Hey everyone! Long time reader here, now approaching the take off of my own long trip from the Netherlands to Iran and back. Since it will be my first trip lasting over a month and covering a lot more distance than I have on bike journeys so far, I'm stuck with a few issues/questions some of you might be a lot more experienced with and I could use some tips on

So the plan is to drive to Iran (mostly the NW part of it), via Central Europe and Turkey, crossing the border from Turkey into Iran, spending a few weeks there and go back via the Caucasus, possibly taking the boat from Georgia to Ukraine next and see some other places in Eastern Europe I still want to visit. At the moment, I'm looking to depart in mid-March and plan to be on the road for some 3 months. The goal is to take it nice and easy and visit plenty of places in Central and Eastern Europe that were still on my list. The bike I'm taking is a DRZ400S, so I am basically restricted to B-roads and will keep the Autobahning to a minimum (but that was the plan anyway).

The main things I'm a bit worried about and would appreciate some advice about are these:

1. Seeing as the Ramadan is rather early this year (May 15 - June 14), I would like to arrive in Iran in late April at the latest, so I can still drive around for a bit until it starts. I have a hard time estimating how long it will take me to get there, however. Has anyone done a similar trip and could you tell me how long it took to get to NW Iran from Western Europe (avoiding motorways and taking plenty of breaks)? That would really help me with my planning.

2. I'm still in doubt what route to take through Central Europe with regards to the weather, considering I'm leaving mid-March (when it can still be rather wet/cold in the Netherlands anyway). According to Google, the shortest way would be through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, but I'm not sure if I'm better off taking a (longer) more southern route, via northern Italy and the Balkans if I don't want to spend days in the rain and cold? Are there perhaps some Central Europeans here that can give me some advice in this regard?

Thanks in advance for any tips! If you have any general advice about the planning of my trip or about nice places to visit thats also most welcome

Hi neighbor?

1. You want to leave half of March and arrive end of April in Iran? That is plenty of time.
It is roughly 5000km

2. I think I would agree on a more southern route. You could drive into Italy and take a ferry to Greece or Albania.
However, don't underestimate the weather in Eastern Turkey. It can be quite cold in those places. When you have done some distance into Iran you of course get to desert area where the weather won't be an issue.

In terms of recommendations: Most of Eastern Europe is nice. I like Croatia (which is easy), Bosnia and Albania a lot.
In Turkey of course Cappadocia is nice. But also Ani (near Armenian border).

We never took the northern main border, we took the southern ones. But this of course depends on how safe it is, in Turkey around lake Van.

Ramadan is definitely not the best time to visit Iran, but don't let it stop you. It's not like the whole country shuts down. You can still eat in some restaurants (especially along the roads), just behind a curtain

That said, April is an awesome time to be there, before the summer heat.

__________________
EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Thanks for your replies!

@Lovetheworld: Hey buurman inderdaad! Glad to hear you would also recommend Croatia - Bosnia - Albania, I heard they are great places for motorcycling. In that case, I will probably take the southern route after all. If six weeks is plenty of time, would four also be enough you think? If possible, I would leave the latest possible to take advantage of better weather.

@eurasia: That's also good to hear actually. Maybe after having spent a few weeks in Iran already and having gotten more used to things, it won't be too much of an issue staying there a few days during Ramadan. Would save me the stress of having to plan everything too strictly

We did it in 4 weeks. No sightseeing stops in Eastern Europe as we had visited that region multiple times already. But we did spend some time in Turkey for visiting interesting places and we went through Georgia and Armenia to visit some of the sites there. Not directly from Turkey to Iran.
We did still run into some snow in Germany end of April and a few mountain passes in Georgia were still closed because of the snow.
So it can be done in 1 month. It just depends on how much time you want to spend along the way.

I'd also spend a few days of Ramadan in Iran. It's an interesting time. And at the start of Ramadan (in Iran they say Ramazan) people are still generally in a better mood

__________________
Belgium to Nordkapp via Iran | Discover Overland | Destination World

Thanks! Very useful info

Hé buurman

Good choice. We stayed in Iran for almost a month in August of 2016. We liked it a lot and I am sure you will too.

1. We have no experience with Ramadan while being in a predominantly muslim country. What I've heard is that the sick, the pregnant and travelers are exempt from the strict Ramadan fasting rules. Nevertheless, I would make sure I'd leave every morning with sufficient food to last until dusk and not eat in plain sight of other people during daytime.

2. The shortest route from Amsterdam to Istanbul is approx. 2750km. That's less than 3 easy riding weeks. I suppose you could increase you daily mileage *a bit* in the first days because you'll be able to visit these places again when you're back. If you take a bit of a meandering route through Turkey, instead of going directly from Istanbul to Iran, that'll be another 2000km or more. So say it's 5000km from Amsterdam to the Turkish/Iranian border and you're riding 5 days a week, you could still make it by late april if you do only 150km per riding day on average. The transit routes (non-motorways) in Turkey are in really good shape, so you could easily do more if you wanted. I think it's important to take it easy so you don't *need* to ride if you've found a nice place and want to stay a few days longer.

If you decide to take the more southern route, you will be crossing the Alps. Inform yourself about the situation on alpine passes. Many are closed during winter:

https://www.tcs.ch/de/tools/verkehrs...uelle-lage.php

https://www.oeamtc.at/verkehrsservice/

Eastern Turkey has quite some elevation (well over 2000m above sea level in places) so get information from the locals about the road situation. It's quite far south already (from our viewpoint anyway), so the weather might be no problem anymore in April.

3. (There was no number 3, but now there is :-)) The border crossing from Turkey to Iran at Bazargan has a bad reputation. Don't let yourself be put off by this. Iranian hospitality will soon make up for it. The trouble with this border crossing was not the immigration or the Carnet/customs, but the insurance guys who team up with the border guards. They claim that they can only let you go past the final barrier into the town of Bazargan if you buy their expensive insurance, which turns out to be exactly €100 (what a coincidence, aye?). You can get around it by driving them nuts for 2 hours until they are sick of you, but I recommend the following:

Because you know approximately when you're going to enter Iran, find an insurance company that will extend your 3rd party vehicle liability insurance ("W.A. verzekering") for Iran for the time that your visa is valid or for the entire trip if that's easier. If you can show proof of this insurance at the border, they have no good arguments anymore to sell you an insurance. And if they do, keep arguing.

I think it is best to ride all the way up to the barrier, keep your engine running and your helmet on. Show them your extended green insurance card for Iran (or rather a good color copy) and say "I have international insurance" as many times as necessary for them to have enough of you, have them stamp the white paper slip you were given at customs, and have them open the barrier. Welcome to Iran!

Enjoy! Let me know if you have a blog or something where we can follow you. If you have any more questions about Iran, don't hesitate.

Cheers,
Mark

__________________
----
Switzerland to Nepal 2016/2017: http://roadtales.ch

As said, you could also take a border crossing more soutg, then you don't have this trouble.

Ha, surprising to see so many Dutch here - good stuff. Thanks for your extensive reply and excellent info, Mark. The insurance was something I hadn't realised before and will definitely look into beforehand now.

I do remember having read that the Bazargan is the busiest and least preferred crossing into Iran, so you just confirmed that. In this regard, it might indeed be a better idea to cross at Kapikoy for example as suggested (also because I heard Van is a beautiful place to visit). Only thing here I'm a bit worried about is that SE Turkey is rather unstable these days, do you guys think this is something I should be worried about? Or does the fighting etc take place far more south?

ps. I'll be sure to let you know if I decide to report about my journey!

I'm doing the same route this year. Leaving end of May for Australia.

I'll do the southern route for the Europe part; through Italy, Croatia, etc. in search of nicer temps

Thought I would just update this post as it might be useful to others as well: for the past weeks I have been trying to arrange for insurance for Iran in advance, but unfortunately this hasn't been too straightforward. Having contacted a number of Dutch insurance companies, hardly any will agree to cover Iran - even those who promise to arrange special kind of insurances. The only one who did (recommended on an other travel website) would charge over 200 euros for one month. Apart from this, I contacted Hossein (who is a familiar face on this forum I believe) who I thought might be able to arrange insurance in Iran already. This was only possible for an entire year, however, and would cost $110.

So personally I now aim to cross at the Kapikoy border and hope I don't get hassled into overpaying for insurance there. Still, even if it were 50 euros it would be cheaper than the other options so far.

Will keep you posted on how it goes

We came in through Armenia and didn't bother with insurance. At that border nobody asked or cared either. We were stopped by morality police twice and by traffic police once and were never asked for insurance.

__________________
Belgium to Nordkapp via Iran | Discover Overland | Destination World

Glad to hear that! Maybe it's just a Bazargan border thing then. Hopefully the Kapikoy guards are just as accommodating as yours

The ride to Kapikoy on the Iranian side (for you from Kapikoy) was quite nice, but they were building a road so maybe a lot changed.

We entered via Yuksekova, and didn't have much trouble. Then we went on to Urmia, were we stayed in a hotel of which the owner took us to an office, where we got insurance for 6 weeks for our car, for something like 35 or 40 euro.