Erbil
Erbil, also called Hawler, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of the Erbil Governorate.
Erbil, also called Hawler, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of the Erbil Governorate. Erbil is described as the region's cultural, economic, industrial, educational and medical hub.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
- 01Citadel of Erbil
- 02Grand Mosque
Erbil's historic central mosque, still open despite renovations on the Citadel.
- 03Kurdish Textile Museum
- 04Erbil Gem Museum
52R5+3H.
- 05Mudhafaria Minaret
- 06Qaysari Market
From Wikivoyage: Erbil, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
Stroll around in the deserted city inside the citadel in the centre of Erbil. Hundreds of houses that appears to have been abandoned in a hurry. Walk into the court yards, sleeping rooms and bed rooms or up to the rooftop terraces to enjoy a spectacular panorama of Erbil or ponder what life might have been in this place before the inhabitants were repopulated.
- 01Erbil Marathon
Sami Abdulrahman Park, info@erbilmarathon.krd.
From Wikivoyage: Erbil, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Where to eat
Many good restaurants exist in Erbil. However, the vast majority serve kebabs and chicken, with some Lebanese and Turkish restaurants. Options for foreign food are limited. Most restaurants, except those in high-end hotels, do not serve alcohol or accept credit cards. Iskan Street. Popular street lined with cheap Kurdish and Turkish kebab shops, as well as one of the center of (male) social gathering.
- 01Kebab Yasin
- 02Dawa 2
From Wikivoyage: Erbil, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Erbil
- Airports
- Erbil (EBL), 8 km · Kirkuk (KIK), 86 km · Tabriz (TBZ), 292 km
- Kirkuk → Erbil87 km · quickest by road, 1h 26m · $8–10
- Baghdad → Erbil319 km · quickest by road, 4h 36m · $28–39
- Najaf → Erbil464 km · quickest by road, 6h 50m · $42–60
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Erbil
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Erbil. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get aroundCompared with other cities in the Middle East, shared taxis and buses are very infrequent and impractical.
From Wikivoyage: Erbil, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01414 km
- 02511 km
- 03581 km
- 04621 km
- 05644 km
If you know how people move in Erbil – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.