Transportation information in Iran: Bus, Train and Boat

Iran is very cheap to travel. On the North you have nice trains, and almost every city has very cheap flight between them. Bus is another option if you want to meet some local people.


By Bus

Iran has these incredible cheap and fast bus connections between cities. People on the buses will be very gentle with you and even if they don’t speak any of your languages they will try their best to make you comfortable and enjoy the ride.

Iran is a very big country so usually bus trips take lots of hours but remember if you want to take the train that usually buses are quicker…

Roads in Iran are quite safe apart from cities chaotic traffic system of course. But the big roads are highway style and its almost non stop.

Water is served in all bus trips. This water comes from ice put in a machine, and 20 in 20 minutes a guy comes with a jar to serve you cold water. In 1st class buses you even have gifts from the bus company.

Bandar Abbas to Shiraz Bus

This bus left from Bandar Abbas 10am and got to Shiraz 11pm so we took 13 hours to make this whole trip. The price was 2800 Rials for almost 500km trip on a kind of old bus, not very old but old enough I say.

Transportation in/out Tehran

Tehran is very easy to travel around. Although this city is huge you can easily get around with its easy to find easy to get taxis and buses. Taxis usually becauset around 2500Rials for a single trip, and public buses becauset around 500Rials up to 1000Rials if you're heading the city outskirts.

Subway is also a very easy to use transportation and can easily and effectively take you from one part of the city to another just paying 1000Rials.

Bus Tehran to Bandar Abbas (Persian Gulf)

This bus ride costs 10000Rials (10 euro) and takes 22 hours. Usually these big trips buses are very good quality ones, the same we have in Europe.

People are just great as they try their best to be nice to you and make you enjoy the trip as it can get a bit tiring for some many hours inside a bus. We had many stops until we actually arrived in Bandar Abbas. I remember my self changing place to stand aside the driver as he invited me to talk to him, no Farsi because I don’t know, no English because he didn’t know, but a bit of Arabic known just a little bit by both.

The bus left 9am from Tehran and got to Bandar Abbas 7am.

Tehran Bus South Terminal

From this terminal in the Southern part of the city you can get buses to all the southern part of the country. Qom 2000Rials, Yazd 5000Rials and Bandar Abbas 10000Rials. You also have buses to the border city with Pakistan Zehadan.

You can get here from the city centre in a taxi motorcycle for 15000Rials up to 20000, for sure tourist price but even tough is at least 20 minutes going on a motorcycle.

Tehran->Istanbul Bus, Iran to Turkey

This is the cheapest way you have to go from Iran to Turkey and its quite simple to pass the border if you choose to go by bus. I took the SimaSadar International Bus Company in Tehran Bus terminal near Azadi Square.

The trip costs 220.000 Rials for students, the normal price is 250.000Rials. Not all companies make you the special student price. 220.000 is about 22 euros for a 2 day trip on 2500km: 48hours!

For more information contact SimaSafar International Transport in West Terminal, Azadi Sq. Theran, Iran. Phone: 4645632, 4648620, 4671770

The right picture above shows the Mount Ararat in Turkey.

Location: 39.70 N, 44.28 E Elevation: 16,940 feet, 5,165 m, Ararat is the largest and highest volcano in Turkey, and can already be seen from Iran.

Taxi boats in the Persian Gulf

This is the main transportation for local people in The Gulf. This is a very fast way of going at least 45 minutes to some Islands existing in the Gulf are both of The Persian Gulf and the Oman Gulf. It doesn’t look safe, and even with the life vest existing in all the boats you will still don’t think the trip is that safe. It isn’t. Some taxis are quite old and you will feel like going inside a sardine can 60km p/hour in the middle of the water full of sharks…

Bandar Abbas to Qeshme Island fast taxi boat

This trip takes about 45 minutes and takes you from the port city of Bandar Abbas to the Island of Qeshme. This whole are is very beautiful and you can see many big ships passing from the Persian Gulf to the Oman Gulf.

On my way back ride my taxi boat just stopped in the middle of the Gulf with engine malfunction. We had to wait for help for at least 20 minutes. We just stopped in the middle of nothing. Interesting felling, I, in this very tiny boat along with 20 people waiting to see what would happen to us…

Bandar Abbas to Qeshme ticket costs 7500Rials

Motorcycle taxis

This transportation in Iran is one of the fastest and fights back the intense car traffic in the cities as you can get to places faster just paying a bit more than the normal taxi. These guys will pass everything speeding so grab on you really tight to the driver.

The normal price for a short trip in the city will cost you from 5000Rials up to 20000 if you make 10km for example. I went from centre Tehran to the bus terminal 10km away and had to pay 20000. For sure Tourist price but 2 euros for this trip was very cheap. It’s also the most amazing transportation adventure you can have while in Iran, please don’t miss it!