General information on Iran - October 2024

[freshcomca]

I have just wrapped up a 15-day journey through Iran and thought I’d share some general information for anyone else planning a trip. It should be noted that I am a 30 year old Male travelling on an Australian passport and was solo for the entire trip. It is certainly not a 'normal' time to travel in Iran and I will not say to you ‘it is definitely safe to travel’ – you need to make you own evaluation of all the information out there and weigh up all the risks such as flight cancellations due to military action. What I will say is this: the Iranian people have been some of the most friendly, kind, and warm people that I have met in all of my travels and at all times I felt safe and that I was not being taken advantage of. Persia is a place rich with history and amazing sights to see and I wish more people would experience the true side of Persia and it's people.

I travelled from South to North, moving through the following cities:

Shiraz > Yazd > Isfahan > Kashan > Tehran (Shiraz was my favourite city)

Visa

Australians can apply for an e-visa in Iran and this is what I first tried however it was rejected after a few days due to a ‘lack of clarity in purpose of travel’. I then submitted an application through 1stQuest and gave them my entire itinerary of cities and hotels I intended to stay at. After one month my visa was granted (this was a few days after Iran formally declared war with Israel). The cost to apply for the visa through 1stQuest was 27 Euros.

I also purchased my travel insurance through IransTravel for 18 Euros. While obtaining the visa at Shiraz the guy didn't even look at my insurance document though I did say it was in the plastic pocket I gave to him. At the airport, Australians need to pay 145 Euro + 3 Euro processing fee. My passport was not stamped and you get a separate visa paper which they put the entry stamp on. All together to get into the country as an Australian I paid 193 Euros. The visa fees will be different for other countries and there are other rules depending on what country you are from and whether you obtain the visa at an embassy beforehand or an e-visa, see the below table (this is from 1stQuest):

Nationalities.................Embassy fee....Visa on arrival fee
Schengen Nationalities.....€50...............€75
Australian/New Zeland.....€100..............€145-150
British.........................€180..............Not applicable
American.....................€60................Not applicable
Canadian......................€50...............Not applicable
Pakistani......................€25................Not applicable
Indian..........................€30...............€90
Chinese & Taiwanese.......€85................€100
Brazilian......................€60................€80

Money

There is an official exchange rate set by the banks and there is an ‘unofficial rate’. Check https://bonbast.com/ for the rate you would get on the street with ‘black market’ currency changers. You should also try to wrap your head around Tomans and Rials (10000 Tomans = 100000 Rials) before getting into the country and work out how much each note is equivalent to your own local currency.

I would definitely have small notes on you when first arriving into the country such as 10 or 20 Euro, Pound, USD notes. IKA airport does have currency changers but you will get a worser rate as is expected at all airports. The ride from Tehran city to IKA was around 4.5million Rial (450000 Toman or $6.70USD) using Snapp! (the Iranian ride-share app) and so you could expect to pay double that to get from the airport to the city with the taxis waiting outside.

If you are flying into Shiraz you should know that there are no currency exchanges, no sim card-shops, and no free Wi-Fi at the airport. Rides into Shiraz city are $5USD or 5 Euros so make sure you have 10USD/10EURO notes or smaller and ask for change in Rial. The guys at the taxi stand outside gave a fair rate and didn’t try any tricks.

Due to sanctions, Visa and MasterCard are pretty much non-existent in Iran and so your credit cards are useless. Given the exchange rate, changing into cash will leave you with a very large wad of Iranian Rial. Another option is to use a tourist debit card such as Daric Card. I went with Daric Card as they are very responsive to queries over WhatsApp and text message and support you all the way. The debit card providers will meet you at your hotel in Tehran or post it to your hotel in other cities. When you go to exchange money, you can ask them to deposit onto a card and so this avoids having a huge wad of Rials in your pocket. I would still carry some Rial in addition to your card if you do decide to go with one. A tourist debit card also lets you top up your Snapp! wallet and book ride-share cares easily. Specifically in Shiraz for Daric card, Sadoon Currency Exchange can deposit directly into Pasargad Bank accounts. For other cards, they will have their own bank and you will need to ask around to find a currency changer who uses that specific bank.

In terms of changing money on the street, to get the rate quoted on Bonbast, there are areas in each city which you can find with a quick google search e.g. search 'Currency exchange area Isfahan' will let you know that Sepah Street is one place to go. Walk around and you will hear ‘Dollar, Euro’ being spoken by people standing around with wads of Rials or tables of cash on the street. Very easy and very quick, you can get within 1000 tomans of the rate quoted on Bonbast if you walk around briefly. I was also able to change my leftover Rial back into USD at a decent rate, 70000Tomans per USD when the rate was 67500Tomans - again, just walk around.

Foreigners are charged differently to locals when buying tickets at tourist destinations, at the regular tourist areas the tickets are 2-2.5 million Rial (3-3.5USD), bigger areas such as Persepolis 3.5 million Rial (5USD), and for the famous destinations in Tehran such as Golestan Palace and Saadabad Palace you can pay between 9-13 million Rial (13-19USD) depending on what museums you want to visit in each place. Meals will generally run you 2.5-5 million Rial (3.5-7.5 USD) but you can also get a cheap Koobideh Kebab for 2USD.

Getting around

I only took the train in Tehran due to traffic being horrible and the train system being very effective and close to the tourist destinations. A one-trip ticket is 5000 Tomans or 50000 Rial $0.075USD so it’s almost nothing to get from one end of the city to the other.

Snapp! Is Iran’s ride-share app and you can get around cheaper than hailing a taxi on the street. Snapp rides will run between 500000 to 1million Rial ($0.75USD – $1.25USD) and taxis are generally 1+ million. Taxis are numerous and you’ll not be waiting long before you hail one down on the main street. Regular cars will also honk their horn and offer you a ride for some money if you're waiting on the side of the street.

If you are taking a bus between cities, you will be able to buy tickets on the day as long as you turn up around 45 minutes before you want to depart. Buses generally departed every 30 minutes and were around 1.5 million Rial ($2.25USD). After your first bus journey I think it would be wise to purchase your next ticket at the bus station before you leave so as to not be stressing when you need to make your next outbound trip.

Phone and internet

I purchased a sim card after I had gotten into Shiraz city and so it might be cheaper than at an airport. I paid 2.5million Rial ($3.7USD) for 16gb at an IranCell dealer. It took a while to get the phone working as you need to accept and make changes to your phone’s APN settings – these should be sent automatically after you insert the sim card. However, I was still plagued with connectivity issues but I don’t know if it was just my phone. I’d suggest downloading local copies through Google Maps for each city you will be visiting.

Iran does have a firewall and bars access to certain website and services. Before you visit make sure you have a VPN on your phone and laptop. I can confirm that NordVPN works on laptop but I didn’t test it on my phone. Windscribe is decent and you can get 10GB for free using a burner email. There are also other VPN services but you’ll need to download the .apk from Github and then find configuration settings to allow you to access the VPN service. I used Hiddify and a local kindly showed me how to set it up. V2RayNG is also another VPN service but I couldn’t get it to work.

Shiraz to Yazd, Persepolis Pasargadae Naqsh-e Rostam

Before I flew into Iran I booked a transfer from Shiraz to Yazd with a stopover to the three spots mentioned above through IransTravel, the cost was 68USD not including ticket entrance fees. If you do not want to pre-book such a transfer, you can easily find drivers in Shiraz around the sightseeing spots who will ask you if you need a transfer or day-trip to those places. It would be cheaper to sort this out once you’re in the country and this would follow for any day-trip type tours or transfers in-between cities.

Also, Thursday and Friday are the weekend days in Iran so you can expect shops to be closed in the afternoon and touristy sites or parks such as Saadabad Palace to be very full.

I won’t go further into the things I did in each city as this post would get rather long and would be an actual trip report. I’m happy to answer any questions regarding the above or any other questions regarding travelling in Iran. Hopefully someone finds this useful.

[Erikkkk]

Thanks for all the valueable information.