ilanshterman76

Where is a good place to shop for handicrafts in Delhi?

Craig

Two places come to mind - the Cottage Industries Emporium across the road from the Imperial and the gift shop at and the vendors behind the Crafts Museum.

rhkkmk

cottage industries is an excellent place....there are many places that call themselves cottage industries, but the one craig refers to is the best and most authentic...it is also a good place to establish base prices for things for future purchases throughout india...no bargaining there...

danharris76

The state emporia are the state equivalents of Cottage. They are all located on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, one of the radial streets coming off of Connaught Place, and each state specializes in certain kinds of crafts. Some are better on price than others, and you can bargain a little. Many of them will take credit cards.

Read about more places at:

http://www.triptouch.com/india/ni/ne...travelInfo.php

SiobhanP

I like Dilly Haat. Its kind of a coperative that changes every so often to allow crafts people to come from around the country and sell their wares. They charge a nominal fee (like 15cents) to enter and this also keeps beggars out and there is less hassle once inside. Its an interesting place and good prices that you can bargain with. Cottage emporiums are all over and also good but more pricey. Quality is of high standards though.

jjkbrook

Of the places we saw in Delhi, my votes would be for the Crafts Museum shop and Dili Haat. I thought there was pretty good quality at the Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath but I was not interested in the stuff that i saw.

IMO if you are going out to Rajasthan you will probably not find better stuff there - we thought the quality in Delhi was best.

There are antiquarian shops around with higher quality - the above are fine for the normal type of items.

Cicerone

I would agree on the Central Cottage Industries Emporium on Janpath and the shop inside the Crafts Museum as being good places for handicrafts. These are also fixed price so you don't have to spend a lot of time bargaining, and quality is very good, particularly at the Crafts Museum. Proceeds also go back to the local community. The Santushti Shopping Complex has some good shops too (Good Earth in particular, but that is a lot of furniture which may not work for you, and some fun china), and is also mostly fixed price and in a nice green setting. Dilli Haat is a sort of down-scale version of this and is also a good choice, good bargains here, quality may not be as good. For really excellent quality silver handcrafts, but not at any bargain price, try Ravissant Silver either in the Oberoi hotel shopping complex or in New Friends colony shopping centre (http://www.cest-ravissant.com/index2.html)

Hotel gifts shops are also usually good sources for good quality, but not cheap, handicrafts. In New Delhi, the Taj Mahal hotel has a good arcade of shops, IMO.

Finally you might try FabIndia, which has shops all over the place (like Connaught Place or Khan Market which has great bookshops). They have tons of fabrics at ridiculous prices and house wares, virtually all locally made, and these may make good souvenirs in fact. See http://www.fabindia.com/index.asp for locations