In addition to the
blog post that will be published today, here are some practical tips from my trip to Iraq in April 2025:
Visa: Since March 2025, there's an e-visa system for most passports; it's more like an entrance fee, and the costs for me were 155 EUR. I got the approval email in 7 hours. Iraqi Kurdistan has its own visa system, but the Federal Iraqi one is also valid there. The only issue is that you can't go back and forth (without buying an additional visa). Arrival formalities at Baghdad airport were quick, just a few minutes wait for the full visa sticker to be printed at a separate desk after a photo+iris scan has been taken.
Safety: I wrote about it already in the
Top Tips.
Money & costs: as I went on a tour, most costs were paid for already and food is very cheap. I spent only 100 USD across 6 days, including taxis from and to the airport. USD in large denominations are the easiest to exchange ("everywhere" – I took some from the mobile phone guy at Baghdad Airport), but EUR will work well also at exchange offices. The standard foreigners' entry fee to the main monuments is 25,000 IQD (ca. 16.5 EUR).
Sim and Wifi: I used an esim from Airalo, which worked everywhere and every hotel had decent wifi.
Food: "cheap and plentiful," I'd say, it's mostly the Arab standard stuff. A falafel sandwich can be had for 500 dinar already (0,35 EUR). They do have some Iraqi specialities such as Masgouf (seasoned, grilled carp), which looks great in pictures but tasted a bit bland when I tried it.
When to go: in the South, it gets hot very quickly from about mid-April onwards (we got lucky with "only" 26 degrees Celsius, where 36 had been predicted). November to March is recommended.
Dress code: as a female, I wore normal cotton pants + a t-shirt all the time. Only to gain access to the Shia holy sites in Karbala and Najaf you need to dress up: long sleeves and a headscarf already on the entrance road to the shrine, and an abaya inside the shrine, which can be borrowed or bought at the spot. Men can wear whatever they want (except for the shrines), although shorts are considered more suitable for children.
Tour or independent: Iraq currently is on the tipping point (or has just passed it) from the need for a local guide to independent travel. The value of a guy with good local connections to open doors becomes less and less as most sites hold regular opening hours and have basic visitor facilities (parking, ticket kiosk, toilets, walking circuit). If you Google a bit, several websites/blogs will show up that give a good overview of the possibilities of how to do it on your own.
Itinerary: Mine was the following, but I would recommend adding some extra days. See the blog post for ideas for additional sights.
D1: Baghdad (Iraq Museum, Old Baghdad, Martyrs Monument). ON Baghdad
D2: Babylon & the Mausoleum of Imam Hussain in Karbala. ON Karbala
D3: Najaf: Wadi-al-Salaam Cemetery and Imam Ali Shrine. ON Nassiriya
D4: Ziggurat of Ur, Mesopotamian Marshes. ON Baghdad
D5: Samarra, Hatra. ON Mosul
D6: Mosul, Nineveh. ON Erbil
Days 4 and 5 were very long travel days. And the itinerary also omitted the WHS of Ashur, which wouldn't have fit in on Day 5 anyway.
