delhi’s top five star hotels
- First visit, sightseeing led: The Oberoi, Taj Mahal New Delhi or The Imperial, all near India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, Khan Market and the museums.
- Privacy and space above all: The Lodhi, for the plunge-pool rooms and the grounds.
- Eating your way through the city: ITC Maurya for Bukhara, then The Oberoi.
- Business in central Delhi: Taj Mahal New Delhi. In Gurgaon: The Oberoi, Gurgaon.
- Short stopover or an early flight: Andaz Delhi or the JW Marriott Aerocity.
- Starting a longer India trip: any of the central four, since Delhi is the gateway to the forts and palaces in our Rajasthan luxury travel guide.
On price, judge the season rather than the brand: rates at this level in Delhi move a long way between the quiet months and the busy ones. They spike around the November to February wedding and conference season, so book early. For international context, see our round-up of the world’s 50 best hotels.
When to go, and the air quality question
Delhi’s comfortable season runs October to March. April to June is punishingly hot and the monsoon lands from July to September. Within the good months there is a split: November is reliably the worst month for air quality, when crop-stubble burning in neighbouring states meets cool air that traps smoke at ground level, and December and January bring fog that delays flights. February, March and late October are the better bets.
Travelling with children or anyone with a respiratory condition, avoid November and ask what in-room filtration the hotel runs. The Oberoi and Taj Mahal New Delhi both state that purification covers the whole building; others vary floor by floor. Conditions change year to year, so check current readings a week before you fly.
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best 5 star hotel in New Delhi?
Of the ten on this list, The Oberoi, New Delhi suits most travellers: a central location facing the Delhi Golf Club, 220 rooms and suites, and service that reflects that ratio. The Leela Palace New Delhi is the most ornate of the group and has a temperature-controlled rooftop pool; The Lodhi has the plunge-pool rooms and the quietest grounds of the ten. Pick whichever of the three matches your priority.
Which area of Delhi is best for a luxury hotel?
Lutyens Delhi and Lodhi Road, if sightseeing and restaurants are the priority, since India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb, Lodhi Gardens and Khan Market are all close. Chanakyapuri suits embassy business and larger events. Aerocity is for short stays and early flights, and Gurgaon only if your meetings are there.
Are Aerocity hotels a reasonable base for seeing Delhi?
They work better than most people assume: the Airport Express metro reaches New Delhi railway station in roughly fifteen to twenty minutes, often faster than a car from Chanakyapuri. You still commute to every sight, so Aerocity suits one or two nights rather than a week of sightseeing.
When is the best time to stay in Delhi?
February and March, for mild days and the cleanest air of the cool season; late October is the other good window. November has the year’s worst air quality, December and January bring fog and flight delays, and from April the heat makes walking the city unrealistic.
Do Delhi’s five star hotels have air purification?
Many now do, and it has become a real point of competition. The Oberoi, New Delhi and Taj Mahal, New Delhi both state that purification runs across the whole building; others fit units in rooms or on particular floors. Ask before booking if air quality concerns you, and treat any such claim as a reason to check the specification.