VOA: Iran Airport Visa

Those Iran travelers who want to travel independently or with pre-arranged packages should notice that some airlines such as Turkish Airline and Emirates Airline may prevent you from boarding the plane to Iran without having the Iran visa stamped in your passports.
This may be because the case of visa refusal the repatriation responsibility and expenses are normally done at the cost of an airline.
Please cross check this matter before traveling to Iran and you are strongly advised to get the Iran visa beforehand.

Iran embassies in other countries:

Here is the list of Iran consulates or embassies that you can apply for the visa to Iran or collect your visas.

• Afghanistan: Kabul

• Albania: Tirana

• Argentina: Buenos Aires

• Armenia: Yerevan

• Australia: Canberra

• Austria: Vienna

• Azerbaijan: Baku

• Bahrain: Manama

• Bangladesh: Dhaka

• Belgium: Brussels

• Belgique: Bruxelles

• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo

• Brazil: Brasilia

• Bulgaria: Sofia

• Canada: Ottawa

• Colombia: Bogota’

• Croatia: Zagreb

• Cyprus: Nicosia

• Czech Republic: Prague

• Denmark: Copenhagen

• Egypt: Iran’s interest section head: Cairo

• Ethiopia: Adiss Ababa

• Kingdom of Spain: Madrid

• Finland: Helsinki

• France: Paris

• Germany: Berlin / Frankfurt / Hamburg

• Ghana: Accra

• Greece: Athens

• Guinea: Conakry

• Hungry: Budapest

• India: New Delhi / Bombay / Hyderabad

• Ivory Coast: Abidjan

• Indonesia: Jakarta

• Ireland: Dublin

• Iraq: Baghdad

• Italy: Rome/ Milan

• Japan: Tokyo

• Kingdom of Hashemi Jurdan: Amman

• Kazakhstan: Almaty

• Kenya: Nairobi

• Kyrgyzstan: Bishkek

• Kuwait: Kuwait

• Lebanon: Beirut

• Libya: Tripoli

• Madagascar: Antananarivo

• Malaysia: Kuala Lampur

• Macedonia: Skopje

• Mali: Bamako

• Maroc: Rabat

• Mexico: Mexico City

• New Zealand: Wellington

• Niger: Niamey

• North Korea: Pyongyang

• Norway: Oslo

• Oman Kingdom: Muscat

• Pakistan: Islamabad / Peshawar / Karachi / Lahore / Quetta

• Philippines: Manila

• Poland: Warsaw

• Portugal: Lisbon

• Qatar: Doha

• Romani: Bucharest

• Russia: Astrakhan / Moscow

• Saudi Arabia: Riyadh / Jeddah

• Senegal: Dakar

• South Africa: Pretoria

• Republic of Srilanka: Colombo

• Switzerland: Bern

• Sudan: Khartoum

• Sweden: Stockholm

• Syria: Damascus

• Tajikistan: Dushanbe

• Thailand: Bangkok

• Tunis: Tunisia

• Turkey: Ankara / Istanbul / Erzurum

• Turkmenistan: Mary / Ashkhabad

• United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi

• United Arabs Emirates: Dubai

• Uganda: Kampala

• Ukraine: Kiev

• United Kingdom: London

• Uruguay: Monte Video or Mente Video

• United States: The Pakistan interest section in Washington D.C

• Uzbekistan: Tashkent

• Vatican: Vatican

• Venezuela: Caracas

• Vietnam: Hanoi

• Yemen: Sana’a

• Yugoslavia: Beograd

• Zimbabwe: Harare

The travelers can collect their visa in any of the mentioned embassies based on the places that they live or have enough time to collect the visa. There may be no embassy in some smaller countries.

Train tickets to Iran

There are lots of trains that move between different cities of Iran daily. There are different kinds of train with different quality and rates. It is considered as a cheap kind of transportation among the Iranians and the tourists.

The best kind of available train is 4 pax Ghazal or Plur train that are arranged for some routes especially longer ways.

The most trains are moved between Tehran and Mashhad daily as Mashhad is the host of many pilgrims.
As Tehran is the capital of Iran, it has trains to each city every day; it may be one train or several ones.
The train rates are from 1 USD for the short routes to about 35 USD per person for the best and longer routes.
Among different kinds of trains, I can name:

Luxurious 6 pax
Ghazal train
Plur train
Normal seat train
Pardis train
First class 6 pax

•    The train schedule is opened every 10 days based on the Iranian Calendar.
There are some international trains to or from Tehran and Tabriz as follows:

Tehran – Istanbul at 22: 10 every Wednesday
Istanbul – Tehran at 23: 55 every Tuesday

Tabriz – Istanbul at 11 A.M. every Thursday
Istanbul – Tabriz at 23: 55 every Tuesday

Tehran – Van at 22: 10 every Wednesday and Sunday
Van – Tehran at 23 every Monday

Tabriz – van at 22: 30 every Tuesday
Van – Tabriz at 21 every Wednesday

Tehran – Damascus at 22: 10 every Sunday
Damascus – Tehran at 8: 30 every Sunday

• Iran train ticket rates have had 12 – 14% increase from end of June.

To get the train ticket or get more information about the train schedule, please contact me.

Domestic Flights in Iran

There are lots of domestic flights between the different Iran cities daily.

The most important airports in Iran are Mehrabad Airport in Tehran and Mashhad Airport which have the most takes off and landings every day because of being the capital of Iran and the most important religious city of Iran.

The international Iran airport is Imam Khomaini Airport which is located in Qom Road and about 40 km far from Tehran; of course it takes longer to reach to Tehran due to the heavy traffic in rush hours.

It is so difficult to mention all the available domestic flights in Iran, but in the following I can mention some general points about the domestic flights in Iran.

There are some flights from Tehran to other cities of Iran or vice verse daily.
One way flight ticket rates are started from about 45 USD per person to 92 USD per person.
There are some flights to and from Mashhad daily because of being the most important religious city of Iran.
There is no flight between the closer cities
If you cannot find the direct flights between the other cities of Iran (except Tehran), you can take a connection flight to Tehran en route.

• It is better to book the flight tickets in Iran in advance as there is limitation of flight tickets in Iran.

• Most of the domestic tickets in Iran are issued as E-TICKETS.

• The most important Iran Airlines are:

1. Iran Air (IR) which is the national and international Iran Airline
2. Aseman Airline
3. Mahan Airline
4. Kish Air Airline
5. Iran Air Tour Airline
6. Caspian Airline

The domestic flight schedules are announced monthly or every 15 days based on the airline and the season of traveling.

• To get the flight ticket, the passport copy is necessary

To get the domestic tickets, please contact me.

Ferry to Iran

Iran is surrounded by the water from different sides. In the north of Iran is the biggest lake of the world and is called Khazar Sea or Khazar Lake or the Caspian Sea.

In the south, Iran is bordered with Oman Sea and Persian Gulf which continue to Indian Ocean from the east and to the Delta of Arvand Rood River.

There are just three passenger ferries from Iran to other countries.

1. Bandar Abbas to Sharjeh: on Mondays and Wednesdays at 22 P.M. (about 9 hours)
2. Bandar Lengeh to Sharjeh: on Saturdays and Wednesdays at 10 A.M.  (about 9 hours)
3. Khorram Shahr to Kuwait: on Saturdays and Wednesdays  at 10 A.M. (about 5 hours)

• The ferry from Bandar Abbas to Sharjeh and also Khorram Shahr to Kuwait are both passenger and cargo ferries, but the ferry from Bandar Lengeh to Sharkeh is just the passenger ferry.

If you have a vehicle with you, you should go to the port one day before the ferry departure to show the car related documents, weigh and then load the vehicle. Otherwise, it is OK to book the passenger ferry through an agency.

It is not possible to take from the other side to Iran as the E- Ticket is not issued and also the process may be different.

Iran – India Ferry

One of the most wanted ferries is Iran to India as the passengers who travel with their own vehicle have problem to enter Pakistan and then continue to India. The Pakistan visa is not issued because of political problems and Pakistan safety problems.

There was a passenger ferry from Sharjeh to India before, but now unfortunately it is cancelled, so just two options are available.

1. You can take a ferry from Bandar Abbas to FOB Nhava Sheva by Iran sales and operation company in Bandar Abbas
2. Take a ferry from Bandar Abbas to Sharjeh and then arrange a ferry from Sharjeh to India.

Please notice that they are just cargo ferries and the clients should take a flight from Bandar Abbas or Shiraz or Tehran or any other place to a city of India.

Both of them are mostly available, but unfortunately there is no regular ferry in this route.

To get the information from Sharjeh to India, please contact the companies or agencies in Dubai, but about the ferry from Iran to India, I may be able to help you.

To take the ferry from Iran to India, you may need 7 – 10 days time to do the official process and then it may reach to India about 4 – 7 days. Of course, you do not need to stay in Bandar Abbas for the initial and official process; meanwhile you can depart Iran or do the excursions.

To get the further information, you can contact me.