In December of 2023, I was lucky enough to visit Iraq for technically the third time. It was a great experience so I have chronicled where I went and the experiences that I had there.
Before I get started on my trip, I figured I would answer some burning questions that I know people have. Hopefully, this will help ease your mind a bit when it comes to traveling throughout this fascinating country.
Is it safe to travel in Iraq?
Yes, Iraq is a safe country to travel to. I backpacked there for nearly three weeks as a solo woman and have very, very few issues. I found the men and women to be very welcoming and there was always someone to help you in case you had issues.
One thing that strangely made me feel really safe was how the dads are really involved with their kids. You frequently see men walking alone with their young daughters, holding their hands, carrying them. It seems like their daughters are their lucky little princesses! Seeing men take care of their kids and their wives with such tenderness made me feel very comfortable walking around.
What should women wear in Iraq?
Unlike other countries in the region, women are free to wear whatever they want in Iraq. For the most part, I was able to wear the same clothes that I would wear in the US or Europe while traveling there. Most days, I wore a pair of loose pants and a T-shirt. It was actually kind of chilly while I was there so I also wore a light sweatshirt for most of the time I was there.
What is the best way to travel around Iraq?
I did a mixture of shared taxis, rental car, and train. I took the train from Baghdad to Bursa and then took shared taxis all the way up to Erbil from there. The only exception was the journey from Basra to Nasiriyah as we wanted to stop at the marshes in Chibiyish so having a private driver take us the whole trip was the easiest.
When I was in Erbil, I rented a car for three days and drove it to Akre – Ahmadi – Mosul – Mar Mattai. I would highly recommend NOT driving in Mosul as Iraqi drivers are slightly terrifying. In Kurdistan, people actually follow the speed limits and don’t drive quite as insanely
I would say that shared taxis are the best way to get around if you are traveling alone. They seem to be far more plentiful than buses and they tend to leave pretty quickly (especially compared to West African standards!).
Is it easy to travel in Iraq?
As long as you are an experienced traveler, Iraq is surprisingly easy to travel solo through. If this is something you are considering, make sure to join the Iraqi Travelers Cafe Facebook group. This group provides an incredible amount of info and is probably the best resource that you’ll ever find about traveling solo through the country.
Explore Iraq from Bottom to Top
Below is a breakdown of how I organized my trip. Keep in mind that if you want to visit both Federal Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan you must get the visa on arrival in Baghdad or Basra. The Kurdish visa doesn’t give you access to Federal Iraq which means that you won’t be able to visit Mosul, Samarra, or Baghdad.
Arriving in Baghdad
Our flight arrived at 12 p.m. and despite being behind a very large group of African women who were waiting for their visas, we were able to get our visa on arrival ($80), SIM card ($12 for 10GB), and a taxi to the Baghdad Railway Station ($30) within two hours.
The drive to the airport takes around 30 minutes and the ride there is actually very pretty with palm trees lining the way. We made it to the train station and were able to easily book train tickets to Basrah for that night. We had a few hours to kill and were desperately in need of exchanging money so we walked over to the area surrounding the Baghdad Mall to try and get some dinars.
Taking the Train to Basrah
We made it back to the station to catch our train. Before boarding, all passengers had to line our bags up for a bomb dog to sniff. We all passed inspection and were allowed to board. Our berth had just two beds in it and was relatively comfortable but very outdated and dirty. However, the worst part of the trip was the incessant smell of cigarette smoke. It felt like everyone on the train was smoking at the same time.
The train left on time at 7 p.m. for the nine-hour journey to Basra. The train ride itself was definitely not particularly pleasant. To start, everything was horrifically dirty. I am not a germophobe by any means and I was really disgusted. The guy I was traveling with woke up frequently to complain about the conditions of the train, giving us both a pretty sleepless night.
Tips on Exchanging Money: before arriving in Iraq, I read online that the exchange rate from dollars to dinars was anywhere between 1,300 and 1,600 dinars to the dollar. We first went to an official exchange place near the mall where I exchanged $100 for 130,000. I knew this was a terrible rate but wanted to make absolutely sure that I had money for the train, dinner, etc. However, before catching the train, we went to the area where the buses and shared taxis left from. There we found people exchanging money based on the black market rate of 1,600. I exchanged another $100 while there since I wasn’t sure how easy it would find that rate again.
Basra
We arrived in Basra at 4 a.m. and waited on some outdoor benches at the train station for the sun to rise. Although it was a bit chilly, it was much, much better than spending any more time on the smoke-filled train. Our hotel luckily let us check in early and I was able to take a much-needed and desired shower before climbing into bed for a nap.
Dusty and polluted, the city of Basra isn’t much to write home about. There aren’t really very many sites to see besides the lovely corniche and a few of Saddam Hussein’s old yachts (one of which is sunk in the river while the other had been converted into a sort of pop-up hotel for sailors.) We spent a lot of time wandering through the markets (where I managed to get a cheap abbaya and a much-needed power adapter) as well as the corniche.
We also went to see Basra’s history museum which is housed in one of Saddam’s former palaces. The palace is beautiful as you would probably imagine and the collection was interesting. However, it comes with the same $20 ticket price as all of the museums and monuments in Iraq which makes it very pricey for what it is. In retrospect, I would have skipped the museum and used that money to do something a little more interesting.
Nasiriyah & Ur
From Basra, we got a taxi up to Nasiriyah via Chibayish which serves as the jumping-off point for tours of Iraq’s marshes. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was pouring with rain. We decided to skip the marshes and just grabbed a quick lunch in town before continuing on our way.
We made it to the archaeological site of Ur right before sunset. Here, you’ll find an enormous mud-brick ziggurat. This is one of the few remains of the Neo-Sumerian civilization. It was built in the Early Bronze Age around 2,500 BC as a place of worship for the moon god Nanna. There are a handful of ruins near the ziggurat which are also interesting to check out and give you a very small taste of how large the settlement was.
Najaf
From Nasiriyah, we got a minivan to the holy town of Najaf. We made the mistake of visiting on an important holy day (I have no idea which one) so every hotel was full. I walked the long walk to the shrines with my heavy backpacks. Since I had made it all the way there, I decided to take a peek inside. The shrine is gorgeous but way too crowded for my tastes so I ducked out of there again pretty quickly. I had a work call that afternoon so I ended up just walking back to the hotel and working all evening.
The next morning, I met up with my travel companions to go to the Najaf cemetery, reported to be one of the biggest cemeteries in the world. It was so big that it felt like we were walking along city streets, rather than gravestones. The number of graves was a bit overwhelming, particularly in one section that seemed to be mostly young men who had died during the recent wars. While walking through the cemetery, a busload of women called me over and gave me two bags of cookies. This felt like such an enormous contrast to what was lying all around us. The total experience was once again a reminder of all the pain and loss that Iraq has gone through as well as the resilience and warmth that people show.
Babylon
From Najaf, I decided to travel on my own and hired a taxi to take me directly to the historic site of Babylon. This ancient Akkadian-speaking state emerged around 1890 BC and was home to the Tower of Fable, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the famous King Hammurabi who gave us the law code that served as a basis for many other judicial systems.
The site was largely rebuilt by Saddam Hussein and what you see today feels an awful lot like the Disney version of this fabled place. It is still really interesting to walk around though and I had a great time interacting with the families that all wanted to come up and say hello.
The gardens surrounding Saddam’s Palace were full of people having picnics, playing games, and having fun. I even saw women in abbayas playing volleyball. It was a far cry from what this area was like in 2003 when the US invasion began. The palace itself was strictly off-limits to members of the public during Saddam’s time and in the period that followed. Seeing it so full of life seems like the perfect way to show how much the country has moved forward since that era.
Karbala
From Babylon, I took a taxi back to Hillah and then a shared van to Karbala. When I arrived in Karbala, the minivan dropped me off at the entrance of the bazaar. I had to wear an abbaya to enter the bazaar and have my bags thoroughly searched. From there, I walked the 25 minutes or so to my hotel. I had found the King Hotel on Booking.com but the price was a little out of my budget. Knowing that I would likely get a cheaper rate by going direct, I walked to the property and was given a very nice room for $32 (50k). This was much cheaper than the $45 price online.
Karbala reminds me a lot of a Muslim Las Vegas. Everything is brightly lit, the shrines are gaudy as well, and there are neon lights everywhere. There are also tons of people. I visited the shrines in the evening and was slightly traumatized by the women’s section. Women were pushing and shoving one another and stepping on my abbaya which made me feel like I was being strangled. It was beyond stressful and rather than feeling any type of spiritual connection to the place, I just wanted to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.
After having falafel (basically my main food when I was in Iraq), I headed to bed so that I would be energetic for the next day.
The next morning, I went back to the shrines in the hopes that it would be less crowded. Instead, it was just as hellish as the day before so I decided to go to the Al-Ukhaidir Fort to escape the crowds for a while. Located about an hour outside of Karbala, the fort is absolutely enormous and looks like it hasn’t changed a bit since it was constructed in 775 AD. I had read online that you could wander around freely there so I figured it would be a good way to spend the afternoon.
It came as quite a surprise when we were stopped at a military checkpoint about 45 minutes into the drive. It was only then that I realized that I had forgotten to get my passport back when I checked into the hotel the night before. Luckily, another car of tourists showed up and I think their guide pulled a few strings to help get me through the checkpoint and we were soon on our way again.
I spent one last night enjoying the oh-so-comfortable hotel room in Karbala and gorging on falafel. I may have been in one of the holiest cities in the Islamic world but I couldn’t think of a better way to enjoy my time there than by spending it far away from all the religious crazies.
Baghdad
From Karbala, I took a shared taxi to Baghdad. Despite Google Maps saying that the trip should take around 2 hours, it took us just over one hour and ten minutes to complete the journey. Needless to say, our driver was batshit crazy and that experience was probably one of the scariest moments in my entire time in Iraq.
I arrived in Baghdad on a Sunday afternoon and spent the next few days wandering around the city. I visited the Iraq Museum which was at the top of my must-see list as well as the Abassid Palace which dates all the way back to the 12th century (right before the Abassids were defeated by the Mongols). Beyond that, I just walked and walked, and walked. While it probably doesn’t sound super exciting, it was the one thing that I really wanted to do after being shepherded around town as part of a guided tour the first time I was there.
Overall, it was a very lovely experience to simply be able to walk around such a fabled city. I felt very safe when I was there thanks to the heavy police presence and the overall friendliness of Iraqi people.
Erbil
From Baghdad, I took a 4.5-hour shared taxi up to Erbil, the main city of Iraqi Kurdistan. This was my 3rd trip to Erbil so rather than having a long list of sites I wanted to see, my main goal was to drink beer at the German beer garden there and stroll around the main square. And that’s exactly what I did! Spending time in Erbil is always a nice experience. The people are friendly, the city feels super safe, and it’s one of those places where you can chill out for a while if you need a break from being on the road all the time you can hang out there for a few days, eating good food and drinking good coffee. I walked around a lot in both the old city and the new part of town simply enjoying being back in such a lovely city.
An Iraqi Road Trip
From Erbil, I rented a car to do my own little Kurdish road trip. Although there was a long list of places that I wanted to visit, I had to whittle this down quite a bit. Since I had already traveled to many of the top tourist destinations on my previous trip there, I decided to focus on the northwestern section of Kurdistan and then work my way down towards Mosul.
Ahmedi
The first stop on my road trip was the hilltop town of Ahmedi. I got a late start because the rental car office wasn’t open when I got there. I had to call someone to come open it and ended up hitting the road 90 minutes later than I expected.
The drive there was pretty but thanks to a horrible traffic jam, I didn’t make it into the town (or I should say the neighboring town) until it was already dark. I found a hotel, dropped off my things, and headed out for a much-needed pizza. There are no hotels in the historic center of Ahmedi (the part that is up on the hill) so I had to get a room in the touristy area down below. As I walked up to town for dinner, I got good views of the city and was very excited to check it out!
As I walked into town, I was surprised to notice how modern everything looked. I expected a medieval town perched on a hill a la Italia but instead, it felt like the suburbs of any Middle Eastern city. I didn’t want to miss the views of the surrounding hills so decided to save the remainder of my walk for the next morning.
I went back the next morning to check out the town and to get a delicious Kurdish breakfast. While exploring, I found a few ancient ruins and popped into their historic mosque. While it was an interesting way to spend an hour and a half, I was still a bit disappointed that Ahmedi wasn’t exactly the charming town that I pictured it to be.
Lalish
After the slight disappointment with Ahmedi, I hopped back into the car to make my way to Lalish. Lalish is the most sacred place for the Yazidis as it is the final resting place of one of the central figures of their religion. I had seen photos of the temple’s unique conical roofs in the past so I jumped at the chance to see them in real life.
I drove up the temple and immediately took my shoes off and left them behind in the car. I also immediately regretted not bringing thicker socks because that ground was very cold!! I wandered through the maze of the temple complex, not really being able to understand what I was seeing. However, it was very interesting to explore and the complex was much bigger than I anticipated.
Alqoosh
From Lalish, I drove onward to Alqoosh. This is one of the few remaining Christian towns in the region and up until recently, it was considered too unsafe for foreigners to visit. As I wandered through the narrow streets and peered into empty houses, I didn’t feel unsafe per se. But it did feel a bit strange being there. I happened to run into a few tourists that I had met earlier in the trip so I hung around with them for a bit as their tour guide showed them around.
Besides the historic town of Alqoosh, you can also visit two ancient monasteries that are located nearby. Both are located up in the hills behind the town and give sweeping views of the Kurdish landscape.
Mosul
After exploring the monasteries and narrow streets of Alqoosh, I drove to Mosul. This centuries-old city has a population of 3.7 million people and is known for being Iraq’s second-biggest city. Sadly, it is also infamous for being the city that was occupied by ISIS from 2014 to 2017. Most of the city has regained its previous charm except for the old historic center which still mostly lies in ruins. Walking through this area was a very sad reminder of what the city has gone through.
However, Mosul is so much more than its recent history. It only takes a short walk away from the destroyed section of the city to find a thriving downtown area full of people of all ages shopping, eating, and hanging out with friends. It’s a lovely city to wander around in and you can’t help but feel a sense of optimism about the future when you see how quickly the city has recovered from such a painful period of history.
Hatra
Although I had already traveled through Iraq before and kind of knew what to expect, the one wild card on the trip was whether or not I would make it to Hatra. This was the site of an ancient Parthian city. All that remains of this once proud city are remnants of a handful of temples. While this doesn’t sound like much, it is actually a very impressive archaeological site.
However, like many places in Iraq, you don’t have to look far to find the vestiges of its traumatic past. ISIS used these ancient ruins when they were camped out there and the bullet holes that they left behind are easily visible as you wander around the complex.
Getting to Hatra was a little bit tricky. First, I had to buy the tickets in Mosul as there is no place to purchase them at the site itself. You then need an Iraqi to go with you to help get you through the numerous checkpoints along the way. Luckily, a friend of mine had sent me the name of a guy she had connected with when she was in Mosul who offered to go with me. We took my rental car there and back and had a great time exploring the ruins.
Sulymaniyah
Although I had a wonderful time in Mosul, I eventually had to pull myself away and head back to Erbil to drop off the car at the car rental place. I happily dropped it off and went straight to the bus station to get a shared taxi to Sulymaniyah, Iraq Kurdistan’s second-largest city. The drive from Erbil to Sulymaniyah is beautiful. Try to sit on the left-hand side of the car for the ride to Sulymaniyah and on the right-hand side coming back to Erbil. This gives you the best views of the mountains.
Sulymaniyah is known for being Iraqi Kurdistan’s most liberal city (and when you consider that Iraqi Kurdistan is quite liberal compared to Iraq and that Iraq is very liberal compared to other parts of the Middle East, this says a lot!). It is a lovely city with a bustling market, adorable little coffee shops, and nice parks to meander through. It is the favorite city of many travelers and expats and it certainly isn’t hard to see why!
Halabja
Although I liked Sulymanihyah the first time I visited Iraqi Kurdistan back in 2017, my main reason for wanting to go back there was to travel further onwards to the town of Halabja. Once home to around 30,000 people, Halabjah was one of the many Kurdish towns that was gassed by Saddam Hussein. The incident has become known as the Massacre of Halabja due to the senseless deaths of over 5,000 people (mostly women and children) there.
The main thing to see there is the Halabja Memorial which serves as a museum chronicling Hussein’s cruelty towards the Kurds. The museum was extremely vivid with its displays and it was easy to imagine the shock, pain, and horror of that day back in March 1988. After visiting the memorial, I walked into town, half-expecting to see a city that still bore the scars of this attack. Instead, I found a vibrant city center full of old men, women, and an endless stream of kids.
Although I had a relatively clear image in my mind about what had happened there, it suddenly became really hard to imagine it. As with so many places in Iraq, Halabja had risen from the ashes and created a whole new version of itself. It was certainly awe-inspiring and made me love the country even more.
The End of a Great Trip
After visiting Halabja, I made my way back to Erbil and met up with some old friends that I had met on a bus between Erbil and Turkey a few years before. They treated me like I was family, taking me all around Erbil and giving me a place to rest for the night before heading to the airport in the middle of the night. It was the perfect way to end a great trip and I can’t wait to get back to this amazing country!
