Dextar Studio ™ · Pexels LicenseAdvisory - travel not recommended · checked 5 Aug 2026
Foreign ministries advise against all or all-but-essential travel to most of Iraq, with the Kurdistan Region treated separately and less restrictively by several of them. Unexploded ordnance, kidnapping risk and regional escalation are the standing concerns. Read the advisory by governorate rather than by country.
Official advisory →“Where cities were invented, and where the advisory has to be read by governorate.”
Iraq is Mesopotamia — the place where writing, cities and law were first assembled. Ur's ziggurat, Babylon's walls, the Assyrian sites around Mosul and the spiral minaret at Samarra are all here, along with the Mesopotamian Marshes, drained by Saddam Hussein and partly restored since, where a way of life continues on reed islands.
It is also a country most governments advise against travelling to, with the important qualification that several treat the Kurdistan Region in the north as a separate and much lower-risk case. Erbil and Sulaymaniyah receive visitors and issue their own entry permits. The federal south has opened to tourism since 2021 and small numbers do go. Read the advisory by governorate, understand that unexploded ordnance and kidnapping risk are real, and know that ordinary insurance will not cover any of it.
Highlights
Erbil and the Kurdistan Region
A citadel claimed as the longest continuously inhabited site on earth, above a modern city, with the Zagros mountains, Rawanduz gorge and Amedi's mesa town to the north.
Babylon and the southern sites
The Ishtar Gate's foundations and the reconstructed walls, plus Ur's ziggurat near Nasiriyah and Uruk, where writing appears to have begun.
The Mesopotamian Marshes
Reed islands and buffalo herding in the south, UNESCO-listed, drained in the 1990s and partly reflooded — a landscape and a way of life that very nearly ended.
Samarra and the spiral minaret
The Malwiya, a 52-metre spiral minaret from the ninth century, in a UNESCO-listed Abbasid city north of Baghdad. Access depends on the security situation.
Entry requirements for Iraq
Advisory - travel not recommended · checked 5 Aug 2026
Foreign ministries advise against all or all-but-essential travel to most of Iraq, with the Kurdistan Region treated separately and less restrictively by several of them. Unexploded ordnance, kidnapping risk and regional escalation are the standing concerns. Read the advisory by governorate rather than by country.
Official advisory →Checking your passport…
We don't hold entry details for this passport group yet.
Before you fly
The detail
- Passport validity
- Most destinations want validity beyond your stay, and some want six months. Check yours against the return date.
- Onward travel
- Airlines may ask for a return or onward ticket at check-in.
- Arrival form
- Visa on arrival or Kurdistan Region entry permit, plus in some periods a PCR or health requirement — check current rules.
- Health
- Hepatitis A and B, typhoid and polio are standard; rabies for rural stays. Healthcare is variable and under strain; serious cases mean evacuation, usually to Jordan or Türkiye. Do not drink tap water. Extreme summer heat — Basra has recorded above 53 °C — is a genuine hazard. Dust storms are frequent.
- Money
- Dinar, cash-dominant. US dollars are widely used alongside it. Foreign cards work at a small number of hotels in Erbil and Baghdad and essentially nowhere else — bring cash. ATMs are unreliable for foreign cards. The note denominations are large; count carefully.
What changed
When to go
BestMar–Apr, Oct–Nov. AvoidJun–Sep.
Warm and green — the best month, with Nowruz in the Kurdish north.
The band above each month is our editorial verdict - it weighs crowds, prices and access as well as weather. The line is average daily temperature, the bars are monthly rainfall. Select a month for the figures. Climate figures: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 2005–2024 normals.
What it costs
A day in Iraq
Comfortable · sample day
≈ $86
Line items are real prices we track. The daily budget is an editorial estimate for this level, not their sum.
Where this sits among 244 countries we have costed
Season is not the variable that matters. Prices are shaped by security arrangements and by the pilgrimage calendar — Arbaeen brings millions of pilgrims to Karbala and fills every road and hotel in the centre and south for weeks. Hard-currency prices are otherwise stable and modest, apart from Erbil hotels, which are priced for business and NGO travel.
Updated Aug 2026 · Editorial synthesis — operator and fixer quotations, site tariffs, specialist insurer rates (2025–2026) · confidence low
Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Regions to know
5The Kurdistan Region
Erbil's citadel, Sulaymaniyah, the Zagros mountains and Rawanduz gorge — treated separately by most advisories.
Baghdad & the centre
The capital, the National Museum, Samarra's spiral minaret and Babylon south of the city.
Nineveh & the north
Mosul, the Assyrian sites at Nimrud and Nineveh, and Hatra's Parthian ruins — much of it damaged and under advisory.
The shrine cities
Najaf and Karbala, among the most important sites in Shia Islam, receiving millions of pilgrims each year.
The south & the marshes
Ur and Uruk, Basra on the Shatt al-Arab, and the Mesopotamian Marshes with their reed islands.
Practical guide
Getting there
Baghdad (BGW), Erbil (EBL), Sulaymaniyah (ISU) and Basra (BSR) take regional flights from Turkey, Jordan, the Gulf and some European cities. The land border with Türkiye at Ibrahim Khalil is used for the Kurdistan Region; the Iranian and Jordanian borders operate with conditions. Federal and Kurdistan entry permits are separate.
Entry formalities
Visa on arrival or Kurdistan Region entry permit, plus in some periods a PCR or health requirement — check current rules.
Getting around
Domestic flights link Baghdad, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Basra. Roads between cities pass through numerous checkpoints and journey times are unpredictable. Hiring a driver and fixer is the standard arrangement and is close to necessary. There is a limited rail service between Baghdad and Basra. Travel between the Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq involves an internal checkpoint and, sometimes, a separate permit.
Money & costs
Dinar, cash-dominant. US dollars are widely used alongside it. Foreign cards work at a small number of hotels in Erbil and Baghdad and essentially nowhere else — bring cash. ATMs are unreliable for foreign cards. The note denominations are large; count carefully.
Safety
This is the central consideration. Kidnapping risk, unexploded ordnance and mine contamination — Iraq is among the most contaminated countries in the world — militia activity, and periodic missile and drone exchanges affecting the north and the Gulf approaches. Never leave paved surfaces in areas that saw fighting. Checkpoints are numerous and require documents. Consular capacity is limited. The Kurdistan Region is calmer and not risk-free.
Health
Hepatitis A and B, typhoid and polio are standard; rabies for rural stays. Healthcare is variable and under strain; serious cases mean evacuation, usually to Jordan or Türkiye. Do not drink tap water. Extreme summer heat — Basra has recorded above 53 °C — is a genuine hazard. Dust storms are frequent.
SIM & internet
Local SIMs are cheap and widely available. Coverage is good in cities and along main roads. Internet shutdowns have been used during exams and unrest. Assume monitored connectivity and avoid photographing checkpoints, military sites and government buildings.
Driving
Checkpoints govern every intercity journey and a local driver is what makes them straightforward. Roadside ordnance contamination means never pulling off the paved surface in former conflict areas. Fuel is cheap and widely available.
Rules change - verify with an official source before you rent.
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From the Journal
Before you go
IraqFrequently asked questions
Is Kurdistan really different?
In advisory terms, yes — several governments issue distinctly less restrictive advice for the Kurdistan Region than for federal Iraq, and it has its own entry permit issued on arrival at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah for many nationalities. It has been visited steadily for years. That is a difference of degree, not a guarantee: the region has seen missile strikes and border operations, and conditions change.
Can I travel independently in the south?
Federal Iraq introduced visas on arrival for many nationalities in 2021 and small numbers of independent travellers do go to Baghdad, Babylon, Karbala and the marshes. Most use a local fixer, both for the practical navigation of checkpoints and because the security picture varies by road and by week. Going without one is not advisable regardless of what the visa permits.
What will insurance cover?
Almost certainly nothing. Standard policies void cover for travel against a government advisory, and an advisory is in force for most or all of the country depending on your nationality. Specialist high-risk cover exists and costs accordingly. Medical evacuation from Iraq is expensive and complicated.