Two weeks covers both halves and needs the federal e-visa. Start in Baghdad for the Iraq Museum, then Samarra for the spiral minaret and Babylon at Hillah. South lie Najaf, Karbala, Ur at Nasiriyah, the marshes at Chibayish and Basra. The north is its own trip and its own entry desk: Erbil for the citadel, Sulaymaniyah for the museums, Duhok for the mountains. Go in late March to April or October, and read your government's current advice for every governorate on the route.
Fun fact
The Ahwar marshes covered roughly 15,000 square kilometres before drainage in the 1990s cut them to a tenth of that by 2002, aimed at the people living there as much as the water. Communities broke the dikes in 2003, and within two years water was back to about 37 percent of the 1970 extent.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityForeign ministries rate Iraq governorate by governorate, because the picture differs. The Kurdistan Region and federal Iraq usually carry different ratings, and both moved during the regional escalation of mid-2026. Read the advice for each place on your route, then again before you fly.
The realityIt is a federal region of Iraq with its own parliament, security forces and immigration desk, across four governorates: Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok and Halabja. The distinction is constitutional, not international, and a traveller meets two entry systems inside one border.
The realityThe Iraq Museum has reopened, Babylon was inscribed by UNESCO in 2019, the Erbil Citadel in 2014, and Ur is being restored in locally made brick. The damage is real and so is what survived it, and much of it you can walk on.
The realityThe Zagros in the northeast hold snow into spring and rise above 3,600 metres on the Iranian border, and the southeast is wetland: the Ahwar were inscribed by UNESCO in 2016 as both a natural and a cultural property. The desert is the west, toward the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
The realityKarbala receives one of the largest annual gatherings of people anywhere on earth for Arbaeen. The country is not short of visitors. What it is short of is Western tourists, which is a different sentence and the one people usually mean.
How to get it right
- Dress modestly in both halves of the country, and more so in the shrine cities: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, and a headscarf for women inside a shrine, usually handed to you at the door.
- Say yes to the tea. Refusing outright reads as refusing the person, and a second glass is the normal outcome.
- Ask before photographing people, and never photograph checkpoints, soldiers, government buildings or airports. That rule is enforced.
- Friday and Saturday are the weekend. Offices close, and Friday morning is the quietest half-day of the week.
- Ramadan reshapes the day. Hours shift late, much of federal Iraq closes its restaurants through daylight, and eating, drinking or smoking in the street during fasting hours reads badly.
- Politics and sect are live subjects with real consequences for the person answering. Let your host open the topic, and follow their lead.
- Carry cash and carry your passport with the visa page copied. Both are asked for at the checkpoints between governorates, and there are more of them than a map suggests.
Famous Iraqi faces
Kadim Al Sahir
Nazik Al-Malaika
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
Naseer Shamma
Younis Mahmoud
Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri
Ali al-Wardi
Zaha Hadid
Enheduanna
Jawad Selim
Rifat Chadirji
Dia al-Azzawi
Hayv Kahraman
Munir Bashir
Ahmed Radhi
Must-try Iraqi food
Masgouf
Carp split, rubbed with tamarind and turmeric, and cooked upright around a wood fire.
Tepsi baytinijan
Aubergine, meatballs, tomato and potato layered in a tray and baked. The weeknight dish.
Tikka
Skewered lamb or chicken over charcoal, on flatbread with grilled tomato and raw onion.
Quzi
Slow-cooked lamb over spiced rice with almonds, raisins and fried onion. Wedding food.
Dolma
Vine leaves and vegetables stuffed with rice and meat, stewed in one pot and turned out.
Kubba
Bulgur or rice shells round spiced meat, from Mosul's fried disc to sour kubba hamuth.
Tashreeb
Flatbread torn into lamb or chickpea broth and left to soften. Old field food.
Pacha
Sheep's head, trotters and stomach simmered overnight, eaten early. The divisive one.
Samoon
Boat-shaped stone-oven bread, crisp and hollow enough for a whole sandwich.
Shawarma with amba
Spit-roast meat in samoon with amba, a pickled-mango sauce Iraq makes sharper than most.
Kahi wa geymar
Layered pastry with buffalo-milk clotted cream and date syrup. A heavy breakfast.
Klaicha
The national biscuit, filled with dates or walnut and rose water, baked for Eid.
Chai in an istikan
Strong black tea in a small waisted glass over sugar. A second glass always follows.
Noomi Basra
Dried Basra lime, cracked into stews or steeped as a sharp dark tea. The sour note here.