Last updated: June 2018

This post describes how to get from Agra, India, to New Delhi, India. It focuses on how to get to the airport in the same day, though all of the advice applies more generally to getting from one city to the other.

While attending a wedding in Agra, I had to get from Agra to Delhi in the same day in order to catch a 14:00 flight. The distance from Agra to Delhi is quite large (3-5 hour drive depending on traffic), so I did some research on the most economical methods of reaching the Delhi airport. This is a summary of my research that will hopefully help other travelers evaluate their options.

Traditional taxi service

Cost: ~4000 rupees

It’s easy to get a bunch of conflicting prices here. Definitely don’t book through a hotel (hostel will probably give you better price) as they will way overcharge you – hotels’ quoted prices were around 200 USD.

We used D.K. Car and Driver India, which was the first result on TripAdvisor at the time of our trip. I called him using the hotel phone, but he also responded to my Facebook messages in about an hour, which was advantageous since I was trying to book at 4 PM the day before. Everything went seamlessly, so I’m willing to stick in my endorsement for D.K. here.

We paid around 4000 rupees, which at the time of writing, was about 60 USD. The trip was four hours.

Savaari / ClearCar / other taxi aggregator

Cost: ~2500 rupees. The sites don’t give an exact amount, but this is an estimation based on their formulas for trips over 80km.

There are a number of taxi aggregators in India (Savaari, ClearCar, etc.) that do “outstation” (out of town) trips. These are essentially like Uber, except that you book the car in advance, and it shows up at the specified time. Savaari was suggested by a native Indian acquaintance of mine, as he was using it to leave Agra after the wedding.

After doing some research of reviews, it seems that these services aren’t fully reliable; many reviews contained instances of drivers being late, cancelling the hour beforehand, intentionally taking longer routes, etc. While online reviews are likely biased toward the bad instances, it does suggest that these services could be hit-or-miss (although it must be “hit” enough that a native Indian suggested it to us).

Despite being the best balance of convenience and price, I ended up not going with this option due to the potential time unreliability, especially for a 7AM flight. However, if you simply want to get from Agra to Delhi as a group with looser time constraints, Savaari is both cheaper and more convenient than public transportation.

Public transportation

Cost: ~1000 rupees / person. Air-conditioned class train tickets ranged from 700 to 1200 rupees.

Public transportation here means train, metro, and bus/short-distance cab. For the trains, view up-to-date timetables and book tickets at IRCTC. I’m not sure if they take international cards; I’ve seen varying reports online.

In general, public transportation (train/metro) is a good option for Agra to Delhi.

For getting to the airport specifically, it becomes more complicated. We ran into a myriad of issues trying to plan a public transit route. The fastest 2.25 hour express trains from Agra to Delhi ran only in the evening, which didn’t work for our 14:00 flight, so the train would be least 3 hours. Additionally, the trains for our timetable only went to Hazrat Nizmuddin station, which would require either a bus/cab to the airport or airport metro line.

To summarize, the trip would involve:

• Residence in Agra to Agra Cantt station (10-20 min)
• Agra Cantt to New Delhi Station or Hazrat Nizmuddin station (2.25 to 3.5 hours, depending on what train you catch)
• If at New Delhi Station, metro to airport. If at Hazrat Nizmuddin station, figure out a way to get to the airport metro, then head to airport (either way, 30 min to 1 hour, and traffic is bad).

If you have an evening flight, then public transportation to the airport is a viable option, as you have more time flexibility without waking up at an ungodly hour. If traveling solo, this is the cheapest option by far, but if your group has two or more people and you have time flexibility, a Savaari cab becomes about the same price per person.