Destination: Iran
LONELY PLANET'S OFFICIAL ITINERARY INFORMATION
Itinerary: In the footsteps of empire
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TWO WEEKS / THERAN TO THERAN
If two weeks is all you can afford, or all the time your visa permits, it’s just long enough to get a decent taste of the jewels of Iran’s rich history.
Fly into Tehran and spend two days seeing the Golestan Palace, Tehran Bazaar and a couple of museums. Fly to Ahvaz, from where you can spend a day seeing Shush and Choqa Zanbil. Take a bus (10 hours) to Shiraz, where three days will allow you to see the mosques and gardens of the Zand dynasty and, of course, the monumental ruins of Persepolis.
Take a bus or, better, hire a taxi and stop in Abarqu on the way to Yazd, where you can spend a day wandering the twisting lanes of the old town, gaping at the Jameh Mosque and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence. Eating and sleeping in the atmospheric old-town hotels of Yazd will be a highlight of your trip. On your second day, hire a guide for a tour taking in Meybod, the picturesque Zoroastrian pilgrimage site at Chak Chak and the charming mud village of Kharanaq.
Catch a bus (four hours) to Esfahan, Iran’s most architecturally stunning city, for two days exploring the wonders of the Safavid Shah Abbas’s magnificent Imam Sq, the Bazar-e Bozorg, the sublime bridges across the Zayandeh River and the Armenian community at Jolfa. An easy bus trip brings you to Kashan, where you can scramble over the roofs of both the bazaar and the incredible Qajar-period traditional houses, and take a day trip to Abyaneh.
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