Dear travelers

Recently I traveled through Iraq coming from Turkey and exiting to Kuwait, hereafter some info:

- Crossing border from Turkey to Kurdistan at Ibrahim Khalil
You need 2 lists of passengers (One for each side of the border), you can make it on a sheet of paper, written by yourself names, birthdays, country of birth passport no of driver and passangers+ reg plate. I used a fixer who did it for me for very little money.
My motorcycle was X rayed on the Turkish side and I had to unpack the paniers
- On the Iraqi side I had to pay 35 USD for the bike, no Carnet required, no insurance needed.
- Crossing took 2 hours on the Turkish side and less than one hour on the Iraqi side.
- SIM card can be bought at supermarket next to the petrol station on the right 1 km after border.
- A lot of checkpoints between Erbil and Baghdad, my passport was checked 6 times. Officers were friendly, nobody spoke English, no corruption.
- Heavy traffic in Baghdad, time consuming.
- Navigation: I used Guru Maps Pro, worked very well.
- Carrying a spare can for petrol in Iraq is recommended. From Erbil to Bagdad motorcycles are banned from petrol stations. To fuel up, you need to park your motorcycle outside the station, then use a jerrycan to bring petrol to your bike.
- I got my e-visa for Kuwait within 15 minutes.

Safe travels
Albert

Thank you for posting.

In 2009 i was on my way to Kuwait (had planned to cross Saudi Arabia). But had my bike stolen in Damascus .... left my hotel in the morning to go to the Saudi embassy when the bike was gone, so never made that second visit to the Saudi embassy and never made it to Kuwait.

I had planned to go from Kuwait to Iran. But was too honest at the Iranian embassy and they refused my visa and never tried again, as the bike was gone. Where go you plan to from Kuwait, is it possible to take a ferry to Iran?

All the best
mika

Awesome report!

I will just add something I saw on an Estonian travel show that just came out, describing a trip in the winter of 2022/2023. It was a team of 4x4 travellers, they entered Iraqi Kurdistan but found out that the visa-on-arrival there would not actually get them into the rest of Iraq. They tried a lot of different things, including getting the embassy in Turkey involved, but the only thing that let them drive their vehicles into Iraq proper was taking a flight from Erbil to Kabul, getting an Iraqi visa-on-arrival in Kabul airport, then flying back to Erbil and driving across the internal border with those visas.

you mean Bagdad right ? not Kabul ...

hello,
i 'm interresting to know how you get the visa for federal Irak ? can you choice at the border (Turkey/Iraqui Kurdistan )