Urmia Travel Guide

Travel Guide to Urmia

Get familiar with top sights, find itineraries, accommodations and tours

General Information

Urmia is the largest city in West Azerbaijan province of Iran. Urmia is situated at an altitude of 1,330 m above sea level, and is located along the Shahar Chay river (City River) on the Urmia Plain. Lake Urmia, one of the world's largest salt lakes, lies to the east of the city and the mountainous Turkish border area lies to the west.

Based on Wikipedia, Urmia is the 10th most populated city in Iran. At the 2012 census, its population was 667,499 with 197,749 households. The city's inhabitants are predominantly Azerbaijanis, with minorities of Kurds, Armenians and Assyrians. as well as Iran's official language, Persian. The city is the trading center for a fertile agricultural region where fruits (especially apples and grapes) and tobacco are grown.

The Christian history in Urmia, Iran should be noted first. It is highly, and most intricately preserved. Especially seen in the many churches, and cathedrals.

Get in and around

There are daily flights from and to Tehran and some major cities.

You can use taxi, however the easiest way to travel is via a hired car and its not expencive. By the newly built bridge over the Urmia lake you can reach to Tabriz within 1.5 hours.

There are plenty of scheduled bus services from some major cities like tehran and tabriz.

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Top sights & Things to do

When to visit?

The most popular time to visit is the spring and early summer. The climate is warm and temperate in Urmia. In winter, there is much more rainfall in Urmia than in summer. The average annual temperature in Urmia is 11.6 °C. About 390 mm of precipitation falls annually. The driest month is August, with 3 mm of rainfall. Most precipitation falls in April, with an average of 76 mm. The warmest month of the year is July, with an average temperature of 24.2 °C. In January, the average temperature is -1.7 °C. It is the lowest average temperature of the whole year. The difference in precipitation between the driest month and the wettest month is 73 mm. The average temperatures vary during the year by 25.9 °C.

  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
High/Low temperatures
-7°
-5°
11°
17°
22°
28°
13°
31°
17°
31°
16°
27°
11°
20°
12°
-4°
Chance of precipitation
11%
10%
15%
18%
15%
5%
2%
2%
3%
8%
9%
10%
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Recommended Accommodation