IRAN: How much money to take with me?
 

Hi everyone!

I have a 30 day visa, but intend to stay about 3 weeks - depends on how much I like it. How much money (US Dollar) would you take with you, to be able to pay for food, gas, accomodation (nothing fancy, but no sh*thole ;))

I intend to ride through to Bandar Babas for the ferry to Dubai with stops along the road.

Thanks
Josh

Really, nobody? :/

Iran,
 

sent PM

Regards
WolfgangK1

Are you in Iran already? I have the same plan and question


Check my route on www.TWINE.bike

I would also be interested in other peoples opinion in this. I am thinking a combination of USD and Euro would be good. Any experiences?

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I was there in May/June, stayed about 3 weeks. I spent around 10-15 € / day for food, fuel and museums etc. It heavily depends on the type of accomodation you like. So 30-40 € / day is more than enough.
Van

Thanks, that gives me a rough estimate! Cheers, Martin


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hi, currently we are in Tehran already, stay in a hostel in north side, cheap and good.

we will pick our bike from Bandar abbas and ride along to Turkey.

feel free to email me wheelstoryindonesia@gmail.com

cheers,

Hi all, I plan to take some cash for Iran, but is it possible to get money with a Visa debit card from ATMs in Iran? and are there ATMs in small cities? I want to avoid huge cities if possible.

Thanks!

Hello, david
I travelled in November in Iran and it was not possible to to take money with visa or mastercad from the ATM. there is something going on with these things, but I heard nothing, that it changes until now.
Regards
WolfgangK1

The big determiner will be accommodation. My experience is 6 years old but I expect it is still about right.

1) definitely no easy cash withdrawals in the country
2) if in doubt take too much
3) Iran is a really friendly and safe country in my opinion. I'd be more worried admit theft in pretty much every European country than in Iran
4) dollars are much better than euros (but this could have changed)
5) when i went petrol had to be purchased at the tourist rate. Thus was about 10 times the locals price but still only a third of the European price
6) I changed $80 and became a local millionaire and the money was crammed into a big envelope. I genuinely would have been better off with a shoe box to put it all in
7) loads of places will allow you to pay straight out in dollars without a painful exchange rate
8) enjoy Iran. It's an interesting place with lovely friendly people, including the officials and police!!

Hope that's useful. Anyone else please correct me if anything has change in the last few years

I'm in Iran now, most of jamesallens points are correct.

I think you can also safely take Euros, but if you are going to Central Asia afterwards, better take US Dollars.

I don't think they are doing the tourist petrol thing anymore. 95 octane petrol, called super, is 1200 toman per liter at the moment. Same price at every pump, although not all stations have it.

There is a weird thing here in Iran where everybody tells you the price in Toman, where as your bills will say Rials. Just multiply the Toman by 10 (add an extra 0) and you get the price in rials. So 1 liter is about €0,34

If you want to go cheap, consider couchsurfing in Iran, they love it here! This means free accomodation and most of the time free food, because they just love to be hospitable people. If you take the time to talk to people you can also expect to be invited to peoples homes and be stuffed before you are allowed to leave.

Otherwise, most hostels will charge $10 - $15 a night including breakfast. Hope this helps.

Just the emphasize, still no way of getting money out of an ATM in Iran, so take what you need before crossing the border!

Thank you!

How safe would you say it is to carry money for a month in your bag?

I'd seriously say Iran is one of the least likely places to have a problem with theft. Two questions you need to ask yourself;
How much money do I need? - You have to carry as much as you need given the ATM / card issues.
How much money would you feel carrying around in your home country? Iran will be just as safe

Hope that helps

p.s. good call on the unusual toman / rial pricing

To add an actual sum to all the good points made above, I travelled Iran 2 years ago Turkey>UAE for 1 month and took 1500 euros, stayed in a mix of hotels/hostels/guesthouses/couchsurfing.
I think I exited with close to 500 euros but I'd say 1500 is a good bet to be on the safe side.
You can't get money at an atm but some carpet traders in the bigger bazaars have visa machines and will withdraw for you for a small fee. Was offered a few times but never tried though.

PS: the ferry is quite cheap in Iran but they charge you additional in UAE and in total it's quite expensive. I think between 3-400 eur total.

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Most has already been said. I just wanted to add a few observations:

- Iran is very safe, I was never concerned about the amount of cash we were carrying. If you do need some extra peace of mind, a number of Iranian banks offer "tourist credit cards". Just step into a bank, open an account, deposit your cash and you receive a card that works everywhere in Iran

- If you did not bring enough money it is still possible to get money (Dollars or Rial) with a credit card or a Paypal account. Look for the larger money exchange offices and ask around. They will not be able to help you officially, but they will tell you where to go (I got a nice glossy flyer with an address and a map). You'll end up in some anonymous apartment building with a flat that is filled with computers that have a permanent VPN connection with the outside world. Make your Visa/Paypal payment online and walk out with your cash. Commissions are high though, up to 10%.

- prices for fuel are the same for foreigners as for Iranians, at least in all the places we fueled up (around 10 eurocents per litre if I recall correctly). Most fuel stations have permanent attendants so no need to worry about "fuel cards".

- as mentioned above, all prices and price discussions are in Toman, not Rial. If it says 50000 that's Toman and means 500000 Rial.

as to how much money you will need, that's really hard to say. It will vary depending on your needs. (Hotel) Accomodation is rather expensive, especially in the more touristy places like Tehran, Esfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, ... But most cities also have a nice park where camping is allowed (and free), often with toilets and shower facilities (Tabriz has a really -nice one, with a security guard). Iranians love to camp, so wild camping is a pretty good option as well. On top of that, especially in less touristy areas we got so many invitations to stay at people's homes we stayed in a hotel only once and spent the rest of our time camping or staying with the most hospitable people you can imagine.

Thanks for the tips, especially with that card, I will check in Tabriz as it will be my first stop I think. About the accomodation, you say it's expensive but it cannot be more than 20 eur for a single room, right. That's what I am paying in Turkey.

Thanks!

Melli Bank is one of the banks that offer "Tourist Cards". Although I've been told not all offices issue them.
http://bmi.ir/En/BMIServicesShow.aspx?sid=256

As I said, we never felt the need to get a card ourselves, we just carried the cash.

Could you please provide the location's name or maybe address/gps?

Currently I am in the process of planning an overland trip starting in March '17.

Thank you.

Tabriz Camp Site is here: https://goo.gl/maps/pbuN7gy5Yu92

Addresses in Iran aren't like what you're used to. Most of the time they don't really use street names and house numbers to give address info. At least not in the large cities. In stead they tell you which district and off which main road you need to be and then describe how to get from there to your destination.

Your Google Maps Waypoint will help me a lot. Thanks for sharing the Info.

Wolfgang

Hi all, I would like to add just one point regarding accommodation after 1 week in Iran, I plan to stay about a month:

Hotels are crazy expensive and bad in Iran compared with other countries, food is very cheap (3-6 euros for a meal with drink in a restaurant) but accommodation is another story:

- There are loads of guest houses which have very different prices, I saw rooms for 9 euros from 50 (I think the just say the first figure they have in mind and wait your reaction), most of them with shared bathroom and really dirty places.

- Hotels can go from 20 to 100 euros, most 3* can range from 30 to 60 euros but it also depends on how you negotiate the price. In some hotels they offered me to pay in dollars, but when I asked the price in rials was like almost double and they didn't understand the rate they were using was not accurate at all. Conclusion, pay in the currency is cheaper!

- This may be obvious but for people who hasn't traveled these countries: 3* hotels are actually 1* or just pensions in terms of European standards, so a good guide is that the prices are 50% higher in Iran for 50% lower quality. This means that a single room for 20 euros in Iran is like a 10 euros or less in Europe.

I am not very picky with these things as long as the bed is clean and the toilet is decent to have a shower, but some people may not want to stay in a 30 euros hotel in Iran, so that's something to bear in mind.

In Tabriz I stayed in a 20 euros hotel (Hotel Quods) and to compare that to Europe, I stayed in 10 euros hotel that were way better on my way here from London in these 2 months.

I didn't explore the home-stays or camping yet, I plan to do it in the next cities I visit but people are Indeed very friendly and helpful but they won't ask you for money.