Getting there: Pre-trip planning

After falling in love with the tiles and mosques of Istanbul one year earlier, I was set on visiting Iran. Not only was I dying to visit the famous mosques and ancient Persepolis, but I became increasingly curious of Iran as a country: its people, its culture, the food and everyday life in Iran.

Unfortunately finding a travel partner was not so easy, most people did not share my excitement for Iran and thought of it as a dangerous destination as conjured in Hollywood movies. Traveling alone as a woman in Iran did not make me feel comfortable due to the Sharia law in the country, so I resorted to group travel at first. Nevertheless, the tours were leaving on specific dates which made it difficult for me to join, and most travel agencies that I approached informed me that it was totally safe to travel to Iran alone. Taking into consideration my dislike for organised group travel and my love for independent travel I decided to take the leap.

Deciding when to go

I originally intended to travel in October or November and hopefully find a travel partner by that time. However, a change of plans meant that I would be leaving Europe for good mid-June, which would make it more difficult for me to organize such a trip all the way from Latin-America. It was then that I took my other crazy decision: not just traveling to Iran alone but traveling to Iran during Ramadan. I had previously been in 45 ·C and I figured the impressiveness of the sights would make the heat bearable. Although it was a unique experience to visit Iran during Ramadan, if I were to go again I would try to plan my trip for a different date due to the heat and the fact that most restaurants will be closed until sunset. As you rightfully imagine, the heat feels even more intense while wearing the hejab (headscarf & robe).

Choosing a flight

The first step towards planning my trip was searching for flights to Tehran and deciding how many days to spend there. In the end I settled on 10 days considering it would be enough time to visit a few cities (it was! of course you could always stay longer but 10 days was enough to cover the highlights). I decided to take a direct flight from Amsterdam to Tehran, which cost me approx. 400 euros for the month of June. The round trip ticket was relatively cheap, and although there were cheaper ones, they involved long stop-overs in Ukraine, Istanbul, or Dubai. In the end I flew with KLM and I must say it was a very pleasant 5 hour flight. Tip: Make sure you already have your headscarf with you during the flight as you will need to wear it as soon as you exit the aircraft. 

Getting your visa

I had heard that obtaining a visa could take quite some time. This made me a little worried as I started to plan my trip only 2 months before departure. In the end the process was quite easy. There is an official page from the Iranian government where you must fill in your personal and trip information and upload your passport picture (http://evisa.mfa.ir/en/). There are agencies that offer to do this for an additional fee but this is not necessary as the online process is quite easy. Women do not need to wear a headscarf on the visa application picture, a regular passport picture will do. Once you fill in the online form, you will receive a confirmation code with which you can pick up your visa at the Iranian Consulate. The payment of the visa takes place at the consulate and was approximately 50 EUR. You can also get a visa upon arrival at the airport in Tehran, however to minimize risks I decided to get mine before arriving to Tehran. All in all it took me about a week to get my visa which was unexpectedly fast!

Planning your itinerary

After doing some research and googling lots of pictures I decided to split my time between Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan.

Tehran is a huge city that somehow reminded me of Mexico City with the traffic jams, pollution, and mountainous terrain. I visited some amazing museums there, my favorite being the Carpet Museum and the Museum of the Jewels of the Shah. The city also has some great restaurants and Bazaars and I found this the most ¨fun¨ part of the trip.

Shiraz was in my experience a more down to earth city with the incredible ancient site of Persepolis and some beautiful mosques and shrines, including the famous ¨pink mosque¨ of Nassir al Molk. The Bazaar was also quite special as it is a little smaller and less crowded, yet you can find most of the things that you would find in the Bazaar in Tehran and look around in a more relaxed way. The rugs sold in the Bazaar had a stronger tribal influence in the design. Tehran rugs are known to be cheaper due to the fierce competition in the Bazaar though. Since I was moving countries I unfortunately did not buy any rugs, however this adds to my motivation to visit the country again.

Isfahan is an extremely beautiful, more conservative city, featuring Iran´s most famous mosques, palaces, and squares. The Bazaar here is also quite large, although I did not have the opportunity to shop in it as most shops in Isfahan were closed during the day due to Ramadan. Tip: If you are stubborn like me and decide to go during Ramadan and you´re looking for an open café before sunset, visit the café inside the Ali Gapu Palace museum, where you can get thirst-quenching lemonade and saffron ice cream as part of a break when you visit the main sites on the square.

I would have liked to extend my trip to Mashad, but due to time constraints I had to leave it out this time. Hopefully on a second trip I will be able to visit Mashad and Yazd.

Choosing your mode of transport

Traveling alone made me a little insecure about traveling by land. I am sure that it is safe to travel by train/bus, however considering the fact that I was alone and I wanted to make my trip more comfortable, I decided to travel between the different cities by plane with IranAir. The flights were quite cheap at 50USD per trip. The planes were old due to the economic sanctions; my plane still had an ashtray for cigarettes on the arm rest, and with the rubber of the door loose, the emergency exit did not look as it should have. Nonetheless, this added to the experience of the trip. Other than some intense turbulence due to (I suppose) the heat waves when landing in Shiraz, (where I was pretty sure the plane was going to crash and almost fainted!), the rest of the flights were perfectly fine and I´m sure it was just bad luck. The views from the plane were amazing as I could see the mountains and deserts below, including the impressive pink salt lake just before landing at Shiraz airport. The service from IranAir was very friendly and I look forward to flying aboard their newer planes in the future.

Tip: It would be useful to learn some numbers in Farsi as the gate numbers at the local airports were only in Farsi and not everyone spoke English. This also made me a bit nervous because my flight was delayed and I wasn´t sure where to go, but eventually I found someone who spoke English/French and could help me out. I was ignorantly unaware of the numerical alphabet also being different in Iran.

When lining up for the security check I took it for granted to line up with my suitcase as I have always done at airports. However I soon learned from the person behind me that women must load the suitcase unto the Xray belt and then line up at a separate part shielded by make shift walls were you may be frisked by another woman. You will exit this part right at the end of the X-ray check and be able to pick up your suitcase. Communication was a bit difficult as everyone thought that I was Iranian and since they were speaking Farsi I did not notice that they were speaking to me unless they were directly in front of me.

In Shiraz I arranged for a very friendly and knowledgable guide, his name was Saif and his phone number is the following +989173163716. His English was quite good and he gave me some general tips for traveling in Iran as well as insider tips. His prices were also quite moderate, his car is a little old but I personally don´t care much about that, especially considering he played some really cool music on the way to the sights.

In Isfahan I took an official airport taxi to my hotel and from there onwards I asked the receptionist to order a taxi for me for the different sights. This is easier to do in Isfahan as the sights are inside the city, whereas in Shiraz they can be located further away along the high-way. Taxi drivers are quite flexible as you can ask them to wait for you in the car or to pick you up at a certain time. Always make sure to inquire the price at your hotel and not directly from the driver to make sure you get a better price.

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