This guide is designed to inspire travel to Iran <\/strong><\/a>and give practical travel tips that are hard to find for a country so rarely visited, with the second half outlining the best ways to get to Iran using your points<\/a>. Make sure to read The Essentials section at the end of this piece. All of the following images were taken by the author and should not be reproduced without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Word is that Iranians are the amongst the most genuine and approachable people in the world. Is it true?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\n had high expectations\u2026and they were met. I would put Iranians in the \nsame category as the Japanese and Americans for hospitality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never before in my travels<\/a> had I ever been stopped on the street so many times (in a non-intrusive way) to be asked:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Big\n call? Probably. There are many beautiful cities in the world \u2013 Kyoto, \nSydney, Paris \u2013 but Iran\u2019s second-biggest city and main tourist drawcard\n Isfahan definitely deserves a spot up there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Built on the River Zayandehrood, even with its dry desert climate it is teeming with green parks, plenty of shade on walks along the river, beautiful bridges, and historic mosques, churches and palaces. If you are going to visit one place in Iran<\/strong><\/a>, this is the place to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yazd is the gateway desert city of Iran, with day and overnight tours into the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\n only sound we heard whilst watching the suns rays descend over the \nflowing desert dunes was a light breeze carving sand into new dune \nformations. Truly breathtaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foodies will love Iran<\/strong><\/a>, with primary dishes being lamb, mutton, chicken, eggplant, lentils, cheese, yoghurt, rice, dates and pita bread. Vegetarians will be slightly more limited in choices, but it is not prohibitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having said that, all breakfasts tend to be \nvegetarian, made up of feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, pita bread, \nyoghurt and watermelon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foodies <\/strong>of all persuasions should be sure to visit the moderately-priced vegetarian restaurant in the Iranian Artists\u2019 Forum in Honarmandan Park (also known as Artists\u2019 Park). The second time we went back the waiter brought us an extra course for free and two university professors at a nearby table joined us for lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even\n during the peak travel month of May, it was hard to encounter many \nother tourists at the majestic mosques that Iran puts a lot of effort \ninto keeping beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, be respectful of prayer times, \ntake off your shoes and remember that there are separate areas for men \nand women. Be sure to check the opening times of mosques on the internet\n or with your accommodation so as to not be caught out by them being \nclosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mosques in Isfahan are the most expensive to get into (around $8 each), but are also the most beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Persepolis <\/strong><\/a>(literally \u2018The Persian City\u2019) brought together the 28 nations of the Persian Empire (at its peak) for ceremonies and was known as the United Nations of the empire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Located 90 minutes east of Shiraz, choose \nthe more reasonably-priced accommodation options in Shiraz rather than \nstay near the UNESCO-protected site, but avoid the midday and afternoon \nheat by catching a private taxi out for the 8am opening. A tour guide is\n highly recommended and can be organized upon arrival at the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most\n transport is by road, so if looking to save money, go by bus, but we \nfound it funny\/frustrating how many times people were moved around the \nbus by the bus driver to make sure that women and men were not seated \ntogether. This strict policy is more the work of the government rather \nthan the considerably liberally-minded population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a \nbit more money, then another option is a private driver, which will be \nfaster and more comfortable, but you will miss out on the local bus \nexperience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 10-12 hour overnight Chinese-built train between \nTehran and Shiraz is highly recommended at about $25 for a seat which \nconverts into a bed in a four-person single-sex air-conditioned \ncompartment. Bring your own food \u2013 disappointing food on the train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can honestly say that I felt safer and less on-edge in Iran than in some European capitals like London, Paris and Brussels, and petty theft is quite uncommon. Of course, please take into account official government warnings and check that your travel insurance will be valid in Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[98],"tags":[3,1073],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranthisway.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Meet the friendliest people in the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063556\/Iran-friendly-people.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n2. Visit the most beautiful city in the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063629\/Iran-Isfahan-Square.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n3. Watch the sunset over the dunes in the middle of the desert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063524\/Iran-desert-dunes-sunlight.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n4. Eat till your heart\u2019s content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063823\/Iran-vegetarian-food-Tehran.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n5. Visit some of the least tourist-filled mosques in the world<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063644\/Iran-Mosque-Kashan.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n6. Visit the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063701\/Iran-Persepolis.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n7. Transport options are cheap and relatively efficient<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Iran](\"https:\/\/i.pointhacks.com\/img\/2016\/07\/08063808\/Iran-Tehran-train-station.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe essentials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n