Can anyone recommend hotels or accomodation (cheap as poss) in Iran? We'll be coming in from Turkey in Sept-Oct and heading to Tehran to get Pakistan visas then spending as long as the visas allow travelling around but also meeting friends of friends in Shiraz.

I've heard of a hotel chain called Loma?? Is there an alternative to Hotels? A friend mentioned that schools sometimes take in guests.

Thanks.

Can def recommend Akbar's in Bam.

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-in-iran-42618

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...n-tabriz-24048

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My little Vid: India/Pakistan

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Suzuki DR650 SE: Ride it like ya stole it. Oh, somebody just did...

In Tabriz you can camp in the park, the place is popular with locals for picnics etc as well. In Yazd, the Silk Route Hotel is a bit of an institution. Not as cheap as others, but it has dorms if you are on a budget, and is generally a nice place to stay.

I'd say camping is safe almost anywhere and Iranians do it in the most unlikely places. You will get a lot of attention though and won't get much sleep :-)

If you want dirt cheap ask the locals. It is easy to stop a local biker and ask. Most likely they will guide you to a place or invite you into their home :-) Other than that, the LP Iran is pretty good actually. Few places mixed up and poor maps at times but good for a general idea of what is available in a given area. Prices outdated though. Some have gone up, some down. Always worth to negotiate. Generally you pay per person, not per room, which worked great for me as a solo traveler.

The Good:

* Apadana Hotel (Lat 29°56'10.51"N, Lon 52°53'10.92"E) between the ticket booth and the entrance to Persepolis. $25/single/night with views of Persepolis from the room. Probably the best value in Iran. Not in Lonely planet and much better deal than the bungalows at the campground down the road. Safe parking in gated lot in the back. They have an espresso machine too :-) Fake grotto restaurant a few k downs the road has good food.

* Hotel Iran in Esfahan (Lat 32°39'18.24"N, Lon 51°40'6.59"E). $20ish/single/night. Much nicer than described in LP. Easy walking distance to main sights. Very helpful owners speak English fluently and went the extra mile to get me some bike stuff. Spent almost two weeks there on two different trips. They can arrange safe parking nearby. One bike fits in entrance.

* Arian Hotel in Hamadan (34.793214, 48.522290, ). OK, not really cheap and hard to negotiate down but very nice with safe parking.

* Reza Hotel in Orumiyeh (37.550284, 45.073515) the first town after the Esendere/Serou border crossing. $20ish/single/night. Very nice and helpful owner, free safe parking next door, best elevator music in the country. The owner gave me a camel bag that another biker had left behind a year ago. That alone was worth more than what I paid for the room :-)

* Camping at Takht-e-Soleyman ( 36°36'6.19"N, 47°14'13.39"E)

* Silk Road Hotel in Yazd ( 31°54'2.82"N, 54°22'13.81"E). I stayed there twice and I personally think the hype has gotten the better of them at times. Service is a bit up and down but it is still a nice place with a welcome change from the standard Iranian road side food. Excellent place to meet other travelers. Generally a nice place to take a little vacation from your vacation. Other great choices in Yazd too in the same price range.

* Khan-e Ehsan Hotel in Kashan ( 33°58'49.35"N, 51°26'38.19"E). They have a couple of cheaper rooms on the roof, meant for Iranians only ($20ish). You can ride onto the roof from one side and park the bike outside the room.



* Firouzeh Hotel in Tehran. The hotel is actually pretty run down and basic and too expensive for what it is, but Mr. Mousavi at the front desk can organize all sorts of things (for a small cut :-) ), which can be a real time and money saver. Not sure about parking though. Only stayed there on a snowboarding trip. They have a web page (firouzehhotel.com - welcome) and are usually pretty responsive and can probably tell you ahead of time. Easy to store gear there. It is in the South of Tehran, smack in the middle of all the auto parts stores.

* Camping at Lake Ovan ( 36°28'59.71"N, 50°26'44.04"E). You can even go for a swim.



OK, I got my boots stolen but that lead to all kinds of interesting things. Just watch out for this guy :-) Didn't have the heart to keep him locked up and made a deal with the judge. He's out and about again.



The Bad:
* Hotel Zand in Shiraz. Not much besides safe parking. Filthy, overpriced, and insanely hot. You can do much better for that price. Doing it again I'd rather stay at the Apadana in Persepolis and ride into Shiraz for sightseeing.

* Hotel Karon in Khorramabad (33.48536900, 48.36078600). Plenty of safe parking is the redeeming feature of this place. Other than that pretty filthy, noisy, and overpriced. Other, better looking places around the corner.

A bit more at Iran | On The Road

Thanks for the info guys. There's lots there to go on.

BB

www.thebarkingbikers.blogspot.com

Hi fellow travelers,

We just found a wonderful place to stay in the middle of the Dasht-e Kavir desert, Iran. Some three years ago, young and open-minded Rohab Moghimi started a guest house at his parents' place in Khur. It's a great spot to start exploring the Dasht-e Kavir. From Khur, you can easily visit the sand dunes near the village of Mesr, spend a night on a roof top in the almost abandoned village of Arusan (three people still living there), drive to the salt desert (biggest seasonal salt lake in the world) and take a swim in the very salty water or go to the laid-back oasis village of Garmeh.

The atmosphere at Rohab's guest house is very warm and his mother will cook you an excellent meal. Just watch out for Crazy Amir, Rohab's 12 year old funny brother. In the near future, Rohab has plans to restore an old abandoned village to welcome more tourists. In our humble opinion, a visit to Iran with the bike would be almost incomplete without passing by Rohab. He truly is a great and very correct guy and speaks good English as well.

The details:

Kavir Guest House - Khur
Rohab Moghimi
E rohabmoghimi@yahoo.com
M +98 9138687993
GPS N 33 46'50.1" E 55 04'53.6

Enjoy!

Ingrid and Stijn

Referring to the post above, we think a visit to Irans other mayor desert - the Dasht-e Lut - is very worthwhile as well.

The city of Kerman might be a good place to start your trip to desert. In that case, surely spend a night at Jalal Mehdizadeh's place. Has interesting ideas about philosophy and is very knowledgeable about the region. Safe parking, nice room. 450000 Rials for two people, including breakfast.

Jalal speaks good English and is fluent in German.

No. 11 Gharbi 3-In Varzesh, near the Ashura roundabout
M +98 913 142 31 74
E jalalguesthouse@yahoo.de
GPS N30 18'27.1" E57 03'42.4"

If you drive to the Kaluts, there is a nice huge camp site (empty when we were there) with running water. Good place to enjoy the stars: GPS N30 34'41.0" E57 51'04.0"

Great views at N30 48'06.5" E57 46'18.0". We were planning to wild camp there, but the wind was blowing so heavily we decided not to. On a calmer night might be superb, however.

Enjoy,

Ingrid and Stijn

have a look at bike friendly places iran, i wrote some commends there couple of months ago,

enjoy your trip,

greetz Els

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I'd like to let you know that I used this post quite a bit while travelling through Iran.

November 2014 update

Akbar Guesthouse in Bam. Beds are very hard, but Akbar and his manager are nice guys.
We came from Pakistan and had to stay in Bam, but I would not visit Bam again, the Citadell is nice (despite almost completely ruined) but Bam itself is not a very nice place. Iff you go, make sure you buy a box of dates, they are awesome!

Silk road Hotel in Yazd. Still good.

Niayesh hotel Shiraz. Nice hotel. Stayed in the dorm. 300.000r /night with breakfast (a very good breakfast).
Niayesh Boutique Hotel | Shiraz Traditional Hotel | Shiraz Cheap Hotel

Iran Hotel, Esfahan. Still good. Very friendly owner. Safe parking in a garage few minutes away.

Ehsan House in Kashan. Very nice. Park bikes on the roof.

Firouzeh Hotel in Teheran, same

If you decide to take the Serow /Essendere border to Turkey (which was easy, and they're updating the border on the Turkisch side with new customs buildings), Hosseins Guesthouse in Urmia is a good place to stay the night before crossing the border. With fresh baked bread and homemade cherry jam and lots of tea in the morning!

Also, I had send some parts Poste Restante to Tehran Iran. Was very good. Parcel arrived from the Netherlands in Iran withing a week. Collected it a month later and was still there. Had to pay 180.000r for collection (6 dollars or so).

Address I used for Poste restante.


[Your Name]
Poste Restante (Poste E Amaani)
Main Post Office
Sa'di Street
Tehran
Iran

Mind you, I used just regular post (no DHL or whatever) but with Tracking Number!


I had another parcel send to me (I drive a Moto Guzzi!). I had is send to Hossein in Urmia. Have not picked it up yet, but it arrived in two weeks from Holland.

Iran is great. The roads are very good. German Autobahn quality

People are friendly; this afternoon, on the highway somebody tried to hand me over a cup of tea while driving at 100km/h

Tim

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Great tips. Iran is a fantastic place and as said, you'll get invited a lot. In a pinch you can also sleep.. in a mosque! I was amazed to find out that many traveling Iranians do that, in fact there's often a mosque next to the petrol stations and they sleep on the carpets. Totally out of question in Suni mosques, though (ever tried to do that in a church..?), so the world is full of surprises.

No safe parking though (bummer).

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