Backpacking Iran

I spent 21 days backpacking Iran in 2017. On the back of that, I have created this Iran Travel Guide. It includes a lot of good recommendations for hostels and the best sights to see in each city. Find these within the my Iran city guides linked below and also in the map in the sidebar.

Iran borders against a few countries that have been wracked by war and conflict in recent times. Namely Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many travellers make the assumption that Iran is therefore not a safe place to travel to, or that it is unstable and unfriendly. This is absolutely not the case. I found Iran to be one of the friendliest and most welcoming countries I have visited.

For a more detailed personal account of my travels than you will find in this Iran travel guide, check out my Iran Travel Blog.

Visa on Arrival

No Iran travel guide is complete without a guide to getting a Visa on Arrival. As part of my Iran Travel Blog, I wrote a guide based on my experience applying for a visa on arrival at IKA international airport in Tehran. Read my visa on arrival guide here.

Iranian Currency

Working out pricing and currency exchange rates in Iran involves a bit of mental gymnastics. The official currency is the Iranian Rial. Exchange rates are easily available online and changing money in the country is very easy. However there is more to due to a complications, read on!

Official and Free Exchange Rate

The current official Euro to Rial exchange rate is shown in the box below.

However, the exchange rate you will receive in Iran, is not the official rate (the one reported online) but rather the free market rate. During my time in Iran, the official rate reported on foreign exchange websites was 1€ = 34 000 Rial. However, when changing money in the country, I would receive a rate of 1€ = 41 000 Rial, an improvement of about 20%! Take this into account when you are heading to Iran. Whatever is reported as the live official rate, see above, will not be the rate you receive. But rather you will receive the free market rate which will be in your favour by a further 20%.

Rial and Toman

There is another complication. Iranians don't like using so many zeroes on their prices, so they often speak in terms of Toman instead of Rial. 1 Toman = 10 Rial. Using the Toman allows Iranians to remove a zero from prices. It is important that you do not misunderstand this concept. There is still only one single currency in Iran and it is the Iranian Rial. But when quoting prices either verbally or in written form, often people will use the Toman which means one less zero is used. If there is any confusion when you are purchasing something just politely ask if the price quoted is Toman or Rial. No one is trying to rip you off, it's just the way things are in Iran.

Still Too Many Zeroes

One last complication! So let's say you go to a small bakery to buy some snack. You see the price quoted as 2 Toman. What does this mean? Well, when using Toman to display prices, it is common to remove a further 3 zeroes. So 2 Toman actually means 2,000 Toman, which in turn means 20,000 Rial or about 0.5€.

TL;DR Version

The only currency is the Iranian Rial.

The free market rate is about 20% better than the official rate.

Prices are often quoted in Toman rather than Rial which means one less zero is displayed.

Sometimes a further 3 zeroes are removed again when prices are displayed in Toman.

Purchasing a Sim Card

Using the internet in ran can be a frustrating experience. WiFi in cafes and public spaces is far less common than you are likely accustomed to. Hotels and Hostels do provide WiFi connections for guests, but they connections are notoriously slow, prone to disconnections and require a VPN in order to access social media.

Accordingly, getting hold of an Iranian sim card is a decent idea. It's not a necessity, but certainly useful to have mobile internet. MTN Irancell is the provider that appears to be the most popular with travellers. MTN Irancell have a booth in the international airport in Tehran. If you are not able to purchase a sim at IKA, there are also a few locations in Tehran that you can buy them from. A list of Irancell service centres is available on the Irancell website here. There are sometimes Irancell kiosks inside major subway stations including this one inside the Imam Hossein Subway Station.

The sim you should purchase from MTN Irancell is the visitor sim. All pricing details for the Irancell visitor sim can be found here.