Why You Should Visit Iran

Is Iran safe to visit?

This is a common question, and if you want the quick answer, then yes Iran is safe to visit, in parts. I say in parts as there are some areas, especially around the Afghanistan and Pakistan border areas, that can be dangerous.
However the vast majority of Iran is perfectly safe, and I have felt very welcomed wherever I went. Considering that my government (U.K.) are one of the leading countries putting sanctions on Iran, I was somewhat cautious when being asked where I was from.  I always got the same response: U.K. great country! Welcome to my country!
Of course the situation can change in the future, but as of now it is fine to go to Iran.

Iranians are very hospitable people.

Never judge a book by its cover. Never could that be more true than with Iran. When you hear the word Iran you could automatically  think of nuclear weapons and axis of evil etc, but the opposite is true. Of course Iran has its assholes, like every country, and I am certainly not very fond of their government, but my experience, as well as friends who have been there, is that the people you will meet are overwhelmingly friendly.
Upon arrival at Tehran airport a man offered to help get me get into Tehran, after seeing me look rather lost! He came on the bus for twenty minutes or so, before transferring to the subway. After another twenty minutes he walked with me too find the hotel I was staying at. He then said goodbye and please enjoy my country. On top of all that he payed for my transport, and it turned out he was going in the opposite direction. Welcome to Iran indeed.
I met military officers in Esfahan who hanged out and had a laugh. Off all the people who would be pissed off about where I was from, I figured it would be them, but they were very friendly, and was the same almost everywhere.

The cities and scenery are beautiful.

Iran has an amazing ancient history. The persian empire was once vast, leaving behind archaeological wonders. The cities are full of old buildings, especially eye catching mosques and old residences. The scenery goes from big city to desert, then mountainous terrain in a heartbeat. Inside the cities are huge bazaars selling everything you could envision, the most impressive of which I found in Esfahan, the cultural capital. Wandering around the huge complex, getting lost in the maze of lanes and shops, is a great way to spend a few hours.
Taking a taxi into the desert and hiking through the dunes is very peaceful. Going  into the mountains and visiting old towns filled with smiling locals, while shopping for traditional crafts. Exploring the old residences of exquisitely designed buildings, filled with grandeur in Kashan. Visiting the grand old ruins of Persepolis and other ancient sites. There are many, many other such good things to see and do.

The food.

If you never visit Iran, then at least try to find a local Persian restaurant near you too sample the delicious cuisine. Aside from the usual tasting kebabs found throughout the region, there are many other delights to discover. Sitting on the floor in an old restaurant, you can savour the taste of a camel steak with rice spiced in all kinds of flavours.
Staying at a home-stay in a desert oasis as an old grandmother cooks up eggplant in an old earthen oven, covered in fermented cheese and spices, was the best eggplant I have ever eaten. Tasty soups and stews, sweetly spiced pilaf rice, traditional Iranian ice cream. Your taste buds will not be upset!

Iran is cheap to travel.

As a budget traveller (backpacking specifically), Iran is excellent value for money.  When I visited two years ago the official bank rate was one euro to 12500 Iranian rial. But on the black market, where almost everyone changes, the rate was $1 to 19000 Iranian rial. Great! A few months after my visit, some friends got a black market rate of around $1 to 30000 rial.
You can get in cheap overland from Turkey easily, or through more hassle countries bordering Iran.  I got a cheap flight to Amsterdam from Tehran on Pegasus airlines, and a cheap flight into Tehran on Tajikistan airlines from Dushanbe.
Picking up a Persian carpet while there could be a good thing, as they are very cheap to buy at the moment.

Practicalities.

There is some strict dress codes in Iran, being a predominantly muslim country.  If you are a female visiting Iran, then you will have to wear a head scarf and a jacket that covers your butt.  This is not the kind of head scarf that covers your face, but over the hair.  The headscarf is a law in Iran and must be worn.  As bad as that may sound, many female friends visited Iran and had no problems.  It certainly is not ideal, but it has to be done.
Men must wear trousers in Iran, no shorts are allowed. Alcohol is illegal, so don’t expect crazy parties! However if you really want a drink, you could find some underground places to do that.

Getting an Iranian visa.

Now you have a decent enough reason to visit Iran, lets get onto the hard part, getting an Iranian visa.  This is the real bitch of a visit to Iran, the visa. All off this information is valid as of February 2014.  Things can obviously change in the future.
If you are from the U.S.A. then there is some bad news, you cannot get an independent visa to visit Iran. This is all political of course, with huge distrust between the two governments. The only way US citizens can visit Iran is on an organised tour. (UPDATE: As of March 2014 British and Canadians also need to be on an organised tour, but the method of using an agency for a visa is still valid for other nationalities). Also some travellers I met have reported that it is quite easy to get an Iranian visa in Trabzon, Turkey, although I cannot independently verify this.
For the rest of the world it depends on your country as to how much a visa costs. As it would be very impractical to list all countries requirements, do a web search for your own specific one. The visa cost for me as a UK citizen back in 2011 was a whopping $250! But then again our governments don’t exactly get along.
Having said that, friends from other countries who get cheaper visas, such as The Netherlands, got denied a visa all together, while others from The Netherlands did get a visa. Fellow citizens from my country got denied a visa, while I got one. It seems to be a lottery on who gets a visa or not. It is a rather strange system.
The way I got my visa was to use a travel agency based in Tehran, in my case key2persia. For a fee (check their website), they will apply in Tehran for you and hopefully get a visa clearance number. They will email this to you, where you will then take it to the Iranian embassy or consulate you chose to get the visa from. This whole process can take up to a month, not easy or convenient.

Go to Iran.

Despite the hassles of getting a visa, a visit to Iran should leave you very happy. If anything go there to meet the diverse and friendly people. Ignore the bad press and go and pay a visit, you will most likely be glad you did.

Traditional Persian residential architecture

Traditional Persian residential architecture, is the architecture employed by builders and craftsmen in the cultural Greater Iran and the surrounding regions to construct vernacular houses. The art draws from various cultures and elements from both Islamic and pre-Islamic times.
Being situated on the edge of deserts and arid regions, Persian (Iranian) cities typically have hot summers, and cold, dry winters. Thus Iran’s traditional architecture is designed in proportion to its climatic conditions, and more than often, the unique fabled artistic background of Persia makes up for the seemingly lack of natural resources and beauty. The existence of hundreds of traditional houses with handsome designs even today amidst ugly apartments in Iran's hasty modernization projects is testament to a deep heritage of Architecture.

Iran's old city fabric is composed of narrow winding streets called koocheh with high walls of adobe and brick, often roofed at various intervals. This form of urban design, which used to be commonplace in Iran, is an optimal form of desert architecture that minimizes desert expansion and the effects of dust storms. It also maximizes daytime shades, and insulates the “fabric” from severe winter temperatures.

Islamic beliefs coupled with the necessity to defend cities against frequent foreign invasions encouraged traditional Persian residential architects to create inward seeking designs amidst these narrow complicated koochehs, weaving tightly knit residential neighborhoods. Thus the house becomes the container as opposed to the contained. These houses possess an innate system of protection; they all have enclosed gardens with maximum privacy, preventing any view into the house from the outside world. Hence residential architecture in Persia was designed in a way so as to provide maximum protection to the inhabitants during times of tension and danger, while furnishing a microcosm of tranquility that protected this inner “paradise garden”.

Neighborhoods in old Persian cities often formed around shrines of popular saints. All public facilities such as baths, houses of mourning (Tekyehs), teahouses, administration offices, and schools were to be found within the neighborhood itself. In addition to the main bazaar of the city, each neighborhood often had its own bazaar-cheh as well (i.e. “little bazaar”), as well as its own ab anbar (or public water reservoir), which provided the neighborhood with clean water. Qazvin, for example had over 100 such reservoirs before being modernized with city plumbing in modern times.

 these days the architectures are much more in progress. 

Beautiful Places to Visit In Iran

1- The Azadi Tower, formerly known as the Shahyad Tower, is a monument located at Azadi Square, in Tehran City, Iran. It is one of the symbols of Tehran, and marks the west entrance to the city.

The architect Hossein Amanat won a competition to design the building. He combined elements of the architecture of Sassanid and Achaemenid eras with the post-Islamic Iranian architecture.

 The tower is part of the Azadi Cultural Complex, located in Tehran's Azadi Square in an area of about 50,000 m². There are several fountains around the base of the tower and a museum underground.

2- Kish  is a 91.5-square-kilometre (35.3 sq mi) resort island in the Persian Gulf. It is part of the Hormozgān Province of Iran. Due to its free trade zone status it is touted as a consumer's paradise, with numerous malls, shopping centres, tourist attractions, and resort hotels. It has an estimated population of 26,000 residents and about 1 million people visit the island annually.

Kish Island was ranked among the world’s 10 most beautiful islands by The New York Times in 2010, and is the fourth most visited vacation destination in Southwest Asia after Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Sharm el-Sheikh. Foreign nationals wishing to enter Kish Free Zone from legal ports are not required to obtain visas prior to travel. Valid travel permits are stamped for 14 days by airport and Kish port police officials.

The Greek Ship (Persian: کشتی یونانی‎‎) is the nickname of a cargo steamship, Khoula F, that has been beached on the southwest coast of Kish Island, Iran, since 1966. She was built in Britain by William Hamilton and Company in Port Glasgow, Scotland, who launched her on 9 March 1943 as Empire Trumpet and completed her in April 1943.From 1946 to 1966 she passed through a series of British and Iranian owners and various changes of name.Her final owners were Greek, and it is from them that she derives her nickname.

3-Sa'at Tower also known as Tabriz Municipality Palace (Persian: کاخ شهرداری تبریز‎‎, also Romanized as Sā'at Tower) is the city hall and main office of the municipal government of Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, Iran.The Municipality was built in 1934 as the Tabriz municipal central office. After World War II it was used by the Azerbaijan Democrat Party as a Government Office. When Iranian troops regained control of Tabriz in 1947, the building was again used as the Tabriz municipal central offices, a function which has continued up to the present day.

4-El Gölü (Azerbaijani: El Gölü ائل گؤلو, and Persian: ائل گلی), also known as Shah Gölü (Persian: شاه گلی‎‎, Azerbaijani: Şah Gölü) is the name of a large park in Tabriz,Iran. It has an square artificial lake surrounded by side walk in four sides.

There is also a building in the middle of the lake, with traditional architecture of Iranian Azerbaijan. In South of the lake there is a hill covered by trees. Two beautiful stairways connecting the side walks to the top of the hill. At top of the hill there is a building with modern architecture (Hotel Pars building). There is also a small luna park next to the park.

5- Maqbarat-o-shoara (Persian: مقبرةالشعراء‎‎) or the Mausoleum of Poets (Persian: مزارِ شاعران‎‎) Mazār e Shāerān or (Persian: مزارِ سرایندگان‎‎) Mazār e Sorāyandegān belongs to poets, mystics and famous people, located in the Surkhab district of Tabriz in Iran. It was built by Tahmaseb Dolatshahi in the mid-1970s while he was the Secretary of Arts and Cultures of East Azarbaijan.
On the east side of Sayyed Hamzeh's grave and Ghaem Magham's grave, there is a graveyard containing the graves of important poets, mystics, scientists and well-known people of Tabriz. The Mausoleum was first mentioned by the medieval historian Hamdollah Mostowfi in his Nozhat ol-Gholub. Hamdollah mentions it being located in what, at the time, was the Surkhab district of Tabriz.

Since the 1970s, there have been attempts to renovate the graveyard area. Some work has been carried out like the construction of a new symbolic building on this site.

6-The Bazaar of Tabriz (Persian: بازار تبریز‎‎, also Romanized as Bāzār-e Tabriz) is a historical market situated in the city center of Tabriz, Iran. It is one of the oldest bazaars in the Middle East and the largest covered bazaar in the world  and is one of Iran's UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

7-The ancient city of Isfahan, the former Persian capital from 1598 to 1722, is considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world – and is Iran's number-one tourist destination. Leafy streets, hand-painted tiling and the famous Islamic architecture are unparalleled by any other Iranian city, centred around the magnificent Unesco-listed Naghsh-e Jahan Square. One of the world’s largest city squares, it is home to several magnificent monuments, the Shah Mosque, the Lotfollah Mosque, the Ali Qapu Palace and the Imperial Bazaar.

 

8-Isfahan’s Allāhverdi Khan Bridge, more popularly known as Si-o-seh pol, has two rows of 33 arches over the Zayandeh River.

9-Perspolis Founded by Darius I in 518 BC, Persepolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire and is situated around 70km north-east of the city of Shiraz. 

10-Pasargad; The tomb of Cyrus the Great, in the Pasargadae World Heritage Site, is believed to date back to the 4th century BC

11-Narenjestan-e Qavam, the Qavam Orange Grove, is a 19th-century garden in Shiraz. It leads to the elegant Qavam House, decorated in a style inspired by Victorian era Europe

12-Tehran lacks the beautiful architecture of Isfahan and the history of Persepolis, but makes up for it with its range of restaurants, cafés, museums and art galleries – and its location at the foothills of the Alborz mountains make for fantastic walking trails

13-Golestan Palace is a Unesco world heritage site in Tehran, and part of a former royal complex that includes palaces and museums, decorated with intricately carved marble and mirrored halls

14- Milad Tower, also known as the Tehran Tower, is the sixth tallest tower in the world. Standing at 435m (1,427ft) high, the top floors are home to observation deck and a revolving restaurant

15-Kandovan is a village in East Azerbaijan Province containing cliff dwellings excavated inside volcanic rocks similar to those in the Turkish region of Cappadocia. These rock houses are still occupied today – at the 2006 census, the village had a population of around 600

16- The port city of Bandar Abbas is capital of Hormozgān Province on the southern coast of Iran, on the Persian Gulf. Thousands of tourists visit the city and the nearby islands, including Qeshm and Hormuz

Here is a useful video that why you should NEVER visit Iran!

Infrastructure and the economy

In the early 2000s the industry still faced serious limitations in infrastructure, communications, regulatory norms, and personnel training. In late 2003 there were about 640 hotels in Iran and around 63,000 beds.
In FY 2003 Iran had about 69,000 restaurants and 6,000 hotels and other lodging places; about 80 percent of these establishments were in urban areas. Some 875 restaurants and hotels were publicly managed by cooperatives and government organizations. More than 95 percent of restaurants and hotels had fewer than five employees, and only 38 had more than 100 employees. In FY 2002 this sector employed more than 166,000 people, 42,000 of whom worked in places of lodging. Of the 56,618 beds in all hotels, about half were located in three- to five-star hotels.
In recent years, 235 hotels, hotel apartments, motels and guesthouses have become operational nationwide. As at 2010, 400 hotels and 200 hotel apartments are under construction nationwide. Some 66 percent of these projects are underway in the provinces of Tehran, Gilan, Mazandaran, Razavi Khorasan and Isfahan.
source; Wikipedia

Foreign visitors

The most up-to-date figures from the World Tourism Organisation for the origin of visitors to Iran show that building up visitors from the Islamic and wider Asian world will have to start from a low base. Around three-quarters of those entering Iran in 1999 came from Europe.According to the New York Times, unlike most Americans who stopped visiting Iran after the Revolution, European tourists continued to visit the country in similar numbers after the revolution. This was mainly because the Revolution was far more Anti-American and not so much Anti-European.

The majority of the 300,000 tourist visas granted in 2003 were obtained by Asian Muslims, who presumably intended to visit important pilgrimage sites in Mashhad and Qom. Several organized tours from Germany, France, UK and other European countries come to Iran annually to visit archaeological sites and monuments.
According to Iranian officials, about 1,659,000 foreign tourists visited Iran in 2004 - although government statistics don't distinguish between tourism, business and religious pilgrims; most came from Asian countries, including the republics of Central Asia, while a small share (about 10%) came from North America and the European Union including Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, France, Belgium. The most popular tourist destinations are Esfahan, Mashhad, and Shiraz.
From 2004, the country experienced a 100-percent growth in foreign tourist arrivals until mid-2008 when the number of foreign arrivals surged up to 2.5 million. Specially, there has been an enormous increase in the number of German tourists traveling to Iran in 2008.
The World Travel and Tourism Council claims that business and personal tourism rose by 11.3% and 4.6%, respectively, in real terms in 2007, with the growth in personal tourism only modestly below that of the preceding year.

In 2011, most of Iran’s international visitors arrived in Iran solely for the purpose of leisure travel. Leisure tourists arriving from abroad are also often relatives of Iranian citizens or expatriates residing outside of Iran returning to visit. Another key segment of international arrival traffic are pilgrims come to pay a visit to one of the many holy sites scattered throughout the country.
The number of international arrivals has been steadily increasing, up from 2.2 million people in 2009 to 3.6 million in 2011, with per capita spending of $1,850 per visit on average.
Over five million tourists visited Iran in the fiscal year of 2014-2015, ending March 21, four percent more year-on-year.

Tourism in Iran

The landscape of Iran is diverse, providing a range of activities from hiking and skiing in the Alborz mountains, to beach holidays by the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea. Over the next five years a number of tourism-friendly infrastructure projects will be undertaken on the Persian Gulf island of Kish, which at present attracts around 1m visitors per year, the majority of whom are Iranian.
Before the Iranian revolution, tourism was characterized by significant numbers of visitors traveling to Iran for its diverse attractions, boasting cultural splendours and a diverse and beautiful landscape suitable for a range of activities. Tourism declined dramatically during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the majority of foreign visitors to Iran have been religious pilgrims and businesspeople. Official figures do not distinguish between those travelling to Iran for business and those coming for pleasure, and they also include a large number of diaspora Iranians returning to visit their families in Iran or making pilgrimages to holy Shia sites near Mashhad and elsewhere. Domestic tourism in Iran is one of the largest in the world.

Despite the international tensions, the government continues to project strong rises in visitor numbers and tourism revenue for the foreseeable future, and to talk of projects to build an additional 100 hotels, for example, to expand its currently limited stock. In 2013, the number of foreign tourists in Iran reached 4.76 million, contributing more than $2 billion to the national economy.The strong devaluation of the Iranian Rial since early 2012 is also a positive element for tourism in Iran. Over five million tourists visited Iran in the fiscal year of 2014-2015, ending March 21, four percent more year-on-year.
According to a report published by World Travel and Tourism Council in 2015 the size of its tourism industry – including cultural and ecotourism as major components of it – is estimated as having the potential to create jobs for 1,285,500 and rise by 4.1% pa to 1,913,000 jobs in 2025. based on the report in the year of 2014 Travel & Tourism directly supported 413,000 jobs (1.8% of total employment). This is expected to rise by 4.4% in 2015 and rise by 4.3% pa to 656,000 jobs (2.2% of total employment). in 2025.