A worried “be careful” and “don’t get kidnapped” were the two most common reactions when I told people we’re going to Iran for holiday (well done to our parents, who were among the few exceptions).
In reality, Iran was one the most welcoming countries I’ve ever been to, and an incredible place to travel. So throw away the apocalyptic perceptions, and definitely go and visit.
In reality, Iran was one the most welcoming countries I’ve ever been to, and an incredible place to travel. So throw away the apocalyptic perceptions, and definitely go and visit.
In our case, the idea of Iran started because of my month-long break between contracts in May. It felt like a pity not to take advantage of it - especially as the travel worm started to bite again - but it turns out May isn’t the best month to travel, at least out of Europe. There’s either monsoon, snow on the mountains, still/already too cold… always some catch. Choosing a holiday destination grew to a tortuous first world problem.
Iran was one of the few interesting May-friendly destinations, but with its presidential elections due in mid-May, we went through "should-we-go-or-not" loops for weeks, locked in undecided analysis paralysis. Eventually, with no-holiday threat looming ever closer, in mid-April we decided to go for it anyway, and bought flights to Tehran.
It was a great decision and a fabulous trip, and before I delve into details, a few general impressions.
1. No, Iran isn’t dangerous. In fact, it surprised me how very safe it felt - way safer than most of the places I’ve been to. We had read it’s very safe, but we did have a slight worried doubt before leaving: which by the second day in Iran felt completely ridiculous.
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| Not worried |
2. The people are incredible. Never ever have I met people like Iranians, anywhere: overwhelmingly welcoming, friendly and helpful, in a way I’ve never seen before. You see two small kids on the street eating a huge bag of popcorn, and they stop to offer you some. You ask in a shop if they sell water, and they don’t - but they fill up your bottle from their deposit.
And they stop to talk to you, all the time, everywhere - on the street, in the train, in a shop – but they do it in a way which is strangely un-annoying. They ask where you are from, how you like Iran, what you think of the people, and what was your idea of the country before coming - and they invariably end with a “welcome to Iran”. Two older men came up to us in a park for a short chat, and to tell us “we are not terrorists” in Iran. One evening we ended up spending over two hours chatting (and eating ice-cream) with a young Iranian couple. Not a single person wanted anything from us – they just wanted to talk.
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| This lady started to talk to me on the train. When we randomly met for the third time, we had to take a photo together. |
3. Iran is the only country where I never had to wait in a queue for a toilet, or look for a toilet in desperation. Public toilets are virtually everywhere, they are big, relatively clean, almost always free, and there is always a peg to hang your bag in the cubicle. Learn from this, rest of the world, please.
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| Toilets... |
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| ... toilets everywhere. Wonderful. |
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| How do you drink tea throughout a bus ride and not stop for a toilet?! |
4. Iranians love picnics. Take any public space with grass and a piece of shade, and as soon as the sun goes down a little, it fills up with groups of people, with blankets, food and even tea kettles. I’ve seen Iranians picnicking even on a narrow green strip between two three-lane roads. The fact that there are no dogs anywhere make picnics (and walking around in general) a more pleasant (and less risky) experience.
In general, I liked how Iranians live public spaces. During the heat of the day only tourists are out, but in the evenings crowds fill up the streets.
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| Any place is good for a picnic |
5. Iranians also love nose jobs – or hate their noses. I’ve seen more people with plastered noses on one average morning in Iran than during my whole life before. (In fact, Iran seems to be the country with the highest rate of nose surgery per capita - thanks Iva for the link!)
6. Carrot jam is a thing. Carrot juice is too.
7. Iranian kebab is not the kebab you know. In Iran it’s pieces of marinated meat, grilled on a stick, and accompanied by a mountain of rice. When I say meat, it can be chicken, lamb… or brains, for example.
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| Would you like cerebrum, or maybe some tongue food? |
8. Food is great, and we ate so much (though after two weeks, only Iranian food does get a little repetitive and a bit too heavy).
9. Text messages cost less if you write in Arabic script than in Latin (though I guess this isn't quite relevant for most tourists).
10. Hill slopes are just as good as billboards. Rather than ancient messages, many of these inscriptions are actually adverts.
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| Low-cost adverts |
11. They also have billboards, of course, which is where we first saw this chocolate brand. My Italian friends will appreciate.
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| Merdas - given with love |
12. Wearing headscarf – which is obligatory for women in Iran – is annoying, though less than I had expected. But it does tend to move and fall down constantly, and you see even the Iranian women arranging it all the time. It’s meant to “protect” you, like an oyster protects a pearl. In my case, it at least saved me from at least one decent sunburn.
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| One of the "this scarf is so annoying" moments |
13. Women need to have appropriate-length skirt even on pictograms.
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| Our indecent pictograms reveal more leg than pictograms in Iran. |
14. For tourists at least, the women-men separation isn’t much of an issue. Night trains (strangely) have some mixed compartments; intercity buses are mixed too; and frankly, it was great to have carriages only for women in the Tehran metro. Though women can also travel in the mixed wagons if accompanied by a man, the separate ones are definitely more comfortable and less crowded.
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| Women only beyond this point |
Overall, the country is fascinating, and it’s easy (and cheap) to travel. We met (independent) travellers in wheelchairs, and families with small kids. The country isn’t yet too touristic to be crowded, but touristic enough to be easy - getting visa on arrival, for example, is a definite gain (though admittedly, we also met dozens of group tours, consisting almost invariably of pastel-clad French, Dutch or German retirees, with average age of at least 70... in Iran they must think that we’re on the brink of dying out in Europe). We had only booked the flights and the obligatory first night in Tehran, and figured out the rest on the go.
With only two weeks, at the end we only saw the “classic” southern part of the country – but we left already thinking of another trip, to explore the north and the mountains.
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