Hotels
Staying in Istanbul
Istanbul is the default first trip abroad for Iranians: Turkey admits ordinary Iranian passports visa-free for up to 90 days, and two of Alibaba's three most-searched foreign hotels in 1404 were in Istanbul. Short city breaks and shopping trips dominate, and Iranian sellers let you pay for the hotel in rial.
Checked 3 November 2026Partly official
What we could not confirm
- The 1405 exit-tax figures come from the budget bill; the enacted law text was not checked.
- Whether the Tehran–Van train is running in Aban 1405 is unconfirmed.
- No Istanbul neighbourhood guidance or nightly hotel rates were in the notes.
Booking sites
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Kinds of stay
Hotel
Dora Istanbul (996,631 searches) and Konak Taksim Istanbul (569,576) were Alibaba's second and third most-searched foreign hotels in 1404. Eghamat24, Alibaba, Snapptrip and Flytoday sell Istanbul hotels in toman.
No Istanbul-specific hotel rate was found. For scale, Alibaba's 1404 report put its average foreign-hotel booking at 37,124,004 toman (all destinations, up from 25,171,567 in 1403) and its average tour at 46,685,992 toman.
Tips
- Visa-free for up to 90 days on an ordinary passport (Turkish MFA); carry a passport valid at least 6 months from arrival.
- Budget the 1405 exit tax: 900,000 toman for the first trip of the Iranian year, 1,500,000 for the second and 2,200,000 for the third and later (budget bill figures that Flytoday applies as current rates).
- Eghamat24's FAQ says foreign hotels can be paid in rial with an Iranian Shetab card, which matters if you have no foreign card.
- Flytoday's blog has an Istanbul travel-cost guide dated 1405/05/30 and overland-to-Turkey guide dated 1405/06/30; Alibaba's app includes a free Istanbul guidebook.
- Overland options exist: Safar724 sells Tehran–Istanbul bus tickets, and the Tehran–Van train plus Turkish trains takes about 70–75 hours in total, but the Van train's autumn 2026 status is unconfirmed.