Tehran→Kashan→Abyaneh→Isfahan→Varzaneh→Meybod→Yazd→Shiraz→Tehran
In this plan you will visit the most famous popular cities and monuments in Iran for the first timers traveling to Iran.
1. Depend on your arrival time you will check in the hotel or take a walk to Darband mountainous area to have a traditional dish called Dizy or drink a tea which is a popular activity for Tehran habitants.
2. In the second day you start your tour by visiting a world heritage site called Golestan palace where you will see a big garden including different palaces and monuments well remained from Qajar period (1789-1925). Inside these buildings you will face a huge treasure of the gifts given to the king of Iran by the other kings and politicians from different countries.
After lunch you will continue your tour by visiting the unique royal jewelry museum in the world, a huge source of diamonds, gems, gold, studded thrones, crowns and swords with gems waiting for you to hear their story about the victory and defeat of the rulers who were powerful or weak.
The old roofed bazaar of Tehran, Abgineh museum, Islamic period museum, communications museum and Mashq square are the other suggestions depend on your taste and favorites which are very close to Golestan palace.
3. After the first 2 days in the modern capital of Iran you hit the road to Kashan to see the historical houses belong to the noble and reach merchants during Qajar and Safavid period as well as Fin garden and an old public bath museum. Puppet museum and old style fabric factory are the unforgettable places you should not miss in Kashan.
On the way to Kashan 50 kilometers after Qom take a look to the colorful spicy hills on the right which make you stop for a second to take amazing photos.
At the end of this long day you will relax in one of the biggest and most beautiful traditional houses in Kashan for a night
4. This lazy morning after having a nice breakfast you will head to the red step village of Abyaneh 2200 m above sea level on Karkas Mountains where you meet old villagers in their traditional clothes specially women with colorful scarfs not black Chadors. Their still speak middle Persian which dates back to 1800 years ago in Sasanid period. Take a walk to enjoy the narrow beautiful alleys among their fruit gardens and pass the river to go up the hill to have the complete view of the village and take your best photos. You will have lunch in Abyaneh before departing to Isfahan.
After arriving to Isfahan you will have a leisure time for walking and shopping inside the roofed bazar of Isfahan the creative city of handicrafts registered by UNESCO in 2015 after a 2 hours rest.
5. This morning you go back to Naghsh-e Jahan square to visit its world heritage complex including Jame Abbasi mosque, Sheykh Lotfollah mosque, Ali Qapu palace, Chehel sotun palace and an old seeds oil factory(Assarkhaneh) .The whole area beside some collapsed palaces and gardens have been considered as Safavid governmental area.
6. In your third day in Isfahan you will start your visits with a breathtaking spiritual mosque, Jame Atiq mosque which is a world heritage museum of different Islamic periods of art from first to the end (770 – 20 century).
After lunch in a typical Armenian house changed to a restaurant through Armenian neighborhood you will visit Vank cathedral the most beautiful and important cathedral in Iran belong to Armenian emigrants. A branch of Orthodox who are the followers of Saint Grogory. They emigrate to Iran in Shah Abbas time (1616 A.D).
You feel a different atmosphere in Armenian district like a roman neighborhood. It is full of coffee shops, pizzerias and Fast food restaurants .The young lovers go there to enjoy their time in a silent romantic corner. Maybe you would like to drink a coffee or tea and take a rest as well.
Afterward your guide takes you to the most charming fantastic historical bridges in Iran according to the American orientalist and Iran expert Prof. Arthur Pop who has been buried beside khaju Bridge according to his will. The bridges are more beautiful in the evening with the lights on. If you are lucky and the river is flowing the bridges reflect in the water like a mirror which could be your best photos.
7. After 3 relaxing days in Isfahan you will head to the historical city of Yazd, one of the other unique UNESCO sites of Iran. On the way to Yazd you will turn to the desert town of Varzaneh to visit a camel mill, an Ox hydraulic system for irrigating farms and gardens and golden sand dunes. You will have a very simple local food inside the camel mill.
Your next stop will be the small town of Meybod 50 Km before Yazd. There you will visit a 6000 years old castle, an ice storage and a caravanserai.The day will end in a boutique hotel in Yazd.
8. Today you will be surprised again inside the labyrinths of the old district of Fahadan.
In this fabulous neighborhood you can feel the real life of people in desert cities. you cannot imagine how clever they had been to build their living area in a special way to get along with very difficult life in a hot weather over 50 °c while shortage of water. Everything you see here is about saving energy by using the natural power of the nature like wind catchers ,Qanats ,cisterns, high walls and narrow alleys to make shade.
Before going through the neighborhood you will visit the Zoroastrian fire temple and towers of silence, the funeral place of Zoroastrians (Dakhmeh) until 50 years ago.
Afterward you will visit Dolat Abad garden with the tallest wind catcher in Iran. This is one of the gardens in the complex of the Persian gardens registered by UNESCO as a world heritage.
9. It is time to stop waiting for visiting the glory of globally known world heritages of Pasargad and Persepolis. The tomb of the man of peace in 550 B.C Cyrus the Great and stay for a night in an old hotel exactly beside Persepolis where the first group of archeologists stayed while the excavation.
On the way to Pasargad you will stop in the historical town of Abarkuh where you will have a delicious local lunch beside one of the oldest trees in the world. A 4500 years old Cyprus.
10. Today you start your tour by walking for a couple of hours among the ruins of the most important capital of Achaemenids, Persepolis, who ruled a big part of the world called Persian empire including 28 nations (550 – 330 B.C) which destroyed by Alexander the Great. Then you will continue your tour by visiting Necropolis, a royal cemetery belong to 5 kings of Achaemenid dynasty.
10. After having lunch in a unique restaurant in Shiraz and taking a 2 hours rest in your hotel your tour starts in the city of love, poetry, orange flowers and royal gardens.
You will go to Saadi and Hafez tombs to enjoy your time inside the gardens beside the tombs of 2 famous poets in Iran and the world. Inside Hafez tomb the atmosphere is too lovely because of the young lovers opening the book of Hafez poems as a fortune teller. In the corner of the garden you can enjoy a coffee, tea, ice cream or iranian drinks.
11. this morning you will visit Narenjestan garden which has been a governmental place In Qajar period .Afterward the tour continues by visiting a lovely colorful mosque, Nasirolmilk mosque, called Pink mosque which is unique for its pink ceramic tiles and the colors creating by passing the light through the colorful glasses which makes beautiful pattern on the ground and the pillars in the mosque.
Then you will arrive to Vakil public bath museum via roofed bazaar of Shiraz. On the way you will take a look inside a beautiful religion school (madras) in which still some Mullas study religion. Afterward you will visit Saraye Moshir a well decorated small caravanserai inside bazaar .Then you stay for lunch in front of the public bath museum. After lunch you will enter the bath to feel how people used to pass their time and wash themselves in the past Inside Hammam.
After visiting the Hammam you head to Karim Khan Citadel which has been the governmental center of Iran in Zand period.
Then you go to the restaurant for the last supper in Iran and then you go to the hotel.
12. Depending on your flight hour to Tehran maybe you have time to visit Eram botanical garden as well as a Moslem monastery with shiny colorful mirror works. Finally you will fly to Tehran to depart. Goodbye is always sad but you cannot forget this trip to Iran. We hope you enjoy this trip and see you again in Iran for another amazing plan in the future.
