Now you have made up your mind to travel in Iran, which cities to visit in Iran is the next question in line. While every cities has its own specialty and must-do activities and attractions, doesn’t mean that you have to go to all of them just to brag that you traveled the whole Iran. Take time in any city and experience everything it has to offer.
Here are my list of cities I visited while in Iran for 30 days:
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Mashhad
Known as holy city of Iran, where Holy shrine of Imam Reza is located as pilgrimage centre among Shiite’s followers. Tourists are allowed to enter the shrine but without camera. If you happen to visit Mashhad, don’t miss the chance to explore Kang village too.
Yazd for me is a very unique city especially its Old city of Yazd. Almost all old building in this old city have a tall structure called the wind catchers. An ancient persian technology with similar function to modern air-conditioner. Also, an old fire-worship religion , Zoroastrian is still exist in this city.
Shiraz is well known for its pink mosque or Nasr al-molk masjid. Where the refraction of sunlight hitting through colourful window glasses attracts hundreds if not thousand of tourist everyday. UNESCO heritage sites are located near Marvdasht, where visitors visit Persepolis and Pasargad. Also, Shiraz is the home to poet,Hafez.
Isfahan was once one of the largest city in the world. The famous Naghsh-e-jahan square is one of the largest city square in the world today and been gazette under UNESCO Heritage site. This square is also known as ‘Half of the world’. It is one of my favourite cites in Iran.
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Tehran
Tehran is basically a typical capital city like others in the world. But the nice thing about Tehran is it is located near to the mountains. Go for a day hike to Tochal mountain or alpine trekking in Donovan mountain.
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Qazvin
Qazvin was a medieval capital of Safavid dynasty. Explore the city and get lost in its caravanserai where travelers on the medieval silk road took rest. Know the origin of word ‘assassin’? Visit alamut castle, where Hassan Sabbah trained his recruits to be the Hashshashin with the help of hashish usage to motivate them. You will know why there is no gate in Alamut Castle.
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Tabriz
Largest city in northeastern Iran with majority of Azeri ethnic who speaks Azeri turkic as their first language before farsi. Admire the beauty of the Blue Mosque and get lost in Tabriz Grand Bazaar where all kind of goods being traded. But the most significant art In Tabriz is their Tabrizi carpet. You can find only two types of traveler here, those who just started their journey in Iran from the north, or those who are about to leave Iran and travel to Armenia or Azerbaijan.
These are the cities I managed to visit while traveling in Iran for 30 days. That’s after I extended my visa for another 2 weeks on top of free 2 weeks visa. Felt enough of troublesome to extend again, I decided to move on to Armenia. But If given more time, there are few more cities I would definitely visit. Here are few more cities to visit in Iran if time is not the limit:
- Kerman
- Kermanshah
- Bandar abbas
- Sari
- Ardabil
