Iran on the FCO
 

Go right now to the FCO website at British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) - home page and try to find out anything about Iran. If I try I get told either "no information is held on that country" or that I need a username and password to see the information.

Stupid government website!

To be honest, don't trust the FCO website too much. Yes, they have demographics and facts, but they are not objective in the slightest. They will tell you that travel there is not recommended and that it is not safe. They have useful info on VISAs, medical risks (predmoniant diseases), but I just looked on there and Colombia and India to name but 2 are listed as "Countries the FCO advises against all travel to parts of". Others listed are Russia, and, you guessed it, Iran. Yes there are dodgy places, but I feel the advice is very over cautious.

Look in the relevant forum and see how many people on here alone have travelled to these places. I say trust the advise of people whjo have been and not a governement organisation that errs heavily on the side of caution so that it can not be held accountable should you go on their advice and stub your toe....Particularly in relation to how travel there is, rather than what official steps need to be taken to get there etc.

I've not had much success checking out the FCO info either and don't bother now. I've suspected that the advice is also politically motivated - there's never a bad word said about friendly regimes. Lots of tourists have been killed in Egypt in some pretty elaborate attacks but Iran gets a worse report despite very little history of actual hostility towards tourists.

The information often does not seem region specific. Pakistan was up there on the hot list some time ago but it seemed unfair to link the far north and Karokorams region with Karachi. I think Michael Palin lobbied the FCO on this matter after his Himalaya series.

Seems like the HUBB is more relevant than the FCO website.