Beautiful Iran
Not long awhile Georgia and Iran made an agreement for Visa Free travels between two countries. For Georgian travelers the period of Visa free entry has extended from 15 days to 45 days (maximum of 3 months). Regular flights will be carried out by Georgia’s Airzena (damn!). Thankfully Iran is reachable by other means of transportation, which I will discuss later. There are certain rules and regulation that you should know before traveling the Persian paradise. Non-compliance with these rules may result in fines from us$ 500 up to death penalties!
1. – Holders of passports containing a visa for Israel (either valid or expired) or any data that passenger has been to Israel or indication of any connection with the State of Israel, are refused entry. So what can you do about it? By Georgian law you can have as many passports as you please, so have a secondary passport free of Jewish Visa.
2. – Admission is refused to Women not wearing Islamic head cover, scarf, long sleeves or stockings. My personal recommendation would be to travel with the company of male tourists, either father, brother, husband or boyfriend. Men are also highly advised to wear long sleeve shirts and pants.
3 – Visitors must hold return/onward tickets and all documents.
4 – funds to cover their stay in Iran
5 – All foreigners entering Iran must report their arrival within 8 days after arrival at Police Head Quarters in Tehran or at Main Police Office in other Iranian cities in order to obtain a Residential Permit. Passengers are strongly advised to have on hand several passport photos and photo copies of their passport of page containing personal dates, as all owners of private or public places (e.g.hotels) are held responsible to inform Police Authorities and Foreign Nationals Residence Record Office. Non-compliance with above will result in prosecution.
6 – Now, this is important if you are Reporters, journalists, photographers and cameramen of any nationality other than Iranian! You still require a visa to visit the country, as much as visa free program does not apply to you. You need to obtained Visa from the representation of Iran either in the country of their residence or from the representation under which competence their country of residence belongs.
How to Travel
Imam Khomeini International Airport
By mean of air – this is the fastest and easiest way to travel. All international flights to Tehran land at the new Imam Khomeini International Airport. There are few flights from Tbilisi. Georgia’s Airzena (from 299 Euro’s twice a week), Azerbaijan’s Azal (from 434 Gel) , Turkish Airlines (553 euro). Because of the close location of the country there are other cheaper options available for traveling by land.
Travel By train:
Via Azerbaijan – There is a railway from Baku to the border city of Astara. From there you can walk through the border to Iran. The railway is going to be joined to Tehran via Rasht and Zanjan.
Travel by bus:
Via Armenia – From Armenia there are daily, modern buses travelling Yerevan to Tabriz and even further to Teheran. Otherwise the only Iran/Armenia land border at Nuduz/Agarak is very badly served by public transport. On the Armenian side you can get as far as Meghri by one Marschrutka a day from Yerevan. In both directions the Marshrutka leaves quiet early in the morning. Kaplan and Karajan are more frequently served by marschrutkas but it is a long and mountainous (and therefore expensive) stretch to the border from there. From Meghri it is around 8 km to the border and hitching or a taxi is the only option. On the iranian side the closest puplic transport can be found around 50km to the west in Jolfa, so a taxi (around 10-15$) again is the only (commercial) choice. Expect to be asked a lot for all taxi rides, so hard bargaining is essential. Make clear (or pretend) that you have other choices (hitchhiking) to get fair prices.The border is not busy at all, so when hitching you have to mainly stick with the truck drivers and Russian or Farsi helps a lot here. Consider for yourself whether this is a safe option.
Travel Tbilisi Tehran by Land
Via Turkey – You can find Seir-o-Safar agencies in Istanbul, Antalya and Ankara to buy cheap bus tickets for Tehran. A one-way ticket between Istanbul or Ankara and Tehran costs US$ 35.00.Dogubeyazit/Bazergan This Turkey/Iran border crossing is easily (and fast) done by puplic transport. Take a bus to Dogubeyazit and a frequent minibus (ca. 5YTL, 15 minutes) to the border. Cross the border stretch per pedes, take the customs taxi (give the driver some 1000 Rial bakschis) to the next village and take a taxi (3-4$) to the bus terminal in Bazergan. There could also be buses to Bazergan, but the taxi drivers approaching you at the border are not the right people to ask for that. From there you can easily get buses to major destinations in Iran. Check the security situation in the region, due to the unsolved PKK conflict.
There are also buses from Van to Urmia crossing from Esendere-Sero border. The buses cost €13 and it takes more than 6 hours to finish the 300-kilometer path. That’s because of poor roads in the Turkish side and also too many check stops at the Turkish side (more than 5) because security reasons concerning P.K.K.You can also take mini buses to the town Yüksekova near the border and ask for taxis to bring you to the border. Cross the border check point on your own since the taxis won’t cross into Iran.
By boat :
There are some scheduled services from Baku to Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea and from cities on the Persian Gulf to cities on the Iranian coast. They are usually of low quality.Starting in late 2007 and 2008; high quality semi-luxurious ferry service started between Kish Island and Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This service is of nominal fee (@ $50 USD) and the journey across one of the busiest stretches of water is sure to entertain. It is not currently known what the Customs and Entry Visa process is like using this service however as the boats do not enter via the airport. While the entry/exit process at the airport is fairly well established, it is unknown if the process is as well managed when entering via the docks. It is likely to be more chaotic and it is not know whether visas are issued on the spot as is the case at the airport. There are also ferries from Bandar Abbas to Dubai and Sharjah in UAE, and also ferries from Bushehr to Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain - basically speaking a lot of interesting ways to travel.
