Travelling outside of Iran has been my dream for many years and I always had this question, where should I start for travelling abroad and seeing the world? Of course, I always had a handy answer: I had to have some money, and since I didn’t have it, the next step was to make an account and save so that I could take a trip abroad with a tour every few years.
Well, now that I can have more than one trip abroad every year, the reason is that I came to answers other than the initial answer. In this article, I want to share my answers with you.
It may seem that you should first define your purpose of travel. It may be true. But if you are not very fond of thinking and analyzing and putting your thoughts on paper for hours, don’t worry too much, travelling to a new country with different natural, historical and cultural attractions is attractive enough that no other reason is needed. Do not have what is much more important than determining the goal is to determine the style of your trip. Decide whether you want to travel with a tour (it can also be divided into luxury tours and regular tours) or you don’t like tours like me. Of course, I don’t want to completely negate travelling with a tour. There are many people who don’t like to spend time planning a trip (or don’t have the opportunity) or who don’t have the necessary confidence in their first trips. On my first trip abroad, I went on a tour because I didn’t know that with a little study and effort, I could pull my blanket out of the water. My advice is to find tours that have some adventure in their plans.
plan to travel with a tour
If you don’t plan to travel with a tour, you should determine a series of things in advance.
Do you like to travel with the style of backpacking (you don’t have to have a backpack to be a backpacker, you can be a backpacker with a small suitcase)? Are you planning to hike the distance between the cities, take public transportation or take a plane at all? How is your accommodation going to be, Coach Surfing, Hostel, Hotel, Airbnb or More? Most importantly, are you going to travel alone or in a group?
You should also know the answers to two very important questions that are somehow linked to the above questions: how much do you intend to spend on a trip and how much time do you have. Of course, a 5-day trip is different from a one-month trip. In short trips, your options are less.
After you get a general view of your travel style, you can study and research about it for weeks and maybe months, which is very good. But there is a much better option than just reading: start. Until you start experiencing, the information you get through reading is not worth much (I’m ashamed to be honest, but it’s really like that when it comes to travel). Iran is the best place to start for us. This is not because I have too much sweat towards Iran and its beauties (which I do), but because of the fact that gaining experience has a cost and paying this cost in Iran is certainly less. When I say cost, I mean financial, physical and mental. At the same time, you will get to know your tolerance threshold in difficult situations, your ability to save and reduce costs, and your abilities in general.
It is best to start with small steps. Start with a one-day or even half-day trip to your neighbouring town or village. Then longer distances and longer periods. Try to travel in Iran in the same style as you plan to travel abroad. If you plan to backpack in Europe, experience the same style of travel in Iran. For example, if you plan to cook on a long trip, try cooking while travelling here. This is also true for transportation. If you plan to use buses in the city in future trips, don’t do it because taxis are expensive in Iran, so skip this factor here.
Whenever you feel that you have gained enough experience and have confidence, go to the next step. I don’t mean 100% preparation, because it’s impossible, 50% is enough
For the first foreign trips, I recommend choosing the neighbouring countries:Armenia, Georgia and Türkiye. All three of them do not need a visa, they are not expensive countries, and except for Türkiye, which has had some problems in the last year, they are also acceptable in terms of security. If, God forbid, you run into a problem, you get tired, your money runs out sooner than you expected, or you miss Iran, it is very easy to shorten your trip, just buy a bus ticket and go back.
In these countries, you can increase your skills and prepare for long and distant trips. If you encounter an unexpected and unpleasant problem at the land border between Iran and Armenia, you can easily return to Iran. Much better than encountering that problem for the first time in the middle of Africa on the border of Kenya and Uganda (it happened to me…).
To summarise the whole story, the steps are as follows:
Knowing the style of travel you want
Gaining experience in Iran
First foreign travel experience in neighbouring countries
Do not forget that this is my suggested path, there are definitely other ways, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. This was the path I took and maybe if I start again I will go the same way.
The first step is very important, start your small trips early, which can be as enjoyable as long trips.
