Disclaimer: This guide was written in 2023. While it has become far safer the last few years Iraq is still, unfortunately, a volatile country. You should always seek out the most recent information possible from a diverse array of sources before deciding to visit.
Introduction
This guide is about federal Iraq. I hope to one day write a post about Kurdistan after I have visited.
I had been wanting to visit Iraq for years. The appeal to me was in its ancient history and I was actually quite ignorant to anything beyond that. I quickly discovered in my preparation just how much Iraq has to offer. It’s a country I had fallen in love with before even leaving. I hope this guide helps answer common questions you may have. There is also a further information section at the bottom for those who are more curious about the country’s history. It is not even remotely exhaustive and I make no claims of being an expert but I think it is interesting nevertheless.
Places to Go
Babylon
Just this one name is enough to spark interest in Iraq. The Hanging Gardens! Nebuchadnezzar II! The death of Alexander the Great! An ancient civilization that grew from the world’s first ever cities some 6000 years ago, Babylon is a place that, in my opinion, should be regarded with the same wonder as Giza and Luxor in Egypt. Being in the presence of such history made the trip worth it all by itself.
As a destination it is underdeveloped by global standards. The excavation done by Saddam in the 80s was not exactly to archaeological standards. Its most famous relic, the Ishtar Gate, is held in Berlin. There is still much to see in a morning or afternoon though. Some of the mušḫuššu reliefs are in incredible shape and you can appreciate them in almost complete solitude. One of Saddam’s extravagant and wasteful palaces was built on a hill overlooking the ancient city. It has been thoroughly looted by Iraqis taking back some of the wealth stolen from them decades prior. You can still explore the ground floor. The contrast of graffiti and detritus over top the marble everything and ceiling frescos carries a small sense of justice with it.
Karbala
I came to Iraq for Babylon but it is Karbala whose impact has stayed with me the most afterwards. The Imam Husayn Shrine and accompanying Al Abbas Shrine is the largest pilgrimage site in the world seeing around 30 million make the journey each year. Most of these come to mark Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of the third Shi’a Imam and grandson of the prophet Muhammed, Husayn Ibn Ali at the battle of Karbala. This was a foundational moment in the development of Shi’a Islam as a separate branch from the dominant Sunni belief system.
Both of the shrines are stunningly beautiful in a way that is hard to capture on camera due to the incredible abundance of lights. I spent hours there with my guide, first just sitting on the carpet soaking in the atmosphere and splendor and then outside eating falafel and sweets in the surrounding bazaar.
We were lucky to get a seat inside of the Al Abbas mausoleum. I am not a religious person but this was a profound experience. The outpouring of humanity was heavy and contagious. A man overflowing with tears tapped me on the shoulder. He wanted me to understand that as the half brother of Husayn, Abbas did not have the infallibility of the Imam but he sacrificed himself anyways. To him Husayn was a martyr to pay respect, but Abbas was a model for regular folks to follow; that no matter the mistakes one has made they can always be better tomorrow.
This is a deeply spiritual place. I do not think they need to allow guests but I am humbled that they do. I am sure this practice will cease if tourists reach numbers to take away from the experience of the pilgrims. Be excessively respectful. Enjoy the moment and please don't stick a camera in anyone's face.
Al-Ukhaidar Forrtress
About 50km away from Karbala in the middle of the desert is this 1200+ year old Abbasid fortress. The structure is pretty vast. We had it to ourselves, save one other family who left shortly after we arrived. There is nothing around it except some oil wells in the distance but I was really happy to have visited. Exploring the different hallways and the walls was a surreal experience.
Baghdad
Standard Baghdad tours generally include visits to Al Mutanabbi street and its famous tea shop, the Al-Shaheed Monument, Haji Zbala juice shop, Tahrir Square, a boat trip across the Tigris, the Iraqi National Museum and the Abbasid Palace. Unfortunately I was not able to visit the National Museum or Abbasid Palace ostensibly because of COVID. I absolutely adore museums so this was disappointing but you should not go to Iraq if you are not able to be flexible. I think all of these are worth seeing. My personal favourite was the Al-Shaheed Monument. It’s picturesque and some local university students were shooting their graduation photos there. Underneath a museum has been set-up in recognition of all those who were persecuted and killed by Saddam Baath regime.
The bazaar in the old town is brimming with all sorts of eclectic wares. I really wanted to visit a currency collectors shop and this ended up being another highlight. First for the tea and hospitality and second for the cool bills and coins, a few of which I took home with me!
Baghdad has a more cosmopolitan side as well. We spent a night winding down at a modern minimalist cafe playing the same slow-covers of pop songs that bridge these places around the globe. The Escalades parked out front lacking any sort of dings or scrapes was a strong clue as to what class of people visit these places. It was a side of Baghdad I wanted to see though and the food was pretty good! I’ll write more about the complexities of Iraq in an upcoming story.
Iraqi Bread
I’m convinced that an international bread making competition would evoke more nationalistic pride in the Middle East than world cup matches do. People take their bread very seriously, and for good reason! It is good. I’m not sure a single European country would get near to a sniff at the podium in a pan-Eurasian competition. For my money Iraq would get gold. I am not a foodie. I apologize to the majority of you reading this as this is content I cannot create. Every now and then there is an exception though and Iraqi bread is one of them. Try it, try it fresh.
Other Destinations
I did not have the pleasure of going to any of these destinations so I will keep it brief.
Samarra: The minaret at the Great Mosque of Samarra is ‘only’ 1150 years old but evokes images of something far more ancient with its architectural similarities to the fabled Tower of Babel. It is about an hour North of Baghdad but is under the control of a local militia. Plenty of people have still visited but being able to speak Arabic or being alongside someone who does will be of immense help.
Ur: About 3.5 hours South of Baghdad just outside of Nasiriyah is the 5000 year old Sumerian city of Ur. Excavation is incomplete including the famous Ziggurat of Ur but is definitely worth seeing. The Ziggurat’s complete base layer is huge and makes for a great image. Nasiriyah is often a flashpoint for Government protests and has extra security to get in and out of.
The Marshes: Everyday my guide(s) told me how I had to come back to see these. The Mesopotamian Marshes are the birthplace of human cities and civilization. Saddam tried to drain them to weed out insurgents and climate change has continued the process. It would be a global shame if they were lost. Locals have persisted with their way of life where the water levels allow them to do so. There is not a single person I know who has been to the marshes who hasn’t been impacted profoundly by their time there. I hope tourism levels are managed to avoid damaging them further but a must see destination.
How to Get There
Iraq was for decades an incredibly difficult place to go to. In March of 2021 the government made it significantly easier, introducing a visa-on-arrival scheme for citizens of Australia, Canada, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the UK, the US and European Union countries. The visa costs $75 USD and is good for 60 days. Be wary this is still Iraq and other rules may be enforced at the discretion of the immigration officer. After I arrived I was told I would not be able to enter without a receipt from a hotel where I would be staying. I had an invoice for the tour company I was with but this wasn’t accepted. After a lengthy phone conversation between the immigration officer and the owner of the tour company I had to pay $50 USD for a hotel receipt of which my guide reimbursed me for later. My flight landed at 4am but I did not exit the airport until after 7am. This had very little to do with the whole hotel receipt fiasco. Everyone’s passport was taken into a backroom and every 45 minutes or so a man would emerge with a bundle of them now including an Iraqi visa. They seemed to go country by country with the smattering of non-Middle East passports filling the final batch. Bring extra cash for unexpected circumstances and also because you will almost certainly not have access to your bank account at any ATMs.
My tour company had arranged my pick-up at the airport. I can’t comment much on this as I’m not sure the service they used but the man was very nice and waited the entire 3 hours I was stuck in passport limbo.
Getting Around
If you do not speak Arabic I highly recommend traveling with a guide or along a tour. My guides used a local Uber equivalent (I believe it was Careem but not 100% sure) for all of our travel within urban areas. On trips between cities the company hired a driver. It is rare to find an English speaker so communicating with drivers would be difficult otherwise. Every time you enter a city limits you will pass through at least one military checkpoint. Some of these will require you to get out of the car and for your passport to be checked. This was always very chill for me as I usually just practiced my super basic Arabic with some of the soldiers while the driver answered any questions about what I was doing and where we were going. I can imagine this experience would have been far more stressful had I been traveling solo.
That all being said, it is not impossible to travel independently. I walked around Karada street one morning and got myself some falafel and coffee, detouring to a Church that ended up being closed on my way back to the hotel. It was a pleasant experience. More experienced travelers than I may feel comfortable with intercity trips on their own but take precautions, check the security situation with a trusted local and don’t do anything that doesn’t seem right.
Tours
Most companies running tours to Iraq are Western. Since 2021 there has also been a huge influx of bloggers and vloggers running their own trips. All of these will use local guides. I cannot say how much of their profits are split. For long established Western adventure travel companies I imagine a lot ends up in their head office back in the UK or the US or wherever based on the substantial price difference. That doesn’t mean that the guides aren’t being fairly compensated but I would rather just skip the middleman and support the growth of local agencies.
I traveled with Bil Weekend, a start-up that runs guided weekend trips for local Iraqis. They can arrange private tours for foreigners on request depending on guide availability. The trip was incredible. I had one guide for Baghdad and another for Babylon and Karbala and they were the main reason the trip was so memorable. The Babylon and Karbala portions of the trip were full day affairs where in Baghdad it was a mix of half-day tours. One of these I was paired with another foreign traveler which didn’t bother me at all but something to inquire about if that concerns you. The actual pre-departure correspondence was a little disorganized and there were sometimes pretty significant delays in my questions being answered. This all improved considerably once I actually arrived. One of these guides, and my friend, Hussein Rasheed has since started his own tour company: The Iraqi Way. Hussein is amazing. He has incredible passion for his country and its grand history. I cannot recommend reaching out to him enough. He can tailor a trip to your preferred level of comfort in transportation and accommodation, and design an itinerary to fit your interests. He’s taken Youtubers, solo travelers and families alike without incident. Once I return to Iraq to see the marshes I will definitely be reaching out to him first.
Iraq isn’t exactly cheap. Hotels are about $50-80. Depending on where you go and what kind of transportation has to be arranged I would budget $150-$300 a day for these tours.
Health and Safety
We have arrived at the question I suspect that most people are interested in: is Iraq safe?
The greatest risks you will face will be traffic accidents, heat stroke and air pollution. Don’t go in the summer. I went in October and temperatures were in the mid to high 30s (90s for American friends). 50 degrees (122 fahrenheit) can and will happen in the summer with increasing humidity the further South you go. It’s also the time when dust storms are most common.
Though it is seldom talked about in the same breath as say theft or assault, car trips are honestly the most dangerous part of traveling anywhere in the world. Traffic in Iraq is the worst I’ve ever seen, surpassing Kampala based on my own personal experiences. According to WHO data there are 27.29 road deaths per 100 000 in Iraq, sandwiching it roughly between Botswana and Kenya. Those are countries most people will visit without second thought so it shouldn’t necessarily stop you from going. Just please find travel insurance that covers Iraq (many will exclude places your home country advises against all unnecessary travel to) and understand that the healthcare system in Iraq is incredibly underfunded, well below Middle East and North Africa averages.
I did pick up a mild stomach bug when I was there. I’m not sure what this was from. It’s possible I drank some tap water at a restaurant and my stomach wasn’t quite up for it. It was about a day of fatigue and annoying but manageable discomfort followed by 10 days of cutting coffee and excess sugar out of my diet to recover. It couldn’t hurt to bring some traveler’s diarrhea medication if you are not prone to do so already.
Political violence and terrorism
Iraq is a volatile country. Its politics are systemically prone to paralysis and mired by corruption. Dissatisfaction with the government remains high as the country faces major issues including water scarcity, inflation and rebuilding provinces from the war with the so-called Islamic State. If a protest breaks out it is advisable that you vacate the area. Parts of the country remain under control of militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMFs) with complicated webs of allegiances. Sporadic attacks do happen but are almost entirely aimed at activists and political figures. Going to Iraq is not entirely risk free.
It is also true that now is the safest it has ever been in the last two decades. I am not aware of a single traveler who has had a threat to their safety in the last two years since the introduction of the visa-on-arrival. Everyone in the country is tired of the violence that has plagued the country since the American invasion of 2003. There is little appetite for fighting currently. The PMFs and various domestic and international politicians vying for power know this. Power wrangling is currently being done through backroom deals, political coalitions, and economic investments not through guns.
Ultimately whether you believe it is safe to travel to is a decision you will have to make. I believe it is or I would not have gone. It is another reason I recommend going with a guide though as their local knowledge minimizes (though doesn’t eliminate) the chances of being caught up in a flashpoint.
Further Information
Check back soon for a detailed write-up on Iraq's more recent history and the challenges it faces going forward!
Very surprised that the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala is the largest pilgrimage site in the world. I would have guessed Mecca. Would love to visit Iraq someday. Thanks for the great article.