Hi Everyone,

I plan to ride from UK to India (and beyond?), passing through Iran/Pakistan around October 2016, but need some tips for the route!

However I see that Iran and Pakistan are causing the most difficulties for my planning:

Iran
- As a UK citizen, i appear to be only able to travel with a guide (the cost of which makes this prohibitive)
- The visa seems difficult, long and unpredictable

Pakistan
- Security seems very poor!
- Visa also seems difficult & uncertain


I would very much like to find a way to travel independently through Iran, and Pakistan may be interesting too. However, I am more keen to avoid Pakistan due to the security situation.


Can anyone suggest any suitable methods to travel from either Iran or Turkey into India?

1) Ferry to UAE, and fly to India. There appears to be no ferries from the gulf states to India. Any idea of costs and/or feasibility to fly?

2) Employ a guide for Iran, fly Tehran to Delhi (quoted USD1900 but going rate seems more like half of this).

3) Fly Turkey to India? What are suitable ports for this, what costs etc?

4) Go north through the 'Stans' - I am reluctant to do this due to the admin/expense of each border crossing. Additionally, the question of Pakistan/China is still not solved.

5) Travel with some kind of overland truck company further north (Stans). Again, how to pass Pakistan/China is still an issue as I cannot find any overland companies covering these areas.

6) Ride through Iran & Pakistan anyway!

7) Some other option?



Any advice from those that have more experience would be greatly received!

Matt.

Just looked up mileages:

Calais (France) to Turkey/Iran border = 4,448km
Turkey/Iran border to Pakistan/India border = 4004km

It's easy to forget just how big these countries are!

I don't really want to end up missing out on nearly half of the trip to India, and most likely the most interesting half too.
My main focus is on finding a way to ride the majority (or at least travel overland), just trying to find a relatively safe way to do it!

Hello Mattbibby!

I have not done this route, but I plan to do it starting from the UK in August 2016 so I have done some research. Please, if anyone reading this sees that my information is incorrect, I more than anyone would like to see it corrected!!

My main concerns about Iran were that as Brits we are required to organize a guide which is expensive, the visa is very tricky to obtain in the first place, also Iran commands by far the most expensive securities when applying for your Carnet de Passage. Tied in with the fact that the route to India from Iran requires navigating Balochistan, a region in Pakistan which is currently considered to be unstable, I found myself looking for alternatives.

Now, going north of the Caspian Sea doesn't look too difficult.

No visa required until the Russian border, which is about £100 for a 30 day single entry, need to apply before hand.

Kazakhstan - No visa required, 15 days from entry.
Kyrgyzstan - No visa required, 60 day from entry.

China - a tour company can sort out the myriad of things like a guide, temporary Chinese license, Chinese plates etc etc for you. The visa itself is £30, but I've had a few quotes and the cheapest it gets is roughly £900 per bike for the relatively short ride to the Pakistan border in a 5-6 bike group, plus daily living costs.

Pakistan visa looks difficult-ish to get but I haven't looked into that in much detail yet. Security issues - the route you would be taking is the Karakoram Highway, referred to here a lot as KKH, there's lots of information on this site about it and the general feeling I get is that although there probably are safer things to do in the world than ride this route, it's reportedly one of the most wonderful travel experiences going and not half as bad as the media will have you believe so I'm more than tempted. Cross into India then near Lahore.

You can usually avoid Pakistan via Tibet and exit into Nepal, but due to the earthquake there's no way to do that at the moment. There is a good chance that a secondary route will open to overlanders into Nepal in 2016.

I also got a quote for 24 days going through China into Laos with a guide, but the question is; do I want to be following a 4x4 for such a length of time on a strict itinerary at great financial expense, all the while missing Pakistan, India, Nepal and Myanmar? Yeah the guide through Myanmar is expensive as well but speaking for myself I'd rather limit the guide time, see more different countries/cultures, do more solo riding or non-guided group riding (whatever opportunities come up) and the more I look into the KKH the more I want to do it.

Try to pass through Turkey-Iran-Pakistan-India...

Please refer to my experience as follows.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...pakistan-78914


Thanks,

Well gentlemen, if you ever decide to come to Pakistan please stay in touch. Many bikers would be glad to show you around and might be riding with you on the KKH.

BTW I felt much more insecure walking in international megacities than I ever did while living in Pakistan.
Cheers
Omar

Just a thought, but it occurs to me that you [Mattbibby] and Cwac are trying to achieve the same, or similar objectives.

Cwac says he's leaving the UK in August, which means he could easily get to the Turkish-Georgian border, at Sarp, by late September; taking-in plenty of scenery along the way.

You both meet-up at Sarp - or somewhere close-by, e.g. Trabzon - then ride together through Georgia + Armenia and eventually cross-over into Iran at the Agarak (Armenia) < – > Norduz (Iran) border. Meet your pre-arranged official Iranian tour guide right there. Or you can rendezvous at Agarak if you want to travel independently as far as possible - or somewhere in-between (e.g. Tbilisi, Yerevan.)

Ride all the way down through Iran to one of the Hormuz-based port-cities of (a) Bandar Abbas, or (b) Bandar Lengeh, sharing the cost of the guide.

You could try and involve even more UK/Canadian/US travellers and thus reduce the guide costs even further. There's plenty of time ahead to advertise and involve more overlanders.

Ferry to Sharjah or Dubai UAE from either Bandar Abbas, or Bandar Lengeh.

See the Emirates - all seven of them, and why not? Also take a look around Oman, both are fantastically friendly countries. Fabulous roads too.

By the time you've travelled through Iran, and around the UAE & Oman .. believe me, you will have seen more than enough desert by that time. You won't need to go through the southern deserts of Pakistan to see yet more sand!

Then crate-up and air-freight your bikes from Dubai to Kathmandu, Nepal. Turkish Cargo can deal with this for you (via Istabul.) You fly as passengers direct to Kathmandu with the lo-cost carrier, Air Arabia, from Sharjah Int'l Airport. Collect your bikes at KTM and head-off to one of the many Indian borders.

Into India .. via the back door.

WHAT an adventure?! Entirely do-able too, despite the recent visa restrictions imposed by Iran for Brits/Canuks/and Yanks.

Best of luck with your planning.

__________________
Right Way Round ...

Omie, I have read some of your posts with interest, I have no doubt I will be nagging you for advice as my plans get more definite!!

It would be excellent to meet people to ride with in what feels like such a faraway land right now!

I am open to ideas and absolutely keen to ride with others! My main goal is to get to NZ, I'd like to ride overland in the correct direction as much of the way as is physically possible but that does sound like a hell of a ride

Hello all,

Hi to Cwak also. I'd be interested in discussing both of our plans in more detail. Whereabouts are you based?

Keith, thanks for your in depth proposed itinerary. It seems to correlate roughly with my (1). The Iranian 'guide' fees I have heard are c.€100USD/day, which I would rather avoid, though. This is then added with the required cost of shipping from the gulf to India, and I'm not sure whether it might be a better option to ship from further West entirely.

Edit: based on 'Perth2Perth's 10 days to cross Iran (going rather quickly and not seeing much, I assume) this is ~$1000USD in guide fees.

Through talking with shippers it seems that the cost of air freight isn't that related to the distance, but is instead more dependent on the outgoing shipping port. For example, shipping out of a large port like London is cheap due to competition, but most places in Eastern Europe or the Middle East are quite dear.

I'll be looking in more detail into shipping options are the number of hurdles to crossing borders seems almost insurmountable.

:-(

By avoiding Iran and Pakistan you will be missing two of the most amazing and friendly places. They really were our favourite countries and never once did we feel unsafe in either.
The hospitality of the Iranian and Pakistani people was the best in the world. We felt more unsafe in eastern Turkey and also India than anywhere in Pakistan.

Hope you get sorted.
Jaime

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Life's a Journey, Not a Destination http://www.notadestination.co.uk
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PM'd!

You may hope that the sanctions against Iran will be lifted soon and that travelling becomes easier. I had no difficulties in that wonderful country (didn't need a guide as non UK citizen).

Pakistan is actually too safe if you come from Iran. I had to follow police escort all the way to Lahore and I didn't see real Pakistan or meet people. The police did not want me to leave hotels at all! In the north you can ride free but I crossed the border in Lahore.

The violence, I was told, is not directed against tourists but some rivaling groups are fighting with each other. But sometimes someone just happens to be in wrong place on wrong time.

I have read the posts from Matt and Cwak are either of you planning to go through Iran this summer. I have had a few quotes and it is expensive, and I wondered if you are going we could share a guide and reduce the costs. Please let me know by email if possible or on this thread and I will try and check it regularly. We will be travelling by car so could carry a guide in our car if needed. We are British so currently have to have a guide. We plan to leave the UK this summer.
Hope to hear from you
Suede

Hi Suede,

I have essentially still not yet solved this 'problem'. But, if I don't find any better option, I will plan to fly by the most economical Europe-India plane route that I can find.

However, I am interested in the possibility of a shared guide to pass through Iran.
Do you have a ballpark estimate of costs?
Do you plan to continue East, through Pakistan afterwards?

What is your planned timing?
I have planned so far:
- Leave UK 04/07/2016
- Europe & Morocco for a couple of months
- Live in Granada (Spain) for the month of October.
- November onwards I would like to ride to India, over the course of 1-2 months.

I have heard that there may be private boats travelling from Bandar Abbas (southern Iranian coast) to India. So, perhaps it is possible to arrange transport on one of these, but I assume it will only be possible to investigate this in person at the port.

Until recently I was still kind of hoping that the 'guide' situation with Iran may change in the near future. But, I haven't heard anything about it in a while. Have you heard anything more about this?

Hi
Your timings will probably not work for us as we hope to reach Iran Summer 16. The quotes we've had are 100 to 110 dollars per day plus meals and accommodation for the guide or 170 dollars per day all in. That's US dollars. The rough itinerary I mapped out would take about 20 days, and we would have to stay in hotels rather than our camper. For us having a guide on our own it would be cheaper to take a tour with all the accommodation included.

Thanks for getting back to us, please come back to us up if you decide, or are able to go this summer. We are considering going on into Pakistan and through to India, we would like to spend the UK winter in India.
Thanks
Suede

Hi
Your timings will probably not work for us as we hope to reach Iran Summer 16. The quotes we've had are 100 to 110 dollars per day plus meals and accommodation for the guide or 170 dollars per day all in. That's US dollars. The rough itinerary I mapped out would take about 20 days, and we would have to stay in hotels rather than our camper. For us having a guide on our own it would be cheaper to take a tour with all the accommodation included.

Thanks for getting back to us, please come back to us up if you decide, or are able to go this summer. We are considering going on into Pakistan and through to India, we would like to spend the UK winter in India.
Thanks
Suede