Tehran

Currency budget Iran

Bring cash for the whole trip, in euros or US dollars, in clean recent notes. Foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Iran because of sanctions — not in shops, not in hotels, not in ATMs — and nothing can be paid online from abroad. Change money in stages at a licensed exchange office (sarraf), which pays the open-market rate; the official bank rate is far worse, and the street is not the place. The thing that confuses everyone: prices are written in rials but almost always spoken, and often written, in toman, and one toman is ten rials. A price that sounds a tenth of what you expected is in toman, so ask. The rate moves weekly, sometimes faster, so change a few hundred at a time rather than everything on day one.

ATMs & cards

No ATM in the country will take a foreign card. Budget the trip in cash before you fly, bring more than you expect to need, and keep it in two places. Some visitors use a prepaid tourist card such as Mah Card, loaded with cash in Iran and used in the card machines every shop has; the unspent balance is paid back at the end of the trip. It saves carrying bricks of rials, not the need to bring the money in.

Foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Iran. Budget the whole trip in cash before you fly, and change it in stages — the rate moves weekly.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety all of Iran

Street crime is low, the centre is calm to walk after dark, and Iranians are famously hospitable to visitors — expect to be asked where you are from and invited to tea. The risks are of a different kind and need saying plainly: several Western governments advise against travel to Iran, and dual nationals and some foreign nationals have been detained; Iran does not recognise dual nationality. Check your own government's current advice before booking, and know that travel insurance usually follows it. Never photograph government or military buildings, the police, or any protest. Women must cover their hair in public by law and dress modestly; men do not wear shorts. The traffic is the everyday hazard, and winter smog can be heavy enough to close schools.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa Iran visa rules

Health & emergencies all of Iran

Required to enter

• Yellow fever certificate, only if you arrive from a country where it is present

Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Dizi, the lamb-and-chickpea stew pounded at the table, kebab koobideh with grilled tomato, and tahdig, the crust from the bottom of the rice pot, which is the part people fight over. Tajrish bazaar in the north is the best place to eat your way round. There is no alcohol anywhere — it is illegal — so it is doogh, the salted yoghurt drink, or tea.

Getting around

• Metro — cheap, extensive and the only way past the traffic; the carriages at each end are for women, the rest are mixed
• Snapp — the local ride-hailing app, cheap and used by everyone, but it needs an Iranian phone number, so buy a local SIM with your passport first
• Taxi — shared taxis run fixed routes along the big avenues; agree the price before getting into a private one
• Domestic flights — from Mehrabad (THR), inside the city, not from Imam Khomeini
• Airport: Imam Khomeini (IKA), about an hour south of the centre by taxi

eSIM

A data eSIM for Iran, installed before you fly and working the moment you land: Not hereWorks here

Must-see

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Persian (Farsi)

• Helloسلام (Salaam)sa-LAAM
• Pleaseلطفاً (Lotfan)lot-FAN
• Thank youمرسی / ممنون (Merci / Mamnoon)mer-SEE / mam-NOON
• Yes / Noبله / نه (Baleh / Na)ba-LEH / naa

Written right to left in a form of the Arabic script. Younger people in the cities often speak English; outside them a few words of Persian are met with real delight. Merci is as Persian as it is French.

Religion

Shia Islam, the official religion of an Islamic republic, and it shapes public life

Religious law sets the rules on dress and alcohol and the shape of the calendar. Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews are long-established minorities — Yazd’s fire temple and towers of silence are Zoroastrian. During Muharram, and above all on Ashura, there are processions; in Ramadan, eating or drinking in public in daylight is not allowed.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Women: cover your hair in public, and wear loose clothing over the arms and legs — it is the law, not a courtesy
• Expect taarof: an offer is often refused before it is accepted, and a driver or shopkeeper waving away payment usually means ask again
• Take your shoes off in a home and at a shrine, where women are also lent a chador at the door
• Accept the tea — it comes everywhere, and refusing every cup reads as cold

Don't

• Do not photograph government buildings, police, military sites or anything that looks like a protest
• Do not bring alcohol in or drink it; it is illegal
• Do not offer a hand to someone of the opposite sex unless they offer theirs first
• Do not talk politics with people you have just met, or loudly in public