“7 fantastic days in Iran”
Reviewed 6 days ago NEW
Three big cheers! One for Iran and its lovely people, another for Uppersia for a well organised trip and a last but by no means least and perhaps the loudest cheer of all for our guide Seyed Ali Mohammad Hosseini, Ali for short.
Where to start? I travelled with my grown up son with neither of us really knowing what to expect.
We were picked up at the airport in the early morning and very soon experienced what was to my eyes an utterly chaotic traffic system but a system which by the end of the week seemed almost normal though crossing the main streets needed a lot of concentration and nerve. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel, met our guide and by 9.am we were off sight-seeing in Tehran with a very full day of visits.
Ali is a young man with a great knowledge of all the sites we visited and, which I think is vital in a tour guide , he has a good sense of humour.
Next day we flew down to Shiraz in Fars province. Shiraz is both the traditional and contemporary cultural heart of Iran and as Ali is a very enthusiastic and proud Shirazi we got the works. It was Ali's birthday while we were there and he invited us to a party in his friends new cafe, It was a great night of boisterous fun and singing. Not a drop of booze in sight.
From Shiraz we took a very comfortable and spacious coach trip up to Isfahan. It is a quite a long trip in the coach which I was not particularly looking forward to but because there was plenty of room on the VIP coach and the scenery was all new it went much more quickly than I imagined it would. It also gave me a chance to rest my feet because we had had a full on itinerary so far.
Isfahan was a real treat. Ali quoted and translated with passion the poetry of the 14th century, Shiraz born poet Hafez as we walked along the river bank at night just above the illuminated bridge of 30 arches. A great experience. Big thanks to Ali.
A particular treat for me was a visit to the the Isfahan music museum.
The staff all speak good English and give a very good tour of the museum with plenty of good humour particularly from the curator. There is a craftsman in his workshop to show you how the instruments are made and repaired. After the tour there is a short concert played in an intimate room below the museum. We were fortunate to have four musicians playing for us, stringed instruments and percussion. They somehow knew it was Ali's birthday and did a rendition of Happy Birthday that I am unlikely to hear the likes of ever again. A real treat of a visit with a lot of humour and affection. Eventually we got back to Tehran to finish the tour with a day at the Revolution celebrations on Feb 10th and a trip round the Golestan Palace complex which had some of the most extravagant , flamboyant and not a little ostentatious, interior decoration your are likely to see.
Next morning it was a not too early start for the airport and home to the UK.
I think we dropped lucky with several things on our trip , one, we had Ali and his birthday which everyone seemed to know about , two, the usually dry river at Isfahan was full of water which because of drought and climate change it mostly isn't but the dam up- river had been opened for a couple of weeks and we saw the famous bridge at its best and then we were in Tehran on 10th February for the celebration of the revolution of 1979 and there were thousands upon thousands of people on the street.
We visited Iran in February and the weather was ideal, cool nights of minus 2 or 3 C but sunny days up to 10 degrees. Just one afternoon of rain in Tehran. February is off peak season and all the better for it. Big sites like Persepolis were relatively empty which made for better photos and walking around in the cooler temperatures was a joy.
The 2017 convention of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations was held in Shiraz in February and the poster slogan was Iran: Friendly Faces , Open Arms, Ancient Cultures, Timeless Charms. - and that is exactly what we found.
Paul Williams
P.S. To all Shirazis 'May the Fars be with you'
Visited February 2017
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