Last updated: August 2026. Fees, opening hours and access rules below were re-checked against operator listings, Iraqi press and traveller reports in the first week of August 2026, and every site is tagged with the FCDO advisory band it sat in on 22 July 2026. Iraq changes faster than travel guides do — re-check before you book anything.
Most lists of things to do in Iraq are written by people who have not been. You can tell, because they are lists of adjectives: ancient, majestic, breathtaking, unforgettable. What they never tell you is how you get from Baghdad to Babylon, what the man at the ticket window will charge you, whether the site is actually open this month, or that four of the ten places they have just recommended sit inside a province your own government advises you not to enter at all. For where all of this actually happens, see our ranked guide to the best places to visit in Iraq.
The honest answer is that there are more genuinely good things to do in Iraq than in most countries its size — Sumerian ziggurats, Abbasid minarets, one of the world’s great book markets, a wetland civilisation, and mountains that look nothing like the desert everyone pictures — but they are not equally reachable, and roughly a third of the famous ones lie in areas under an “advise against all travel” band that will void your travel insurance. That is the sentence page one leaves out. Everything below is organised around it.
What follows is thirty specific things, grouped by region, with how you actually get there, roughly what it costs, whether it is open as of August 2026, and which FCDO advisory band it sits in. There is also a section on what is over-hyped, because plenty of the standard Iraq bucket list is. If you want the destinations rather than the activities, the companion piece is our guide to the 25 best places to visit in Iraq, which covers the same country from the other direction.
The short answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How many of these thirty can a normal traveller do? | Around twenty. Four sit in “advise against all travel” provinces and a further handful need permissions, a working train, or luck. |
| What is the single best of the Iraq attractions? | Contested, but the Marsh boat trip and a Friday on al-Mutanabbi Street are the two people talk about afterwards. The archaeology is astonishing and mostly unstaffed. |
| Typical site entry fee for a foreigner | 10,000–25,000 IQD (roughly US$8–19). Iraqis usually pay 1,000–3,000 IQD. The two-tier pricing is normal and openly posted. |
| Do I need a guide or tour? | Not legally, but in federal Iraq a driver-guide clears checkpoints faster and unlocks a few sites. Kurdistan is straightforward independently. |
| Federal Iraq or Kurdistan? | Different visas, different feel, different risk bands. The federal e-visa covers both; a Kurdistan-only visa does not cover the south. |
| Best months | October to April. Baghdad and Basra above 45°C from June to September, and the marshes are punishing in summer. |
How to read this list of things to do in Iraq
Three things are attached to every entry, and they matter more than the descriptions. If you have arrived here wondering what to do in Iraq rather than where to go, these are the constraints that will shape the answer.
The advisory band. The FCDO regionalised its Iraq advice, last updated 22 July 2026. It is no longer a blanket warning against the whole country, which is what much of page one still says. Broadly: Baghdad province except Sadr City, Babil, Karbala, Najaf, Dhi Qar, Basra and the whole Kurdistan Region sit at advise against all but essential travel; Ninawa (Mosul, Nineveh, Nimrud, Hatra), Salah al-Din (Samarra), Kirkuk, most of Anbar and most of Diyala sit at advise against all travel, along with Sadr City and 5km strips inside the Iranian, Saudi and Kuwaiti borders. The US State Department is simpler and stricter: Level 4, do not travel, reissued 2 March 2026. Our breakdown of the Iraq travel advisories explains each band.
The consequence is financial rather than legal: travelling against your government’s advice breaks no law but invalidates most standard policies, which is why the travel insurance question for Iraq is worth solving before the flights. Nothing here is a recommendation to ignore your foreign ministry — it is a description of what exists and where.
The money. The official rate has been 1,320 dinars to the US dollar since February 2023 and the street rate trades a little weaker. Cards are close to useless outside Erbil’s malls and international hotels, so bring clean, unmarked dollars. Our Iraq cost breakdown has daily budgets; fees below are per foreign adult, with the age of the source flagged where it is old.
The transport. The roads are the real hazard: Iraq recorded 2,351 road deaths in 2025, with Baghdad accounting for around a fifth of national crashes. Shared taxis and minibuses leave from garages rather than stations, fill up and go, and cost a few dollars between cities. See getting around Iraq, and what happens at Iraqi checkpoints.
What is open, what is restricted
Most guides to things to do in Iraq will happily send you to a site that shut last year. This is the status table we could not find anywhere else on page one, and it is the one to screenshot before you travel.
| Site | Status, August 2026 | FCDO band |
|---|---|---|
| Babylon | Open daily, 25,000 IQD foreigners | All but essential (Babil) |
| Ziggurat of Ur | Open ~09:00–17:00; climbing to the summit stopped in 2024 | All but essential (Dhi Qar) |
| The Iraq Museum, Baghdad | Closed for renovation since mid-2025; “early 2026” reopening announced but not delivered | All but essential (Baghdad) |
| Al-Nuri mosque & al-Hadba minaret, Mosul | Reopened 1 September 2025; 10:00–17:00, 25,000 IQD foreigners | Against all travel (Ninawa) |
| Malwiya minaret, Samarra | Standing and restored; access depends on the security situation that week | Against all travel (Salah al-Din) |
| Hatra | Not reliably open; entry needs permissions that are not routinely granted | Against all travel (Ninawa) |
| Erbil Citadel | Free, partly a live restoration site; Kurdish Textile Museum open | All but essential (whole KRI) |
| Central Marshes (Chibayish) | Boats running; 32–36% of marshland submerged in 2026 | All but essential (Dhi Qar) |
Baghdad and the centre: 1–10
Baghdad is not a walking city and nobody should pretend it is: nine million people, a river through the middle, and traffic that turns four kilometres into forty minutes. You will use Careem, the local ride-hailing app, constantly. It earns several days because the good things are social rather than monumental — markets, cafés, riverfronts. Our Baghdad city guide covers neighbourhoods and logistics.
1. Al-Mutanabbi Street on a Friday morning
The book market on al-Mutanabbi Street is the thing most visitors describe first, and it is not because of the architecture. Booksellers lay stock directly on the paving from around 08:00 on Fridays; by mid-morning the street is a slow crush of students, retired teachers, second-hand Qurans, pirated engineering textbooks and Arabic Dostoevsky. The proverb that Cairo writes, Beirut prints and Baghdad reads is quoted to death, but the street is why it survives.
Getting there: central Baghdad, off al-Rasheed Street near the Tigris; ten to twenty minutes by Careem from Karrada, 5,000–8,000 IQD. Cost: free. Open: yes; the market is a Friday thing, the bookshops trade all week. Band: all but essential.
2. Tea at Shabandar Café
At the far end of the street, Shabandar has served tea since 1917 and is covered floor to ceiling in photographs of old Baghdad. It was destroyed in the March 2007 car bombing of al-Mutanabbi, in which the owner lost sons and grandsons, and reopened anyway. Tea comes very sweet in a small istikan glass. This is the most famous café in the country rather than a discovery, but it earns it.
Getting there: walk from the book market. Cost: tea 500–1,000 IQD; nargileh a few thousand. Open: yes, daily. Band: all but essential.
3. Masgouf on Abu Nuwas Street
Masgouf is carp, split flat, propped on stakes around an open wood fire and cooked upright before finishing on the coals. It takes forty minutes to an hour, which is the point: you sit by the Tigris and wait. The restaurants along Abu Nuwas Street do this in the open air; you pick your fish from a tank and pay by weight. Expect 30,000–60,000 IQD for a fish that feeds two or three, plus the salads, pickles, amba and bread that arrive whether you ask or not.
Be honest about the fish: it is river carp, it tastes muddy to some palates, and plenty of visitors decide once is enough. The evening — grilling smoke, families, the river going dark — is the actual attraction. More on what to order in our guide to Iraqi food.
Getting there: Abu Nuwas Street, east bank, Careem from anywhere central. Cost: 30,000–60,000 IQD per fish. Open: yes, evenings. Band: all but essential.
4. The Iraq Museum — with a large caveat
The museum holds the Warka Mask, the Warka Vase, the Nimrud ivories and the reliefs that everyone else’s civilisation books are illustrated with. It is also, as of August 2026, the biggest planning trap in the country. It closed in mid-2025 for its largest refurbishment since the building opened; the State Board of Antiquities announced an early-2026 reopening, reported the works 90% complete and returned some 27,000 artefacts in March. That reopening has not been confirmed as delivered, and recent visitors report getting in only by special arrangement through a guide. Treat it as closed, ask your operator the week you arrive, and be delighted if you are wrong — and see our guide to Mesopotamian Iraq meanwhile.
Getting there: Alwiyah, central Baghdad. Cost: 25,000 IQD for foreigners when last open (mid-2024 figure). Open: no, or not reliably. Band: all but essential.
5. Al-Kadhimiya at night
The Kadhimayn shrine holds the tombs of the seventh and ninth Shia Imams under two gold domes and four gold minarets, and it is at its most extraordinary after dark, floodlit, with the courtyard full. Non-Muslims are sometimes admitted and sometimes not; policy varies by guard, by day and by how you are dressed. Women need an abaya, borrowable at the entrance, and bags and cameras are surrendered at a checkpoint. Do not photograph people praying. The approach streets — sweet shops, prayer-stone stalls, sellers of everything — are worth the trip even if you get no further than the gate.
Getting there: Kadhimiya, north-west Baghdad; 30–45 minutes by Careem from the centre. Cost: free. Open: yes, effectively 24 hours; foreigner access to the inner courtyard is discretionary. Band: all but essential.
6. Souk al-Safafeer, the coppersmiths
Off al-Rasheed Street, the copper market is the last working stretch of a trade that has held that spot for centuries — men hammering trays and coffee sets in open-fronted workshops, the noise carrying two streets away. It has thinned badly, there are fewer smiths every year and much of the stock is imported. It is still one of the few places in Baghdad where you can watch something being made rather than sold.
Getting there: walking distance from al-Mutanabbi Street. Cost: free to walk; a small hand-beaten tray runs 15,000–40,000 IQD. Open: yes, daytime, quieter on Fridays. Band: all but essential.
7. The Martyr’s Monument and the Monument to the Unknown Soldier
Iraq’s two great modernist war monuments are among the most striking twentieth-century buildings in the Middle East and are almost never discussed as architecture. Al-Shaheed, the Martyr’s Monument, is a split turquoise dome 40 metres high on an artificial island, designed by Ismail Fatah al-Turk and completed in 1983 for the dead of the Iran–Iraq war. The Monument to the Unknown Soldier nearby is a vast tilted disc. Both are on the east side and both need a taxi. They commemorate an enormous national bereavement; visit them as memorials, which is what they are.
Getting there: east Baghdad, 20–30 minutes by Careem. Cost: around 3,000 IQD. Open: yes, daytime; access can be closed at short notice. Band: all but essential.
8. Taq Kasra, the arch at Ctesiphon
Thirty-five kilometres south-east of Baghdad at Salman Pak stands the largest single-span unreinforced brick vault ever built — a sixth-century Sassanian throne hall, 37 metres high, one wing collapsed, the arch simply refusing to fall. It has been under intermittent restoration for years and the site is bare: a field, a fence, a ticket hut, an arch. No queue, no interpretation, often nobody else there.
Getting there: hire a car and driver from Baghdad for the half day, roughly US$40–60; taxis will do it for less if you negotiate. About an hour each way with traffic. Cost: nominal, a few thousand dinars. Open: yes. Band: all but essential (Baghdad province).
9. Aqar Quf ziggurat
Thirty kilometres west of Baghdad, the Kassite ziggurat of Dur-Kurigalzu rises out of flat farmland with its layers of reed matting still visible between the mudbrick courses. It is the easiest ziggurat in Iraq to reach and the least visited. Half a day.
Getting there: 40 minutes west by taxi; agree a return fare, around 40,000–60,000 IQD with waiting. Cost: nominal. Open: yes. Band: all but essential.
10. An Iraqi Stars League football match
Iraq is a football country in a way that is hard to overstate, and the domestic league plays through the winter in stadiums largely rebuilt in the last decade. Al-Shorta, Al-Zawraa and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya are the Baghdad clubs; Erbil and Duhok have their own. Tickets are cheap to free and sold at the ground on the day, not online. Crowds are boisterous rather than hostile and foreigners are usually treated as a curiosity worth photographing. Two catches: the schedule shifts constantly, and matches are moved or closed to spectators at short notice. Ask locally the same week.
Getting there: depends on the fixture; Careem to the ground and expect to walk the last stretch. Cost: free to a few thousand dinars. Open: season runs roughly September to May. Band: all but essential.
Samarra and the Abbasid middle: 11–12
11. Climb the Malwiya at Samarra — if you can get there
The Malwiya is a 52-metre spiral minaret with an external ramp winding anticlockwise to the top, built in the 850s for what was then the largest mosque in the world. The enclosure walls survive; the prayer hall does not. Walking the ramp is the most physically memorable thing on this list, and the top is unrailed, which people rarely mention.
Now the difficult part. Samarra sits in Salah al-Din province, which the FCDO advises against all travel to, full stop. It is 125 kilometres north of Baghdad on a road with serious checkpoints, and access to the minaret has opened and closed repeatedly for two decades, partly because of sensitivities around the al-Askari shrine in the same town, heavily protected since the 2006 and 2007 bombings. Operators who clear it in advance run it as a day trip; independent travellers are frequently turned back at the provincial boundary. Entry was quoted at around US$17 in traveller reports from 2022 and we could not verify a current figure.
Getting there: two hours from Baghdad by road, with pre-arranged permissions in practice. Cost: guide and car US$100–200 for the day. Open: the monument is restored and standing; access is conditional. Band: against all travel.
12. Al-Ukhaidir Fortress
An eighth-century Abbasid palace-fortress alone in the desert 50 kilometres south of Karbala, its outer walls, vaulted halls and upper galleries substantially intact. You can walk the ramparts. There is a caretaker and, most days, nobody else. If you care at all about early Islamic architecture this is a better hour than several more famous sites here, and it is normally tacked onto Karbala.
Getting there: taxi from Karbala, about an hour each way; agree 50,000–70,000 IQD return with waiting time. Cost: nominal, a few thousand dinars. Open: yes, daylight hours. Band: all but essential (Karbala province).
The south: 13–21
The south holds the deep history and the long distances. Baghdad to Nasiriyah is five to six hours; Nasiriyah to Basra another three. Most people run it as a three- or four-day loop with a driver, or take the train. See our southern Iraq guide and the Iraq itinerary planner.
13. Babylon
Babylon is 85 kilometres south of Baghdad near Hillah, and it is both extraordinary and partly a fake — worth understanding before you arrive rather than after. The Ishtar Gate you walk through is a 1980s reconstruction at roughly two-thirds scale; the original panels are in Berlin. Much of the Processional Way and the palace walls were rebuilt on Saddam Hussein’s orders, in yellow brick, some of it stamped with his name in the Nebuchadnezzar manner. The site was then used as a military base and badly damaged after 2003. UNESCO listed it anyway in 2019.
What is genuinely ancient and genuinely moving: the basalt Lion of Babylon, the original lower courses under the reconstruction, the scale of the street plan, and the hill where Saddam’s unfinished palace sits — an empty graffitied shell, oddly worth the extra 1,500 dinars.
Getting there: shared taxi or minibus from Baghdad’s Allawi garage to Hillah, around 15,000 IQD and about two hours, then a taxi to the gate for roughly 8,000 IQD. Two to three hours on site. Cost: 25,000 IQD foreigners, plus 1,500 IQD for the palace and around 15,000 IQD if you want a site guide. Open: yes, daily to late afternoon. Band: all but essential (Babil, excluding the closed town of Jurf al-Sakr).
14. Karbala’s two shrines after dark
The shrines of Imam Hussein and of al-Abbas face each other across a marble plaza called Bayn al-Haramayn, and at night, lit and full, the effect is unlike anything else in the region. They are open around the clock. Karbala is also the destination of Arbaeen, which in 2026 fell on 5 August and drew more than 22 million people into a city of about a million, some five million of them from abroad. For roughly three weeks around it the whole south reorganises itself: roads close, hotels fill, free food and lodging appear along the pilgrim routes. See our guide to pilgrimage in Iraq, and the Arbaeen and ziyarat visa rules.
Non-Muslim access varies: some visitors are waved into the courtyards, some politely stopped at the gate, and a guide with local standing helps. Women need a full abaya, not just a headscarf; cameras, bags and power banks are not permitted inside. Dress and behaviour matter here more than anywhere else in Iraq — see Iraqi culture and etiquette.
Getting there: two hours from Baghdad by shared taxi, roughly 15,000–20,000 IQD. Cost: free. Open: 24 hours; foreigner access discretionary. Band: all but essential.
15. Najaf: the shrine of Imam Ali and the Valley of Peace
The shrine of Imam Ali sits under a gold dome at the centre of the old city, and beside it lies Wadi al-Salam, the largest cemetery on earth — square kilometres of mudbrick tombs and lanes, still in daily use, with burials arriving from across the Shia world. Walking it is sobering rather than macabre and is not a photo opportunity; funerals are happening around you. Najaf has its own international airport, which makes it a practical entry point for the south and is how most pilgrims arrive.
Getting there: 80 kilometres south of Karbala, about 90 minutes; shared taxi around 10,000 IQD. Cost: free. Open: yes. Band: all but essential.
16. The Great Mosque of Kufa
Ten kilometres from Najaf, Kufa’s mosque is one of the oldest in Islam, founded in the 7th century, and is where Imam Ali was struck down. It is much quieter than the Najaf shrine, architecturally plainer, and easier to visit as a non-Muslim. Combine it with the nearby house of Imam Ali and the Kufa corniche on the Euphrates, where families picnic in the late afternoon.
Getting there: 15 minutes by taxi from Najaf, a few thousand dinars. Cost: free. Open: yes. Band: all but essential.
17. The Ziggurat of Ur
Twenty kilometres from Nasiriyah, on the edge of what is now Ali Air Base, the Ziggurat of Ur is the best-preserved structure of its kind anywhere. Ur-Nammu built it around 2100 BC; the lower terrace and the three converging staircases were reconstructed in the 1980s, the upper mass is original. The surrounding city — the Royal Cemetery where Woolley found the Sumerian treasures, the residential quarter, a mudbrick house signposted as Abraham’s — is walkable in an hour.
One change most pages have not caught up with: you can no longer climb to the summit. That was stopped around 2024 for conservation reasons as visitor numbers rose. You climb the great staircase to the first terrace and stop. Reported entry fees vary between roughly 10,000 and 25,000 IQD for foreigners depending on the source and the year; budget for the higher figure.
Getting there: taxi from Nasiriyah, 30 minutes; agree around 30,000 IQD return with waiting. There is a checkpoint at the air base perimeter — carry your passport. Cost: 10,000–25,000 IQD. Open: yes, roughly 09:00–17:00. Band: all but essential (Dhi Qar).
18. Uruk (Warka)
Uruk is where cities were invented and the earliest known writing was found, and on a normal day you will be the only person there. What survives is low, eroded and hard to read without preparation: the Eanna precinct, a ziggurat, a German excavation house. It is 60 kilometres from Nasiriyah on rough roads and needs a driver who knows the turning. Do the reading first, or it is a hot afternoon looking at mounds.
Getting there: private car from Nasiriyah, half a day, US$40–70. Cost: nominal. Open: yes, in practice; there is not always a ticket seller. Band: all but essential.
19. A mashoof through the Central Marshes
The marshes are the thing people come back changed by. From Chibayish you take a mashoof — a long, shallow canoe, these days usually with an outboard — out through reed channels into open water, past buffalo swimming with only their nostrils showing, past mudhif guesthouses built entirely of bundled reed without a nail in them, past villages standing on floating islands of compacted reed. Overnight stays mean dinner, a fire and sleeping in a mudhif; conditions are basic and it is not for everyone.
Be honest about the state of them. The Mesopotamian Marshes were drained deliberately in the 1990s, partially reflooded after 2003, and have since been strangled by upstream damming and drought. In 2026, roughly 32–36% of the marshland area is submerged — up from 8% or less at the recent worst, which is a real reprieve, but a reprieve inside an ongoing collapse rather than a recovery. Boatmen will tell you where the water used to reach. Believe them.
One health note that matters here specifically. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is in active outbreak — 313 confirmed cases and 24 deaths nationally in 2026 as of early August, with Dhi Qar the worst-affected province at 119 cases and 9 deaths. It spreads by tick bite and by contact with the blood or tissue of infected livestock, so it is a risk for people handling animals rather than for a passenger in a boat; but this is a buffalo-herding economy, so cover up, use repellent and do not handle livestock. Full picture on our Iraq vaccinations and health page.
Getting there: Chibayish is about 90 minutes from Nasiriyah. Boats run roughly 25,000–35,000 IQD per boat per hour; a half-day trip for two around US$30 through a local vendor; overnight packages around 140,000 IQD (about US$95) for two, more through the better-known operators. Cost: see above. Open: yes, year-round; avoid June to September. Band: all but essential, and note the 5km Iranian border strip in Maysan is against all travel.
20. Basra: shanashil, the corniche and the Shatt al-Arab
Basra behaves like the port it is — humid, salty, more Gulf than Mesopotamian, best fish in the country. The old quarter around al-Ashar keeps a scatter of shanashil houses, the wooden-latticed merchant homes that once lined the creeks; most are derelict and a handful restored. The “Venice of the East” branding refers to canals now largely silted, dry or fouled. Go for the Corniche at dusk, the fish market, and the rusting hulks half-sunk along the Shatt al-Arab.
Ninety kilometres north, al-Qurnah marks the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates and is signposted as the Garden of Eden. The famous Tree of Adam there is, by every recent account, a dead trunk behind railings. Go for the confluence, not the tree.
Getting there: flights from Baghdad, or five to six hours by road from Nasiriyah. Cost: free to walk. Open: yes. Band: all but essential, including Highways 1 and 8 and the Safwan crossing to Kuwait; within 5km of the Iranian and Kuwaiti borders is against all travel.
21. The Baghdad–Basra sleeper train
Iraq has one passenger rail service worth taking: an overnight train between Baghdad Central and Basra, Chinese-built sleeper stock with two- and four-berth compartments, about eleven hours across the alluvial plain. A seat costs roughly 10,000 IQD, a sleeper berth 31,000–37,000 IQD (US$25–30). Pay for both berths in a two-bed compartment if you want it to yourself.
The catch is booking. There is no online reservation and no published English timetable; tickets are sold at the station on the day, with the Baghdad office open roughly 09:00–19:00 with a lunch break. Sources also disagree on frequency — some say three times a week, others nightly — and the service has been suspended and restored more than once. Have someone ring ahead. If it is running it is the most comfortable way to cross the south, and the only one that avoids the road.
Getting there: Baghdad Central Station, west bank. Cost: 10,000–37,000 IQD. Open: running as of 2026 but verify locally. Band: crosses all-but-essential provinces throughout.
Mosul and Nineveh: 22–25
Everything in this section sits in Ninawa province, which the FCDO advises against all travel to — Mosul, Nineveh, Nimrud, Hatra and the Christian towns of the plain alike. That advice has not moved despite the reconstruction. Operators run Mosul routinely and thousands of foreign visitors went in 2025 and 2026; that changes neither what the advice says nor what it does to your insurance. Read how safe Mosul actually is and decide with the numbers in front of you. There is also a great deal of unexploded ordnance: UNMAS estimates more than another decade to clear an Old City holding some 11 million tonnes of rubble and 10,000 damaged buildings. Stay on cleared paths and do not enter ruins.
22. Al-Nuri mosque and the al-Hadba minaret
Al-Hadba — “the hunchback” — leaned for eight centuries, appears on the 10,000-dinar note, and was blown up by Islamic State in June 2017. UNESCO rebuilt it with UAE funding using around 26,000 of its original bricks, and it reopened with the al-Nuri mosque over 31 August–1 September 2025. Standing under it is the single most direct measure of what has and has not been recovered in Iraq. The site now sells tickets: 25,000 IQD for foreigners, 3,000 IQD for Iraqis, daily 10:00–17:00.
Getting there: west bank Old City, walkable from the Tigris bridges. Cost: 25,000 IQD. Open: yes, 10:00–17:00. Band: against all travel.
23. Walk Mosul’s Old City and al-Najafi Street
The west bank Old City is neither museum nor ruin. It is a construction site with people living in it: rebuilt heritage houses beside shells, the restored al-Tahera and al-Saa’a churches, the bookshops of al-Najafi Street trading again, the Mosul Heritage Museum reopened. Walk it with a local guide — not for safety theatre, but because without one it is just damage, and damage without context is the definition of ruin-tourism. See our Mosul guide.
Getting there: on foot with a guide, half a day. Cost: free. Open: yes. Band: against all travel.
24. Nineveh, Nabi Yunus and Nimrud
The Mashki and Adad gates of Nineveh sit on the eastern edge of Mosul, under restoration after being bulldozed in 2016. Nabi Yunus, the shrine over the supposed tomb of Jonah, was destroyed in 2014, and the tunnels dug beneath it exposed an unlooted Assyrian palace. Nimrud, 30 kilometres south, was the Assyrian capital and was dynamited; reassembly is ongoing and visits are possible but not guaranteed.
Getting there: Nineveh gates are in east Mosul; Nimrud needs a car, 45 minutes. Cost: free or nominal. Open: partially, restoration ongoing. Band: against all travel.
25. Mar Mattai and Rabban Hormizd
Two of the oldest continuously occupied Christian monasteries on earth: Mar Mattai, fourth century, on the flank of Mount Alfaf north-east of Mosul, and Rabban Hormizd, seventh century, cut into the cliff above Alqosh. Monks will usually show you round and there is no charge. Both sit in the Nineveh Plains rather than the city.
Getting there: car from Mosul or Duhok, about an hour each. Cost: free. Open: yes, daylight. Band: against all travel (Nineveh Plains).
Kurdistan and the north: 26–30
Kurdistan is a different country in everything but passport control: mountains, a separate visa regime, alcohol in shops, a far lighter security footprint. The whole region sits at “advise against all but essential travel” as one uniform band, with no site-by-site carve-outs in the current gov.uk bullet list, although the FCDO’s June 2026 briefing map still shades the Turkish and Iranian border strips more darkly — check the map PDF on the day. It is not insulated from the wider escalation either; eight drones were downed over Erbil in July 2026. Background in our Iraqi Kurdistan guide and whether Kurdistan is safe.
26. Erbil Citadel and the Qaysari bazaar at dusk
The citadel is a walled oval 30 metres above Erbil on a mound made of its own earlier selves, claimed as the longest continuously inhabited site on earth and UNESCO-listed since 2014. Temper expectations: much of the interior is a live restoration site rather than a lived-in quarter, and you walk through scaffolding as much as history. Entry is free; the Kurdish Textile Museum inside charges a few dollars and is the best single thing up there.
Come down the ramp at dusk into the Qaysari bazaar — gold, spices, tea, worry beads, a century old and largely restored after the March 2024 fire that gutted over 200 shops — and finish in the fountain square below with everyone else in the city. Best free hour in Iraq.
Getting there: central Erbil, walk up from Shar Park. Cost: free; museum a few dollars. Open: yes. Band: all but essential.
27. Lalish, barefoot
Lalish is the holiest place in the Yazidi faith, a valley of conical fluted spires ninety minutes north-west of Erbil. You remove your shoes at the edge of the settlement and stay barefoot throughout, in any weather, on stone and gravel; you do not step on thresholds, which are kissed; you dress modestly and ask before photographing anyone. Visitors are genuinely welcome, there is no fee, and guardians will explain the sacred spring and the peacock symbolism if you ask.
An administrative wrinkle worth knowing: Lalish lies in Shekhan district, which is formally part of Ninawa province — an “against all travel” area — while being administered from the Kurdistan Region and reached entirely on KRG roads. Most operators treat it as Kurdistan. Your insurer may not.
Getting there: 90 minutes from Erbil by taxi, around US$50–70 return with waiting. Cost: free. Open: yes, daylight. Band: all but essential, with the Ninawa caveat above.
28. The Hamilton Road: Rawanduz, Gali Ali Beg and Bekhal
The road built by New Zealand engineer Archibald Hamilton in the 1920s climbs from the plain into the Zagros through the Rawanduz gorge, past the Gali Ali Beg waterfall — the one on the 5,000-dinar note — and the Bekhal falls, where half the province appears to eat lunch on plastic chairs in the spray. There is a cable car at Korek Mountain. The driving is the attraction: a full day from Erbil, much better in a hired car than by minibus.
Getting there: hired car from Erbil, full day, US$80–120. Cost: free; Korek cable car extra. Open: yes; snow closes sections in winter. Band: all but essential.
29. Amedi and Akre
Amedi sits on a flat-topped mesa above the Sapna valley, 1,200 metres up, reached by a single road, with about a thousand residents. It is an hour of walking, and the point is the view from the opposite hillside, which means a car. Akre, an hour east, is stacked up a mountainside and hosts Kurdistan’s largest Newroz fire procession on the night of 20 March, when thousands carry torches up the hill. Time a trip to that if you can.
Getting there: two to three hours from Erbil or Duhok by car. Cost: free. Open: yes. Band: all but essential.
30. Amna Suraka and Halabja
Amna Suraka in Sulaymaniyah is the former Ba’athist intelligence headquarters, left shell-pocked, cells and interrogation rooms preserved as they were. The Hall of Mirrors holds 4,500 lights for the villages destroyed in the Anfal campaign and 182,000 shards of glass for the dead. Entry is free, roughly 09:00–16:00, and you need two hours. An hour east, the Halabja monument commemorates the 1988 chemical attack that killed around 5,000 people in a morning. This is the hardest day on the list and it should be. Go quietly, and remember that many of the people around you are related to the names on the walls.
Getting there: Sulaymaniyah is three and a half hours from Erbil; Halabja an hour further. Cost: free. Open: yes, roughly 09:00–16:00. Band: all but essential.
What is over-hyped, and what to skip
Page one never says this, so we will.
- The Ishtar Gate at Babylon is a two-thirds-scale 1980s replica. The real one is in Berlin. It is still worth walking through — just know what you are looking at.
- The Garden of Eden tree at al-Qurnah is a dead trunk in a fenced enclosure beside a car park.
- Basra’s “Venice of the East” canals are mostly dry, silted or polluted. The Corniche and the fish market are the reasons to go.
- The Victory Arch (the crossed swords) is inside the Green Zone and access is inconsistent. Barriers came down from 4 March 2026 and pedestrian access has improved, but do not build a day around it.
- Hatra appears on every list and is effectively closed. Permission is not routinely granted and the province is at “against all travel”.
- Uruk and Nimrud reward preparation and punish the unprepared. If you will not do the reading, spend the day at Ur instead.
- Baghdad as a walking city. It is not one. Budget for taxis and for traffic.
What it all costs
| Item | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Site entry, foreigner | 10,000–25,000 IQD (US$8–19) |
| Careem across Baghdad | 5,000–12,000 IQD |
| Shared taxi, Baghdad–Karbala | 15,000–20,000 IQD |
| Car and driver, full day | US$80–150 federal Iraq; less in Kurdistan |
| Baghdad–Basra sleeper berth | 31,000–37,000 IQD (US$25–30) |
| Marsh boat | 25,000–35,000 IQD per boat per hour |
| Mid-range double room | US$40–70 Baghdad; US$30–60 Erbil |
How many things to do in Iraq can you fit in one trip?
In ten days: Baghdad and its day trips, Babylon, Karbala, Najaf, Ur, the marshes, then a flight or the train and a Kurdistan loop of Erbil, Lalish, Rawanduz and Sulaymaniyah. That is around twenty of the thirty, and it is a hard-working itinerary. In a week, pick one half of the country. Samarra, Hatra and anything in Ninawa are separate decisions, not add-ons.
Two structural things will shape the trip more than your list. The first is the visa: the federal e-visa covers the whole country including Kurdistan, while a Kurdistan-only visa does not let you travel south, and people have been turned back trying. Start with the Iraq e-visa process, and read the Kurdistan visa rules only if you are genuinely staying north. The second is timing — see the best time to visit Iraq, and avoid the three weeks around Arbaeen unless that is why you are coming.
Frequently asked questions
What is the number one thing to do in Iraq?
Of all the things to do in Iraq, if you only do one, take a boat into the Central Marshes from Chibayish. It is the only thing on this list that has no equivalent anywhere else, and it is a living culture rather than a monument. The Ziggurat of Ur is the runner-up and the easier logistics.
Is Iraq open to tourists in 2026?
Yes. Tourist visas are being issued, sites are selling tickets, and operators are running trips. That is a different question from whether your government advises you to go, which it does not. Our page on whether Iraq is open to tourists separates the two.
Can I do these things independently, without a tour?
In Kurdistan, easily. In federal Iraq it is possible and people do it, but a driver-guide saves hours at checkpoints and is sometimes the difference between entering a site and not. Compare options on our Iraq tours page.
Are the shrines at Karbala and Najaf open to non-Muslims?
Sometimes. There is no published rule and the answer depends on the guard, the day and your dress. Courtyard access is more likely than inner-shrine access. Women need a full abaya; cameras and bags are surrendered at the gate.
How long do I need to see the main things?
Ten days for both halves of the country at a brisk pace, two weeks to do it properly, a week for one half. Driving times, not opening hours, are what limit you.
Is it safe to do all thirty?
No, and we would not present it as though it were. Four of the thirty sit in provinces under “advise against all travel”, and access to several others depends on permissions or the security situation that week. Read our full safety assessment, and note that the most likely thing to hurt a visitor is a road crash.
What should I bring for these sites?
Modest clothing that covers knees and shoulders, a scarf, socks you do not mind ruining at Lalish, cash in small dinar notes, and a passport for every checkpoint. Full list on our Iraq packing list.
Can women do this list alone?
Much of it, and women do. Shrine cities require an abaya and a certain amount of patience with well-meaning intervention; Kurdistan is the easiest part. Our guide to solo female travel in Iraq goes through it honestly.
Final thoughts
What surprises people about Iraq is not the archaeology, which they expected, but how ordinary most of a day is. You spend it in traffic, in cafés, being handed food you did not order, answering the same questions about where you are from and whether you are married. The monuments are the reason you booked and not what you talk about afterwards.
Any honest list of things to do in Iraq is uneven, because the country is. Some of these are a half-hour taxi and a 10,000-dinar ticket. Some require a tour operator, a set of permissions and a decision about an advisory band that will follow you to your insurance claim. Anyone who presents Iraq as thirty interchangeable bullet points is either not paying attention or hoping you are not.
Work out which half of the country you are going to first, then read where to stay in Iraq and our practical Iraq travel tips before you book anything. And whatever you plan, check the entry rules the week you fly rather than the month you dream — the Iraq entry requirements have changed twice in eighteen months.
Photo credits
Ziggurat of Ur — Hardnfast (CC BY 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad — Mondalawy (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Malwiya minaret, Samarra — Ekhlas Sami (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Mesopotamian Marshes — Montzr_1 (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Al-Hadba minaret, Mosul — الدبوني / Al-Dabouni (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons. Erbil Citadel — jan kurdistani (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
