What I learnt from taking the metro across Delhi all day

Most people use the Delhi Metro with one thing in mind: to get to the destination as quickly as possible. That is how I’d always treated it too. But on one trip, I decided to use it differently. Instead of planning my day around places to visit, I planned it around the Metro. I wanted to see how much of Delhi I could cover just by taking different lines and getting off wherever something caught my attention.

At first, I thought it would just be an easy way to get around the city. By the end of the day, I was looking at Delhi a little differently. The Metro wasn’t just getting me from one place to another. It was making it easier to notice how quickly Delhi changes from one neighbourhood to another.

Delhi felt much smaller than I had imagined

Looking at Delhi on a map can make covering it in a day feel almost impossible. I had always heard people say you get stuck in traffic for hours. Roads are often busy, and travelling by car can easily take longer than expected. Once I started using Metro, that feeling disappeared quickly.

Within an hour, I had crossed parts of the city that would have normally felt much farther away. One station was a busy shopping street, while the next led to quiet residential lanes. What surprised me was how quickly everything outside changed. I stopped thinking so much about the distance and started thinking about areas.

Every Delhi metro line had its own personality

As I switched between a few lines, I started noticing how different each one felt.

The Yellow Line was packed with office-goers in the morning. People knew exactly where they were going, and nobody looked like they had time to waste. Later, the Blue Line felt a little more relaxed. Families, shoppers and students filled the coaches, and stations were surrounded by malls, cafes and busy markets.

Some of the new corridors were quieter. The platforms weren’t empty, but there was less of the constant rush that I’d seen earlier in the day. I hadn’t expected to notice this at all. But after several hours on the Metro, I was starting to understand the different parts of Delhi just by looking around.

The Delhi stations became part of the journey

I had assumed I’d spend most of my time inside the train. Instead, I started paying more attention to the stations.

Some were large and modern, with people rushing between different exits. Others felt slower, with commuters waiting around patiently or stopping for tea before heading on. At one station, I watched a group of college students trying to decide where to eat next. 

At another, office workers quietly stood in line for coffee before heading home. Every stop seemed to have something different going on. These weren’t famous attractions, but somehow, I remembered them more vividly than I expected.

I ended up walking far more than I expected in Delhi

One of the nicest parts of the day was getting off without much of a plan. I’d leave a station, walk around for half an hour, maybe find a small café or a local market and then head back for the next train. I didn’t feel any pressure to cover every landmark.

It also made me realise how useful it is to stay near a metro station. If I did this again, I’d probably pick one of the hotels in Delhi close to the Metro network. I wouldn’t have to keep looking for a taxi every time I wanted to go somewhere else.

Funny enough, I ended up finding some of the more interesting things while walking around outside the stations.

The Metro showed me a side of Delhi I hadn’t noticed before

Before this trip, I mostly thought of Delhi as a city that was always in a hurry. After spending the whole day on the Metro, I wasn’t so sure anymore. Yes, there were crowded stations and busy trains. But then I’d turn a corner and find a quiet park, a roadside tea stall or a normal residential lane. These were the sort of things I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I had been following a fixed sightseeing plan. Once I stopped rushing from one place to another, Delhi didn’t seem quite so huge. Every few stops, it felt like I was somewhere completely different.

Final thoughts

When I planned the day, I thought I’d simply use the Metro to get from one place to another. I didn’t expect to enjoy the travelling part as much as I did.

The trains ended up doing more than just getting me from one station to another. One moment I was walking through a busy market, and a few stops later I was somewhere much quieter. I could move between completely different parts of Delhi without spending half the day figuring out the route.

If I were doing this again, I’d probably look for hotels in Delhi near a Metro station through IndiGo Hotels. It would make these little trips around the city much easier. I started the day thinking about where I’d go. By the evening, I was more interested in where the next train would take me.