We spent a week in Tehran. In contrast to what many travellers experience, we like Tehran a lot. See also our photo-impressions of Tehran and its bazaar. Of course, it is chaotic and the air quality is poor, but the city has a lot to offer. The sights are interesting, the mountainous area in the northern part of the city is beautiful and the city offers some great day trips in the surroundings. We also needed to arrange our Uzbek visa in Tehran and started the process for our Turkmen transit visa. It is not allowed to travel in Turkmenistan independently. A guide is compulsory if you want to visit the country on a tourist visa. A good alternative is the transit visa. It allows you to stay only 5 days in the country, but you can independently travel around, as long as you stay on the stretch between your entry and exit point. A visa is only granted after approval from the authorities in Turkmenistan, so we decided to start up the process in Tehran, and want to collect the visa in Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran which is close to the border with Turkmenistan. During our stay in Tehran we experienced again how friendly the Iranian people are. It seems that almost everybody wants to have a short chat with you and ‘welcome to Iran’ is the sentence we heard most, sometimes from people who shouted it to us from their cars or motorcycles when they drove passed. We also met several people who apologised for the fact that they have a ‘bad’ government. “We are no terrorists” is what they often said, but all had the confidence that it will be better in the future. Let’s hope so, because Iran is a great destination and much more traveller should visit it.

We also made a day trip from Tehran to Qom, a two-hour drive south of Tehran. Qom is a conservative city and the contrast to Tehran is huge. Tehran is the most progressive city in the country, while Qom isn’t. Qom is the second holiest town in Iran (after Mashhad), and it is also the home of most of the religious clerics that rule the country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (see also our article about our visit to Qom). After Tehran, we brought a visit to Kashan, a midsized town which we never visited before. And that is a shame because Kashan is a beautiful destination. It has a picturesque bazaar and some old historic houses that are worthwhile a visit (see also our photo impression of Kashan). Four hours further by bus is the single most popular tourist destination in Iran: Esfahan. This historic city is fabulous and even during our third visit we were still impressed as before. The old mosques are a must-see and also Esfahan’s bazaar is a journey back in time. We were lucky to visit the city in the low season, which meant few other tourists and very interesting prices for the accommodation (see also our photo impression of Esfahan).