11 Best Shopping in Side Trips from Delhi, India

This expansive stores stocks local handicrafts, miniature wood paintings, brass sculptures, and jewelry. The textiles are particularly impressive: there's a huge collection of scarves, saris, and clothing in silks and cottons, with traditional Indian prints.

Come here for excellent Varanasi weaves in silk and cotton, a vast rug room, plus brass wares and Kashmiri embroidered shawls. Everything is expensive.

This reliable, family-owned jeweler, established in 1845, retails precious and semiprecious gold and silver jewelry. They specialize in older pieces and also create new ones. Past clients have included Prince Charles and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

This large crafts shop, with woodwork, handicrafts, jewelery, and silks, is owned by the Agra marble-inlay maker Oswal. It's associated with a government project that hosts craftspeople from all over India for residences during peak travel season; you can watch the artisans at work as you shop.

This company has been designing jewelry using cut and uncut emeralds and other precious stones since 1862; a special "connoisseur's room" with unique pieces is open only by appointment. Don't miss the little museum display of fantastic 3-D zardoji (embroidered paintings). Some have been encrusted with gems by the master of the technique.

This three-room emporium stocks zardozi (embroidery), traditional jewelry, and marble inlay work. A large room on the upper floor is dedicated to antique-style gold and silver jewelry inlaid with precious stones. The basement doubles up as a workshop for marble inlay tables, plates, and other items.

Excellent examples of inlaid white, pink, green, and black marble are produced here; you can watch daily demonstrations as artisans work on marble and also learn their techniques. Handicrafts, jewelry, and textiles are also available.

This was the first store to revive Agra marble work in the 1960s. Ask to see some of the masterpieces in the private gallery to give you a better perspective on quality.

Among the brass vendors, on a small lane 50 meters north of the Chowk, some shops sell silks and woolens to a local crowd.

Stunning marble-inlaid tabletops in every size, some with latticework, are on display in this massive showroom of marble collectibles. At the demo workshop outdoors, you can watch craftsmen work and paint on marble. Other pieces include vases, decorative elephants, and plates.

Most hotels sell silk-brocade saris in their shops, but the main bazaars for silks and saris are in Vishvanath Gali—the lane leading from Dashashvamedh Road to the Kashi Vishvanath Temple, where the customers are mainly pilgrims and tourists. Try to go early—it gets quite crowded in the afternoon.