How to Travel to Iran – Traveler Story

I am Rana from Sweden Stockholm and I traveled to Iran for 12 days, here I tried to share what I have experienced before and during my Iran trip. To help you understand how to travel to Iran and how you may visit, I’ve put together a list of everything you need to know about this beautiful location, which I’m sure will grow in popularity in the future years.

As a starting point, use this checklist and list of advice for visiting Iran as a complete reference. Slowly, tourists are discovering that Iran is the ultimate destination, from the most welcoming people to the oldest history, magnificent architecture, the most barren deserts, green mountains, islands, and many other things.

With enough pre-planning and prior research, you can easily avoid the limitations and stresses that come with traveling to Iran. I tried to consolidate everything you need to know, hope it is useful.

1- Apply for the Iran visa authorization code

My case: I applied for my Iran visa authorization code here online and after 3 days I received my code, easier than I expected. Please read this link to get more familiar with the Iran visa policy. if you are a citizen of US, UK and Canada, then the visa procedure is different, please read this link to know how to apply for visa.

2- Apply for Iran travel insurance

For travelling to Iran you need to have valid travel insurance. If currently, you have travel insurance, you need to check if your insurance covers Iran as a destination or not. If your current travel insurance does not cover Iran.

My case: Insurance same as Iran Visa is easier than I thought, I applied for my Iran travel insurance and received my insurance just within a day. It was a cheap and easy procedure.

Read this link for more information about Iran travel insurance.

3- Plan your Iran trip: some tips on how to travel to Iran

You either want to book an Iran multi-day tour package for your whole Iran trip or you want to plan and book Iran travel services to customize easier.
The good thing about booking a multiday tour package is that everything is included like visa, hotels, tour guide, transportation, domestic flights and etc, and you just need to enjoy your hassle-free trip.

However, If you want to book your Iran travel services separately, then here are some tips on how to travel to Iran:

For those with a week travel duration:
The best itinerary is: 1 Day Tehran, 2 Days Isfahan, 1 Day Yazd, 2 Days Shiraz and 1 day extra to have a flexible itinerary. This one day can be allocated to one city depending on your arrival or departure timing.

For those up to 2 weeks travel duration:
The best itinerary is: 2 Days Tehran, 1 Day Kashan, 3 Days Isfahan, 2 Days Yazd, 3 Days Shiraz and some extra days to have a more flexible itinerary.

For those up to 3 weeks travel duration:
The best itinerary is the same as 2 weeks itinerary and you can add Kerman, Tabriz and southern islands including Qeshm and Hormoz into your itinerary as well.

For those above 3 weeks travel duration:
The best itinerary is the same as 3 weeks itinerary and you can add some amazing Iran off-beaten destinations to your plan.

My case: as I love planning everything myself so I decided to book my travel services including my flights, first night and last night hotel and some transportation between cities and some daily tour package to have less trouble and more comfort. Check out below for more information

4- International and Iran Domestic flight booking

For my international flight to Iran, I used Turkish Airline with one stopover in Istanbul. That was not really cheap but their services were amazing. I flew from Stockholm to Turkey and Turkey to Tehran – Imam Khomeini International airport.

My case: As my itinerary starts from Shiraz and ends in Tehran, So I booked my Iran domestic flight from Tehran to Shiraz through Exotigo website. It costs me around 35 Euro and they sent me flight ticket confirmation instantly.

5- Hotel Booking

Iran has so many interesting choices when it comes to accommodation. From traditional hotels, boutique hotels and hostels, ecolodges to high-end hotels as well.

My case: My preference was to experience anything that rooted in Iran culture, so my hotels were mostly boutique or traditional hotels. Just go through this link and check their prices and accommodations list.

6- Tour and experience:

I love exploring everything myself especially those exotic and unknown places. There are some unique experiences in Iran that are not easy you can find anywhere else.

My case: I just wanted to make the most of my time, that is why besides my own planning for the itinerary I used some of the cheap tour and experience which was really tempting. Like Nomad tour and living in a tent and Persian Carpet workshop. Both were amazing and unforgettable.

7- Some extra tips:

There are some extra tips that you may better know to have a smooth daily routine and a better experience. Like having VPN to connect those blocked websites in Iran or how to deal with credit card issues in Iran.

Highly recommend reading this link as it helped me so much.