Walk Zawraa Park on a weekday afternoon

Baghdad runs on cash. Cards are rarely accepted outside luxury hotels, and the local ride app Baly takes cash only and needs an Iraqi SIM number to register. Carry small Iraqi dinar notes for taxis, tea and market stalls, with clean US dollars printed after 2013 as a backup. Ask your hotel to help with a local SIM…

Rashid Street, opened in 1916, still carries 1920s facades with ornate mouldings and wrought-iron balconies above its shops and warehouses. Walking groups of students and amateur photographers tour the historic centre, and a rehabilitation project is under way, so expect some scaffolding. Go in the morning when…

Historic sites in Baghdad often follow official working hours, so they can be shut when travelers are free: evenings, weekends and holidays. Museums have also reported daytime-only schedules that end in the early afternoon. Put your heritage stops on a weekday morning, and confirm with your hotel or a local contact…

Two medieval survivors stand close together in Rusafa: the brick Abbasid Palace, with arches and arabesque reliefs around its courtyard, and Bab al-Wastani, a city gate from around the 12th century. Mustansiriya is within walking distance, so all three fit in one slow morning. Opening at the palace is not always…

The Iraq Museum holds royal palace winged bulls and the Nimrud ivories in its Assyrian gallery, one of the great reasons to come to Baghdad. Give it a long morning and head to that gallery first, where the scale is the point. Reported opening days and hours differ from source to source, so confirm on the day and…

Boats leave from the Mutanabbi Ferry Terminal, a short walk from Mutanabbi Street, and show the riverbanks in a way the traffic-choked streets never do. Locals also cross the Tigris by boat to reach the Karkh bank, for example for the masgouf shops of Souq al-Shawka. Ask the boatman about the route and timing that…

Workers around al-Sadriyah market and Souk al-Shorja start the morning with kahi, a flaky flatbread, scooped through geymar, thick buffalo or cow cream, with honey or syrup and a glass of tea. Go early, because the specialist breakfast counters are busiest before nine. Ask for kahi with geymar and honey and take a…

Souk al-Shorja, Baghdad's oldest market, packs soap, spice, stationery and glassware lanes into alleys only three or four meters wide. In Ramadan and before religious holidays it fills with shoppers and moving slowly becomes the whole experience. Go on an ordinary weekday morning, enter from Rashid Street and ask a…