As I planned for my solo trip to Iran, I made different preparations than for my other travels. Normal planning and preparation consists of reading blog posts, searching for hotels and hostels online and reading a guidebook or two for historical reference and things to do. Before my travel to Iran I didn’t do any of that. Instead, I focused on more practical preparations for travel to Iran as a woman. As I discussed this with a colleague of mine at work, she thought it was hilarious but yes indeed very practical. That’s why I decided to share them with you! After all, who doesn’t like a good laugh and be prepared for travel in Iran?
Read more: Is it safe to travel solo to Iran?
What do women wear in Iran?
Normally, I know exactly how many days I’ll stay in a place and how to travel to another city. In the 2 months between booking my flights and my departure to Iran, I didn’t think at all about my itinerary. Instead, I went shopping. A lot. I searched for some long sleeve shirts that would cover my bum sufficient enough. Because ladies in Iran, have to obey the rules of hijab, the modest dress. Women in Iran, also travellers, can not wear short sleeves. No cleavage, only loose fitting outfits and shirts have to cover your bum. No dresses but long trousers and of course the head scarf. After a few deliveries of my favourite online shopping channel, I settled for a new long vest, a top and some floral leggings to spruce things up a bit.
Read more: A Girl’s Guide to Dressing up for Iran by Travestyle.com
Practice wearing a head scarf
I never wear a head scarf. But I have over a dozen colourful scarfs from many of my travels and I never leave the house without one. I use them as a scarf, a pillow, a blanket or to protect me from the sun. For my travel to Iran, I would use it as my head scarf.
Read more: Best places to see the desert in Iran.
I practiced wearing one during two nights at my house. I wrapped it in a few different ways to see how it would look and wore it around the house, doing housework and walking around. When would it fall off? When does it get caught in between things, all kinds of stuff like that. I figured it might look silly, but first of all: nobody sees me in my home, and second of all, better look silly now than frantically manoeuvre the head scarf around my head while I’m fresh of the plane in Tehran.
Stretch until it hurts
I am not very fit. Overweight too and I have trouble sitting up straight. I also find sitting on the floor a nightmare. I never know where to leave my legs and it starts to hurt after a short time. As I know, Iranian people sit on the floor while eating, I prepared myself for this. Every night, I stretched. I sat on the floor in my bedroom, trying to last a minute longer every day. I tried to find the best position to sit still in and keep this position as long as I could before cramping up.
Read more: How travel to Iran ruined my future travel experiences
Squat exercises until it burns
All the above are not that hilarious. But when I showed my colleague in the office how I practise my squats 3 times a day, she was literally rolling on the floor laughing.
Iran has mainly squat toilets. Although they have western toilets everywhere, I prepared for the worst. I have to go to the toilet an average of 12 times a day when I travel abroad (thank you Crohn’s disease). So I made this a top priority in my practical preparations for travel to Iran. I cannot rely on finding a western toilet every time I have to go, so I did my squat exercises every day. Need help finding toilets? Try sitorsquat.com
Every morning, afternoon and evening, I squatted down, trying to get my feet on the floor as flat as possible. And I tried to maintain that position as long as I could. Until it burns. Hard!
I also checked how to get my jeans down while squatting. This turned out to be difficult (especially with the longer shirt, belt etc.) so I settled on the leggings for my outfit to wear in Iran.
Read more: 14 days Iran travel itinerary
My colleague started hyperventilating from laughing too hard when I told her, I even explored the different wiping methods for squat toilets on the internet. It is a video on how to use Japanese toilets, but I found it very useful. Did you know there is an “elephant” method and “monkey tail” method? Hilarious but very useful during my practical preparations for Iran.
Looking to shop for my leggings? Check sizes and prices here.
Read more: Read my love letter to Shiraz Iran
Learn Farsi before travelling to Iran
Ok, I have to admit, I failed miserably at this point of my practical preparations for travel to Iran. I did manage to learn to recognise the numbers in Farsi. I also managed to remember how to say “hello”, “nice to meet you”, “thank you”, “goodbye” and “where is the toilet” in Farsi. The last one might have come out wrong a couple of times, so I settled on the universal: “toilet?” while making a difficult face.
I think that learning some basic words will help you tremendously when you want to connect to locals on your travels. That is why I advise you to learn Farsi as part of your preparations for travel to Iran. I used the Lonely Planet Farsi phrasebook and took it with me to Iran.
Other preparations for travel to Iran
In this post, I focus on the unusual practical preparations for travel to Iran mainly for women. But there are some other useful things to think off while planning your travel to Iran.
- Get your visa for Iran (either via the embassy, an visa agency or a visa on arrival).
- Bring cash as Iran is disconnected from the Western banking systems and your credit and debit cards are useless in Iran.
Read more: My 2 weeks Iran Travel Budget. - Set up a VPN if you’re not prepared for a digital Facebook detox. More about why you should use a VPN when travelling on Lost with Purpose.
- Pre register with your foreign affair offices to inform them when you’ll be in Iran.
- Check if you need to update your travel vaccines for Iran.
Read more: Iranian Visa on arrival. How does it work?
Thank you for reading. Would you like to get updates about the blog and my travels? Sign-up to my newsletter. Once a month you’ll receive an e-mail with information about Probe around the Globe and what is new on the blog. As a gift, you can download my FREE Iran Photo E-Book with all the best images of my travel to Iran to flip through and use as inspiration.
How do you prepare for your travels? What did you do different when planning your travel to Iran? Please share it in the comment section below, I’d love to read it.
This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to book something via one of my links, I’ll earn a small commission. This is at no extra costs to you.
Haha, this article made me laugh really hard! Squad toilets. Thanks for the reminder ^^
Also, dear naomi, you looked very beautiful in your flower leggins (I’m definitely getting some for myself as well!) and your pretty scarves.
I’m still looking for some light and airy clothing that doesn’t look too bulky and your style is giving me quite some new ideas 🙂
Thanks for the kind comment Sabrina. I hope you’ll have a wonderful time in Iran (and look fabulous too!)
Hi! I read you have Crohn’s disease and was wondering about how you manage to travel long distances. The buses don’t seem to have toilets for example. Please tell me how you do it!
I meant the buses in Iran especially!
Hi Eva. That is a good question. I was very lucky to have little tummy trouble in Iran. I didn’t take that many long bus rides, only 3 to 5 hours max which was ok for me. I did had one bus ride where I had bad tummy pain and I explained the bus helper and he said: whenever you need to go, we’ll stop at the nearest possibility. I once travelled in Mongolia with the worst case of food (and water) poisoning ever and there is only one thing to do: when you gotta go, you have to go (although I wouldn’t recommend that in Iran).
Pingback: TRAVEL TO SHIRAZ: THE CITY OF FLOWER AND MYSTERY - Travel Monkey Blog
a bunch of good information about Iran thanks. We hope to see you again in Iran.
Hi Naomi!
Volgende week vertrek ik ook naar Iran, en ik was nieuwsgierig hoeveel geld je hebt meengenomen?
Ik ga gedurende 2,5 week backpacken, en ik wil zeker niet te weinig meenemen..
Nog complimenten voor de woestijnfoto’s! (Ik snap dat het onder de verkeerde post is excuus haha)
Verder nog een opmerking; ik kon je erg moeilijk terugvinden via Google! Misschien dat je daar iets aan wil doen, je blog is in elk geval wel de moeite waard!
Bedankt voor je berichtje Annelore, ik zal je even een e-mail sturen.
Super, bedankt!
Hi
Great article! almost covered all the tips. but I think there is no need to carry cash since the time Iran Tourist Card banks has emerged. you can mention it in your article.
Thorough list of tips, and I’m glad that you had a sense of humor about everything, too! Your photo in the pink mosque is absolutely stunning. May I ask what deterred you from learning more Farsi for the trip?
I got distracted with all the things to arrange before the trip. Basically it was an excuse as every evening there was something more appealing to do than learn a new language.
You have inspired me to visit Iran. I know though it is scary for me to go their solo but I would still love to do it. Thanks for sharing this. Cheers.
Wow, the time and effort you took in prepping for this Iran trip is admirable!I grew up with public squat toilets (thank god Taiwan has evolved since) and I still can’t get used to them. I didn’t even know about the different wiping methods! Good call on the leggings instead of jeans 😉 And great tip on setting up a VPN!
You really put an effort into this! I am going to look at the toilet methods though. Never heard of it! We have a lot of squat toilets in india and that may help. Great post. So helpful for someone planning on visiting Iran.
That was a good move practicing with the headscarf before leaving. I was in the Sahara desert and needed to dress like an Arab and had no idea how to put my headscarf on, I had to get a local to do it for me. I didn’t know about the visa on arrival option, I’ll check that option out for my nationality.
wow that is a super useful post! i heard iran is such a beautiful country. and its people too! i definitely will save this post for later.
Very informative preparations guide! Hope I’ll apply it if I go to Iran! Thank you for sharing the exercising part as well. I wonder what you did with all those new clothes when you don’t need them anymore?
Love it! I hope to get there one day. This is a great post that will benefit women! Thanks.
Excellent tips about dressing for a conservative culture like Iran’s. Many of these tips will also work if female travelers plan to go to India or other Muslim countries. Regarding squat toilets, practice makes perfect. After living in Japan for a year, I got accustomed but you do have to watch your clothes for spills etc.
Wow, I would never imagine one need to practice with the scarf! 🙂 But you are totally right… better to avoid any unnecessary unpleasant situation… But still, hats off! That´s probably why such countries does not tempt me at all now, although I believe it must have been a unique experience!
I am totally going to look up these different toilet methods. I didn’t even know there were different wiping methods – I could be doing it better! Seriously though, you did great preparation for this trip and I really appreciate you sharing the work that goes into travel pre-departure. It’s also a lot of fun to get excited about a trip by imagining how things will be at your destination.
Great idea to practice with the headscarf, I used one in Morocco and it really helped me to blend in and attract less attention. It was brave of you also to have a stab at learning Farsi, a nice way to show respect for the culture, I would do that too if I went there.
I’ve never had occasion yet to visit Iran and never thought about it as a holiday destination either. It was really interesting reading how well you prepared and the measures you took to feel comfortable there, given their culture and facilities. I would suppose that this would be similar to a few other countries in the region also. A very practically driven approach, especially for us as women.
Well, you made me think! I’m sure the exercising was good anyway and squatting well – I better practice!
Hahaha, well it may be mostly specifically targeted at women, but this post actually is useful for us guys too. We have to sit down at meal time and squat for certain toilet activities after all! Thanks for sharing this informative post in an entertaining way 😉
I lived in Turkey for four years, and even though it’s not Iran, there are plenty of similarities. We only had to wear the scarf inside religious buildings, not all the time. I also learned to wear pants that rolled up easy, no jeans.