Destination: Iran

LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL GUIDEBOOK INFORMATION

Money & Costs

While prices have risen steadily in Iran in recent years, it is still dirt cheap and great value by Western standards. Backpackers can get by on as little as IR125,000 a day, even less if all luxuries are foregone; you’d need to stay in a mosaferkhuneh (basic hotel, from about IR30,000/US$3.70), eat the simplest food in local restaurants and limit the number of historical sites you visit.

Prices

The busiest time of year in Iran is No Ruz (Iranian New Year), when hotels across the country are booked solid from about 10 March until 5 April. As you'd expect, prices rise for No Ruz, usually by about 20%.

Many hotels, as well as museums and other tourist sights, consider No Ruz the beginning of the high season, and their prices remain at No Ruz levels through summer, falling again in October.

For the sake of simplicity, in this book: 'Summer' in reference to prices, timetables or opening hours, means approximately 10 March until early October. Hotel prices throughout are summer prices.

Not a complete ascetic? You’ll be looking at about IR180,000 to IR200,000 (US$22 to US$24) a day. This will usually be enough for budget or simple mid-range accommodation (with a bathroom), one good cooked meal a day, transport by the better Volvo buses or savari, chartered taxis around town (and sometimes in the countryside) and visits to all the important tourist attractions.

The price of petrol, kept so ridiculously low by subsidies of about US$4 billion a year, is set to rise in coming years – initially from about IR600 to IR800 a litre. Costs of everything, from transport to food, are likely to rise with it.

For IR300,000 (US$36) a day you could take a couple of internal flights, eat at restaurants serving ‘exotic’ Western fare to break up the kebabs, and lodge in mid-range hotels with Western toilets and satellite TV. If you want to stay in top-end hotels you’ll be looking at more than IR632,000 (US$76) a day. Discounts on single rooms are minimal, so couples will pay less than the amounts quoted here.

Getting around Iran is wonderfully cheap; comfortable buses work out at about US$1 (IR8310) per 100km, while a bed on an overnight train can be cheaper than US$10 (IR79,000). Domestic flights are no longer as ridiculously cheap as they were, but you can still fly from Tehran to Esfahan, for example, for only IR144,000 (US$17). One of your biggest costs will be the entrance fees to museums and historical sites – the authorities seem to like the number 30,000 and that is how much it costs to see most of them. A busy day in Esfahan could easily cost you IR150,000 (US$18) in admission fees alone.

Remember that travellers cheques and credit cards don’t work in Iran, so bring all the money you’ll need in cash.

HOW MUCH?

Meal in a cheap restaurant: IR20,000
One hour online: IR10,000
Short taxi ride: IR5000
Average museum ticket: IR30,000
Two-pack of toilet paper: IR7000
Litre of petrol: IR600
1.5L bottle of water: IR2000
Pot of tea in a teahouse: IR4000-6000
Souvenir qalyan (water pipe): IR60,000
Street snack – sausis (sausage) sandwich: IR3500

Travelling to Iran?
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