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Iran?

cookiemonstercookiemonster Posts: 668
edited October 2008 in Tour & expedition
Anyone toured/cycled in Iran?

Thinking of a flight to dubai, hop over to Shiraz cycle to somewhere like Bander or Kerman, and fly back to Dubai. Prob towards the end of november.

I havent a clue whether this is at all realistic though (can you get in on a UK passport and travel freely?). Any experience/advice?

jon

Posts

  • avoidingmyphdavoidingmyphd Posts: 1,154
    can't help you with the cycling (although the traffic is insane) but I've been there without my bike.

    You'll need a visa and they are tricky to get hold of. The best way is to be on a tour. The next best is to be "on a tour" :wink: with a visa through a friendly iranian travel agent.. I'd start chasing one now.

    if you go though, prepare to be amazed. It's a stunning country full of amazing people. When we were there they loved the novelty of 4 western backpackers. I can't imaging how cool it would have been to add a bike!
  • rayboraybo Posts: 86
    Check out this site: http://travellingtwo.com/resources/iran

    These people rode through Iran and built a web page full of information.

    Ray
  • cookiemonstercookiemonster Posts: 668
    :)

    yep - i went to nothern afghanistan last year (sans bike), which was stunning in the extreme; hoping that iran would be similar. i'm in London, so i'll try dropping by the embassy for a chat and a visa :) its worked before....
  • jc4labjc4lab Posts: 1,055
    I can recommend Explore as an adventure holiday company if you want to go to Iran but they have no bike trips as part of their intinery
    jc
  • irishandy25irishandy25 Posts: 8
    I am currently in Istanbul waiting for various visa's. I have already got the Iranian one although you will probably have to go through a visa agency (iranianvisa.com or similar) to get one. We were told that you could apply to the embassy directly but whenever my friend went to apply he was given a slip of paper with the name 'iranianvisa.com' on it...so even the officials seem to endorse this method.

    As for cycling, I am told that it is a great country for this. People are friendly even if there driving is not. You should definitely check out the travellingtwo's website as it is pretty helpful.

    Might see you there...

    Andrew.

    www.blazingsaddles.org.uk
  • cookiemonstercookiemonster Posts: 668
    Hi

    I thought you needed a Letter of Introduction and was trying to sort this out, but I'll give iranianvisas.com a shot and see if that works. My rough plan was to fly into sirjan and cycle to shiraz in a week with a couple of days spent around there (persipolis, etc) and fly back from there (via dubai or bahrain of course), But I'm leaning towards just stealing the travellingtwos shiraz to yazd itinerary, perhaps travelling back from yazd by bus to save hassle with flights (can fly to shiraz from heathrow on gulf air - its a change at bahrain, but you stay on the same carrier), and can leave the bike bag in shiraz to save the usual nonsense of trying to find a cardboard box.

    Let me know what your plans are - I'm very slowly getting my act together :)

    Jon
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