Tehran

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

Tehran is a city of nearly 10 million people strung along the foot of the Alborz mountains, and it runs uphill. The streets climb from about 1,040 meters in the poorer south to 2,040 meters in the north, and the money climbs with them. The south has the Grand Bazaar, the Qajar palaces and the old government quarter. The north has Tajrish, Darband and the cafés on upper Valiasr Street, with Tochal's ski slopes directly above.

Start with the hard part, because in 2026 it decides everything. Since February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel have been at war with Iran. The first night of strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and his son Mojtaba was named to replace him on March 8. A ceasefire in April and a memorandum signed in June both broke down, the second on July 8, and the two sides resumed trading attacks in early September. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Iran, and Canada tells its citizens already there to leave if they can do so safely.

So this guide is mostly for later. Read it for the trip you might take after a real peace, or to understand what happened to the city. The people who loved Tehran before were the ones who came for Iranians themselves and the way they treat a stranger. The people who hated it found an ugly, traffic-choked capital with few old buildings, and they went straight to Isfahan. Both camps had a point.

One opinion, for when you can go. Most itineraries treat Tehran as an arrival day and a museum morning before the real trip starts in Kashan or Isfahan. That's a mistake for anyone curious about modern Iran. The bazaar where the 2025 protests began, the hill neighborhoods where Tehranis go to breathe, and the city's own scars from 2025 and 2026 tell you more about the country than another tiled mosque.

How Tehran Got Here

Tehran is young for an Iranian capital. Agha Mohammad Khan, founder of the Qajar dynasty, chose it in 1786, partly because it sat close to the contested Caucasus and away from the factions of older capitals. The walled citadel he took over had Safavid roots, and his successors filled it with the palaces that became the Golestan complex. Naser al-Din Shah, who ruled from 1848 to 1896, gave the city Iran's first bank, railway line, museum and institute of higher learning. Most of what a visitor calls old Tehran dates from his reign.

The 20th century knocked much of that down. Reza Shah, who took power in 1925, had a large part of the Golestan complex torn down, believing Qajar palaces should not stand in the way of a modern city, and commercial blocks of the 1950s and 1960s went up in their place. Tehran was the center of the 1979 revolution and was bombed in the Iran-Iraq War. Today the war-damage list runs through 2025 and 2026 too, which is why the Golestan Palace you visit after this year will be a partly restored one.

Getting There and Around

Imam Khomeini International (IKA) is the international airport, about 35 kilometers southwest of the city. It opened in 2005 and added a second terminal, Salaam, in 2019. Its Wikipedia entry says that as of March 2026 all flights were suspended because of the war, and Wikipedia's Iran Air page says the national carrier was flying international routes again by May 2026. What's actually flying changes week to week. The UK warns that Iranian airspace may close at short notice and that land borders may close too. Mehrabad (THR), inside the city, handles domestic flights only, and it was hit by an Israeli strike on March 3, 2026.

Entry depends on your passport. US, UK and Canadian citizens need a visa arranged through a licensed Iranian agency, with a day-by-day itinerary approved by the Foreign Ministry and an approved guide for the whole trip. Wikipedia puts the process at about eight weeks, and these three nationalities, unlike others, still get a visa sticker and entry stamps in their passports. They also can't use the e-visa. Most EU and Australian passport holders can apply for an e-visa and collect a 30-day visa on arrival. Every passport needs six months of validity on arrival, and Israeli stamps can get you refused. Women's visa photos must show a headscarf.

In the city, the metro is the way to move. It runs about 310 kilometers, is the largest system in the Middle East and operates 05:30 to 22:00. Line 1 (red) runs north to south from Tajrish through downtown and on to the airport, and the first and half of the second carriages at each end of every train are reserved for women, who can still ride anywhere. A single ride costs a few US cents at 2026 exchange rates. The prepaid card also works on some buses and the BRT, which runs in its own lanes from Azadi Square east and from the railway station north to Tajrish.

Above ground, Snapp and Tap30 are the local ride-hailing apps. They need a local SIM, and without an Iranian bank card you pay the driver in cash. Shared taxis run fixed routes from square to square, which works once you know the squares. Wikivoyage put the fixed airport taxi at about US$19 in November 2025. The UK says pre-booked taxis are safer than hailing one on the street, and that motorcycle taxis have taken tourists to isolated places to rob them. Wikivoyage ranks Tehran's traffic among the worst in the world, so cross the road when the locals do.

What's Changed Since 2016

Getting in from the airport got easier first. Line 1 of the metro reached IKA in August 2017, and a third phase completed in 2023 pushed the line out to the satellite city of Parand, bringing it to about 50 kilometers. In February 2024 Iran waived visas for 15-day stays for citizens of more than two dozen countries, among them Japan, Brazil, Mexico and the Gulf states except Oman, though it cancelled India's exemption on November 22, 2025. Passenger trains from Van in eastern Turkey resumed in March 2025.

June 2025 was the first war. In the Twelve-Day War, from June 13 to June 24, Israeli strikes hit Evin prison, a live studio of the state broadcaster IRIB and apartment towers in Tehran, and tens of thousands of Iranians were displaced. Mehrabad closed after explosions on June 14. That summer brought a separate crisis, with heat above 104°F (40°C), a fifth straight year of low rain and reservoirs so depleted that the government closed offices and banks to save water and power.

Then the money went. The UN reimposed sanctions through the snapback mechanism in September 2025. The rial, which traded at about 430,000 to the dollar in December 2022, passed 2 million on the open market on August 23, 2026 and reached 2.5 million on September 29, 2026, with inflation at 87.9% in July. Expect any printed price in rials, including the ones in older guidebooks, to be wrong.

On December 28, 2025, shopkeepers in the Grand Bazaar walked out over prices, and the protest spread to more than 200 cities. Wikipedia reports 1.5 million people on Tehran's streets on January 8, 2026, the day the government cut the internet nationwide. The crackdown killed thousands of protesters. The blackout lasted until January 28, returned with the war on February 28, and only eased on May 26, 2026, with access still slow and restricted after that.

The 2026 war has reached the sights. On March 2, 2026, shockwaves and debris from a strike on nearby Arg Square damaged windows, doors and mirrors at the Golestan Palace, and UNESCO raised concerns about heritage sites. Blast waves damaged several palaces at Sa'dabad on March 17. The Rafi'-Nia synagogue in central Tehran was destroyed on April 7. On March 8, strikes on fuel depots near the city covered Tehran in black smoke and acidic rain.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Iran is one of the safest countries in the region, and the scary headlines don't apply to tourists." Street crime in Tehran was low before the war and still isn't the main risk. The risks now are air strikes, which have hit the city repeatedly since February 28, 2026, and arrest. The UK says holding a British passport or having UK connections can be reason enough for detention, sometimes for months or years, and Canada says the same of Canadian passports.

"Americans can't go to Iran." They can, and so can British and Canadian citizens, but only on a visa arranged through a licensed agency with a Foreign Ministry-approved, day-by-day itinerary and a guide for the whole trip. It takes about eight weeks. Canada has no embassy in Iran and the UK says no face-to-face consular help is possible, so if something goes wrong, nobody from home can come.

"Bring a card and a backup card, like anywhere else." Foreign debit and credit cards don't work in Iran because of sanctions, and Wikivoyage warns that trying them or logging into your bank can get the account blocked. Bring all the money you'll need in clean, crisp US dollars or euros, as Canada advises. Changing money on the street is illegal, so use licensed exchange offices.

"The price on the menu is in rials." Usually it's in toman, the spoken unit worth 10 rials, and in 2026 the gap is easy to get badly wrong. Wikivoyage's own airport taxi entry lists 800,000 rials next to US$19, two figures that can't both be right at any 2025 rate. Ask whether a price is toman or rial every time.

"Golestan Palace is the one sight you can't miss, with the Qajar mirror halls exactly as they were." The palace took major damage on March 2, 2026, when shockwaves and debris from a strike on nearby Arg Square broke windows, doors and mirrors. Expect some halls to be closed for repairs, and confirm what's open before building a day around it.

"Fly into Tehran on any Gulf carrier and pick up your visa on arrival." Flights to IKA were suspended in March 2026 and Gulf airports themselves were shut and hit during the war. US, UK and Canadian citizens can't use visa on arrival at all. Anyone else should check flights and borders the week of travel, since the UK says both can close without warning.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about spending a whole morning in the Grand Bazaar rather than an hour? Its covered corridors run more than 10 kilometers, each lane given over to one trade, with mosques, guest houses and banks tucked inside. Enter at Sabzeh Meydan, near the Khayam and 15 Khordad metro stations, and eat lunch at Moslem on the northwest corner of the square, a canteen where the queue is long and the portions are so big that regulars take half home. The bazaar closes Fridays and often Thursday afternoons. This is also where the 2025 protests started, which makes it a different place to walk through now.

Go north at dusk to the Tabiat Bridge, Leila Araghian's 270-meter footbridge over the Modarres Expressway between Taleghani Park and Ab-o-Atash Park. It won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2016, and its designer wanted a place where people would stay and ponder rather than pass through. Take Line 1 to Shahid Haghani and walk.

If food matters to you, eat dizi, also called abgusht, a meat stew far heavier than its soupy look suggests. Dizi Sara on Jordan Boulevard has served it to Tehran's rich and famous, and a dizi house near Karim Khan Zand Street, its walls covered in miniature paintings, opens for lunch only. Iranian Traditional Restaurant on Keshavarz Boulevard is where young Tehranis go for dizi and a water pipe. For chelo kabab, the plain rice-and-kebab plate Tehranis eat everywhere, look for a busy chelo kababi. Then visit Bahar, the confectionery at Sarcheshmeh crossroads founded in 1938 and known for its paderazi and shekari cookies.

The Treasury of National Jewels sits beside the Central Bank on Ferdowsi Street, behind a heavy iron gate and armed guards. It holds the Darya-ye Noor, or Sea of Light diamond, and what Wikivoyage calls the world's largest uncut ruby. Wikivoyage lists hours of only 14:00 to 16:30, Saturday to Tuesday, so plan the day around it. Nearby, the Ebrat Museum is a Shah-era prison that the Islamic Republic kept using against its opponents until it closed in 2000, shown on guided tours at 10:00 and 14:00.

For a day trip, Kashan is the classic, a stop on the main line south to Isfahan with up to 10 trains a day each way. Its 19th-century merchant houses and the Fin Garden, a royal Persian garden, make it a full day. Qazvin is just under 2.5 hours west by train, or about two hours by bus from the terminal at Azadi Square, and it's the jumping-off point for the Alamut valley and its castle ruins.

The Part Most Guides Miss

The mountains are the best thing about Tehran, and most guides treat them as a footnote. Take Line 1 to Tajrish, then a taxi to Darband, and you're on the trail that climbs a canyon toward Tochal. Or ride the telecabin from Velenjak to its seventh and top station, above 3,730 meters, where you'll want a jacket even in summer. The Darband chairlift runs only on Thursdays and Fridays, the Iranian weekend, which tells you when Tehranis come up here, away from the traffic, the guards and the news.

Where to Base Yourself

Downtown (Ferdowsi, Baharestan, Amir Kabir). Most budget beds are here, among them Tehran Heritage Hostel, in a 100-year-old building near Baharestan Square, and Hostelworld lists dorms in Tehran from about US$6 to $11. You can walk to the bazaar, the Jewels treasury and the Golestan Palace, and the metro is close. The catch in 2026 is that this is also the government district, and strikes have hit the Arg Square area and Enghelab Square. The streets south of the bazaar are the poorest and the least pleasant after dark.

North Tehran (Tajrish, upper Valiasr). Cooler in summer, closer to Darband and Tochal, with the parks, cafés and restaurants of the city's richest neighborhoods. Wikivoyage calls the north more modern and cosmopolitan, and more expensive, and hotels here run well above downtown prices. The catch is distance, since the bazaar and the museums are at the far end of Line 1, and Sa'dabad, at the top of Valiasr, was itself damaged by blast waves in March 2026.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Money first. Iran is cash only for foreigners. You arrive with dollars or euros, change them at a licensed exchange office, and carry thick bundles of notes, since the 100,000-rial note was worth well under ten US cents in 2026. With dorms at US$6 to $11 and boutique private rooms around $57 on Hostelworld, a budget traveler could get by on very little before the war. Today the budget is driven by things you can't haggle: the mandatory guide for US, UK and Canadian passports, flights rerouted around closed airspace, and a currency that lost a fifth of its value in about five weeks of August and September 2026.

Safety is the whole question. Beyond the strikes, the UK says British and British-Iranian dual nationals face a very high risk of arrest and detention, and that anyone held near protests may be suspected of espionage. Photographing military or government buildings is banned, and foreigners have been detained for carrying camera gear near sensitive sites. Fake police, sometimes in plain clothes, ask tourists for passports or cash. Go to a police station, a kalantari, rather than hand anything over in the street. Terrorist attacks have killed civilians too, including the January 2024 Kerman bombings, which killed at least 84 people.

The rules are strict and enforced. Women must cover their hair and wear long sleeves in public, and the UK reports arrests and violence against women over dress codes. Importing, selling or drinking alcohol is illegal, and bootleg drinks laced with methanol have killed people. Same-sex relationships are illegal and can carry the death penalty, which makes Tehran a no for LGBTQ+ travelers. Facebook and YouTube are blocked, and VPNs, which Iranians use widely, are banned.

Under all of that, people still show up for strangers. Wikivoyage notes that on crowded BRT buses, riders give up their seats to visitors, and that if you look lost at a bus stop, someone will stop to help. That kind of hospitality doesn't depend on the government. That's the reason to come back later, not a reason to come now.

If Tehran Is Part of a Longer Trip

Overland, Tehran sits on the old route between Istanbul and Central Asia. The train from Van in eastern Turkey resumed in March 2025. Wikivoyage lists departures from Van on Mondays and Thursdays at 20:00, reaching Tabriz around 06:15 and Tehran about 12 hours after that, with the return leaving Tehran around 12:30 on Wednesdays and Sundays. From Istanbul or Ankara, buses run to Van, or you can take the train to Tatvan and cross Lake Van. A daily bus to Yerevan in Armenia leaves Tehran's West Terminal at 13:00.

If you hold a US, UK or Canadian passport, overland entry is rarely practical, because your guide has to meet you at the border. Fly in instead, and be ready for the UK's warning that Iran's land borders can restrict foreign travelers or close at short notice. A Caucasus loop through Tbilisi, Yerevan and Baku is the safer substitute for now, and Dubai remains the region's main air hub, though its airport was hit by Iranian strikes in 2026.

When Iran does reopen, the usual sequence runs from Tehran south by train through Kashan to Isfahan, then on to Yazd and Shiraz, flying out of the south rather than doubling back. On a multi-stop or round-the-world ticket, Iran is usually a side trip on a separate ticket, since EU sanctions ended Iran Air's European flights in 2024 and the 2026 war emptied Iran's airspace of foreign airlines. AirTreks can route the rest of a long trip around a gap like that and change it if the airspace closes again.

Yearly Things to Consider

Tehran's weather is easy to read. Spring and fall are the good seasons, with April highs of 72°F (22°C) and October highs of 76°F (25°C), while July reaches 98°F (37°C) and January sits at 47°F (9°C). The north end of the city runs cooler. The Tehran Geophysic station, at 1,418 meters, averages 96°F (35°C) highs in July against 98°F (37°C) at Mehrabad, 227 meters lower, so sleeping uphill helps in summer.

The calendar matters more than the weather. Nowruz, the Persian new year on March 20 or 21, is the biggest holiday of the year, preceded by Chaharshanbe Suri, the fire-jumping night on the last Wednesday before it. Shab-e Yalda, the longest night of the year, is celebrated in late December. During Ramadan, restaurants close all day and open at sundown, so a Ramadan trip means eating late or eating in.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Tehran

For a trip after the advisories lift. Day one is downtown, with the Golestan Palace in the morning, checking which halls have reopened, then the Grand Bazaar and lunch at Moslem on Sabzeh Meydan. Day two is the Treasury of National Jewels, with its afternoon-only hours, and the National Museum of Iran before it, then dusk on the Tabiat Bridge. Day three goes north on Line 1 to Tajrish for the market, a morning on the Darband trail, and dizi for lunch on the way back.

5 Days in Tehran

Do the three-day plan, then add a day trip to Kashan by train for the merchant houses and the Fin Garden, and a slower day in the city. Spend it at the Ebrat Museum's guided prison tour, the Carpet Museum, and an evening in Ab-o-Atash Park by the bridge. If you're on a guided visa, give your agency this list early, because every stop has to be on the itinerary the ministry approves.

1 Week in Tehran

A week lets Tehran be a base. Add Qazvin by train, just under 2.5 hours, and an overnight into the Alamut valley for the castle ruins, then come back for a Tochal day on the telecabin, which climbs above 3,730 meters. Leave one day unplanned for whatever the people you meet suggest. If you're moving on, take the train south to Kashan and Isfahan instead of returning to Tehran.

2 Weeks or More in Tehran

Two weeks in Tehran alone is more than most visitors want, and right now nobody should plan a long stay. In a calmer year, settle in the north near Tajrish, where summers are cooler and the mountains are a taxi ride away, and use the weekends for Qazvin, Kashan and the ski slopes above the city in winter. Expect cash-only life, restricted internet and no consular help, which rules out remote work for most people.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

• Iran travel advice, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Iran travel advice: Warnings and insurance, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Iran travel advice: Entry requirements, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Iran travel advice: Safety and security, UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Travel advice and advisories for Iran, Government of Canada (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• 2026 Iran war, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
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• Economic impact of the 2026 Iran war, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Tehran, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Golestan Palace, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Golestan Palace, UNESCO World Heritage Centre (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Imam Khomeini International Airport, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Mehrabad International Airport, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
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• Iranian rial, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Tehran Metro, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Grand Bazaar, Tehran, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Tabiat Bridge, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Tehran, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Iran, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Kashan, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Qazvin, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Hostels in Tehran, Hostelworld (accessed Oct 3, 2026)