Last verified: July 2026.
Delhi is the layover where honesty matters most, so here it is: if you didn’t arrange an Indian visa before you flew, you are not leaving Terminal 3. India has no casual transit-exit option for most Western passports — no fee you can pay at a desk, no 72-hour waiver, and the e-Visa now takes days to approve, so it cannot be conjured mid-journey. That’s the bad news. The good news is twofold. First, T3 is one of the better airports in Asia to be stuck in: an airside transit hotel, sleep pods, decent lounges and 24/7 food. Second, if you did plan ahead, Delhi rewards you disproportionately — the Airport Express metro costs ₹60 (about €0.60) and puts you at New Delhi station in around 20 minutes, with Humayun’s Tomb and Old Delhi within a well-run day. Plan two weeks out or plan to stay inside.
Can you leave the airport?
Staying airside (no visa needed): if your two international flights are on a single booking, your bags are checked through, and you remain in T3’s international transit area, you don’t need any Indian visa for a layover of under 24 hours. This is the default for most people connecting on Air India or foreign carriers through DEL. One 2026 addition: India now asks foreign arrivals to complete an online e-Arrival card within 72 hours before landing — cheap insurance to fill in even as a transit passenger, and mandatory if you’ll clear immigration.
Leaving the airport — the rules, without sugar:
e-Visa in advance (the only realistic route for US/UK/EU/CA/AU passports): apply at the official indianvisaonline.gov.in (beware lookalike sites — there is an entire industry of them). The rules say apply at least 4 days before arrival, but processing that used to take about 72 hours has stretched to 8–10 days or more in 2025–26 — treat two weeks as the real deadline. Fees vary by nationality and validity; check the official portal rather than trusting third-party quotes. Print or save the ETA approval; you’ll present it at the immigration counters in T3.
Transit visa: India’s formal transit visa (for exits up to 72 hours) exists but cannot be obtained on arrival — it’s an advance application through a consulate/portal like any other. For most travellers the e-Tourist visa is the simpler instrument and covers a layover exit fine.
No pre-arranged visa? Then the answer is no. There is no visa-on-arrival scheme for Western passports (a narrow one exists for a few Asian nationalities), immigration officers cannot improvise one, and airside is where you stay. Skip ahead to the in-terminal plan — it’s genuinely decent.
Also stay airside if: your connection is under 6 hours (Delhi immigration queues plus the security re-entry, with its stamped-form ritual and cabin-baggage tag checks, are slow and occasionally chaotic); or your bags aren’t checked through on separate tickets — collecting and re-checking at T3 consumes hours by itself.
How much time do you need?
| Layover | What’s realistic |
|---|---|
| Under 6h | Airside, visa or not. Immigration in, security back in — with Delhi’s document checks and peak-hour crowds — leaves no city time worth having. |
| 6–8h (visa in hand) | Aerocity only: a proper meal, a swim on a hotel day-pass, or a nap 10 minutes from the terminal. Not the city proper — Delhi traffic decides, not you. |
| 9–12h (visa in hand) | The real window: Airport Express to New Delhi station, one or two monuments (Humayun’s Tomb; or Old Delhi’s Jama Masjid and Chandni Chowk), a meal, and back with a fat buffer. |
| 24h+ (visa in hand) | A legitimate Delhi day — Old Delhi in the morning, Humayun’s Tomb and Lodhi Gardens in the late afternoon, dinner in Aerocity before the flight out. |
| Any length, no visa | Terminal 3: transit hotel, sleep pods, lounges, food. See the in-terminal plan below. |
Buffers: I use 2.5 hours minimum back at T3 before an international departure — check-in counters close hard at Indian airports (typically 60 minutes out), entry to the terminal itself involves a document check at the door, and security re-clear is slower than in Europe. Add more during winter fog season (December–January), when delays cascade across the whole schedule.
Getting into the city
Airport Express Line (Orange Line): the best thing Delhi ever did for its airport. From the T3 station (follow the signs down from arrivals), trains run at up to 120 km/h to New Delhi railway station in roughly 15–25 minutes for ₹60 (~€0.60). From New Delhi station you’re on the edge of the colonial-era centre, with the main metro network (and its cheap, effective yellow line to Old Delhi) connecting. Air India passengers can even use city check-in at New Delhi metro station on the way back. Use it in both directions; it is immune to the traffic that eats taxi plans alive.
Taxi / Uber / Ola: both apps work from marked pick-up zones at T3. To central Delhi expect very little money by European standards but a wildly variable 30–90 minutes depending on hour — Delhi’s traffic is the most schedule-hostile of any airport city in this series. Prepaid taxi counters in arrivals are the app-free fallback. On a layover, my rule: apps/taxis for the short hop to Aerocity, the Airport Express for anything further.
Aerocity: the hotel-and-dining district sits just outside the airport — 10–15 minutes by taxi from T3, or one stop on the Airport Express to Delhi Aerocity station. It exists precisely for people like you: international hotels (JW Marriott, Andaz, Pullman and a dozen more), restaurants, and day-use rooms, all without going anywhere near central Delhi’s traffic.
What to do: one realistic plan per time budget
6–8 hours with a visa: Aerocity, and don’t be a hero. Clear immigration, one metro stop or a 10-minute taxi, and use a hotel like a tool: several Aerocity properties sell day rooms or day passes — shower, pool, a long unhurried Indian meal (the hotel restaurants here are far better than airport-adjacent has any right to be), and back at T3 with your 2.5-hour buffer intact. It sounds unambitious. It is precisely as ambitious as Delhi traffic allows in this window, and it beats six hours in a terminal chair by a mile.
9–12 hours with a visa: one monument done properly beats three done badly. My pick: Airport Express to New Delhi station, then an Uber to Humayun’s Tomb — the Mughal garden-tomb that Agra’s crowds forget, all red sandstone and symmetry, rarely more than pleasantly busy on a weekday morning. Pair it with adjacent Nizamuddin’s Sufi shrine lanes if you’re comfortable with intensity, or serene Lodhi Gardens if you’re not. Lunch, then back via the Express with time in hand. The alternative for the strong of stomach: the yellow line from New Delhi station to Chawri Bazar and surface into Old Delhi — Jama Masjid’s great courtyard, a paratha in the lanes off Chandni Chowk, and sensory overload as a feature. Do not attempt both plans in one 10-hour layover; pick one, and if it’s summer (April–June, mid-40s °C) or fog season, weight everything indoors and later.
24 hours / overnight with a visa: sleep in Aerocity (painless) or central Delhi (more atmosphere, more traffic exposure — I’d still pick Aerocity the night before an early departure). Day plan: Old Delhi early before the heat and crush peak, Humayun’s Tomb and Lodhi Gardens from late afternoon, dinner back in Aerocity. That’s the honest greatest-hits of Delhi in a day, and it leaves the Red Fort and everything south for the trip when India is the destination, not the layover.
Any length, no visa — the in-terminal plan that doesn’t waste your time: T3’s international airside is large and runs all night. In order of usefulness: (1) book the Holiday Inn Express T3’s airside international wing (57 rooms inside the transit area, day rates, no immigration needed) the moment you know your layover — it sells out; (2) failing that, the Encalm sleep pods in international departures for a lie-flat few hours; (3) lounge access — Priority Pass and paid entry get you into the international lounges for showers and food; (4) eat properly — the airside food court’s Indian options beat the Western chains, and this is the one airport where I’d tell you to have the biryani at 3 a.m. without irony. Add a walk-through of the terminal’s oversized mudras (the copper hand-gesture sculptures above immigration — T3’s one genuine photo op), charge everything, fill in your e-Arrival card if your next stop is also India, and treat it as a reset, not a sentence.
Luggage, lounges and sleeping
Left luggage: T3 has a 24/7 staffed cloakroom (landside — relevant only if you’ve cleared immigration), charging on the order of ₹300–600 (~€3–6) per bag per 24 hours (hourly rates for short stints), storage up to 30 days. Bags must be locked and you’ll show ID and your ticket. Airside transit passengers can’t reach it — another reason checked-through bags are the layover prerequisite here.
Lounges: multiple international airside lounges at T3 accept Priority Pass and paid walk-ins, with showers; quality is good-not-great and they get slammed when the late-night departure bank (roughly 01:00–04:00, when half of Delhi’s long-haul leaves) fills them. Claim a seat early.
Sleeping: the ranking is clear. Airside: Holiday Inn Express T3 (international transit wing — bookable by the night or day-use, maximum one night) then Encalm sleep pods. Landside with a visa: Aerocity’s full-service hotels 10 minutes away, often cheaper than European airport hotels for far higher standards. Free option: T3’s benches and carpeted corners are survivable and security is constant, but announcements run all night and the terminal never really sleeps — if your layover is 8h+ overnight, the airside hotel is the difference between arriving in your next city functional or wrecked.
FAQ
Can I get any visa on arrival at Delhi airport? Not on a US, UK, EU, Canadian or Australian passport. India’s visa-on-arrival scheme covers only a few nationalities, and the transit visa explicitly cannot be issued at the airport. The e-Visa is advance-only — apply at least two weeks out.
My two flights are on separate tickets — can I transit airside without a visa? Almost certainly not. Separate tickets usually mean collecting bags and re-checking, which requires clearing immigration — and that requires a visa. Treat separate-ticket connections through DEL as visa-required, full stop.
Is a 3-hour connection at DEL enough? On one ticket, airside, yes — T3’s international transfer flow is straightforward if unhurried. If it involves a terminal change, an airline change on separate bookings, or a domestic leg (which means immigration plus a terminal transfer), 3 hours is optimistic; take the longer connection.
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