Hi everyone,

During September-October I traveled from Turkey to UAE through Iran.
Firstly I would like to say that this was a trip of a lifetime. To anybody thinking of doing this trip I have only one thing to say....DO IT!!!

Many people have written things regarding this trip and I want to focus on one part of my trip which has not been mentioned here at all. That being the Southern part of Iran along the Persian Gulf.

After arriving to Bandar Abbas and dealing with all the bureaucracy of getting the ferry to Sharjah I had two days to wait. To put it bluntly, Bandar Abbas is not the most beautiful city I have ever been in or the most interesting. So what do you do? I met a few local people and asked them what they would recommend doing for two days. One of the guys recommended going East towards a small town called Jask which includes a nice drive and a nice village. That was the biggest understatement I have ever heard!!!

I left early on a Thursday morning and headed East from Bandar Abbas. The route was one of the most beautiful routes I have ever driven on and including amazing rock formations along the whole route. The road was very good quality and was a pleasant surprise. Also along the way I stopped in a village called Minab which had a kind of local market on Thursday and was really interesting to see.

Upon arriving to Jask I was stunned by the beauty of the beaches along the Persian Gulf. I spent the afternoon walking along the beach and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

I spent the night camping along the seafront and had a most beautiful night sky over me.

The following morning I left early morning and headed back to Bandar Abbas. I arrived back to Bandar Abbas at around 14:00 and enjoyed the thought of seeing this amazing place instead of hanging around Bandar Abbas for two whole days.

The distance to Jask is around 250 km from Bandar Abbas and the roads are fairly good compared to what I expected.

If you want to enjoy a two day trip along a most beautiful route and see amazing beaches, I would highly recommend this route for you. If you don't have two days I would still recommend that you spend one day heading East as far as you can go in order to see the incredible rock formations along the route.

If anyone wants additional information or pics, please let me know.

Cheers,
Nick

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Hi Nick,

that sounds amazing with Iran and i will keep that in mind on my way to Europe from Australia next year.

Have you got any information how to get across the border from Pakistan to Iran? The main border is closed in the moment and I'm looking for options to get into Iran from Pakistan next year. I know a lot can happen until then but let's hope not :-)

Mario

Hi Mario,

I'm not really sure about the Pakistani border as I entered Iran through Turkey.

Sorry I couldn't be of any help. If you have any questions regarding Iran, I'll be glad to help.

Nicholas

Yep, the southern coast of Iran is definitely worth visiting. Khuzestan in the SW of the country has some nice small towns (Shush, Dezful, Shushtar etc), and some pretty amazing history. The Elamite Ziggurat of Choqa Zanbil is worth a detour by anyone, as is Shush, the old Achamenid winter capital where I believe Alexander the Great met his end.





In the far SE of the country, Sistan and Baluchestan Province has the other-worldly rock formations of the Makran, and endless, deserted beaches. There are also ports full of friendly Pakistani fishermen on wooden boats, who come from Karachi and surroundings. Some are Sheedis, a minority of Afro-Pakistanis from Sindh Province...







Bandar-e Abbas is really nothing to write home about (though nearby Minab is very interesting, and the scenery around Jask is nice), but the real highlight for me was taking the car ferry to Qeshm, the largest island in the Persian Gulf, where there is the beautiful Gulf port of Bandar-e Laft. There are also mangrove swamps, caves and salt glaciers elsewhere on the island.





And of course, the way of life is slow and relaxed, and the people, even by Iranian standards, are very kind and welcoming. Few people make the effort to explore the south (because so many people make the mistake of coming to Iran in the middle of summer when the south is almost unbearably hot), but there is a lot to see...

Happy travels,

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Looks awesome.
When I was on my way to Bandar-Abbas, a few years back, I was stopped at a police check point and forced to follow an escort to Bandar Abbas. They pretended the area was unsafe for tourists. That was the only time in Iran I'd been bothered with that.
Have you had any problems in southern Iran, especially toward Baluchistan ?

Laurent

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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure

The police can be quite intrusive, but I only really had this in the south of Sistan-va Baluchistan Province. I was approaching Sravan, hoping to see the nice fortress there, but the police did not allow me to enter. I didn't know at the time, but there had just been an attack on the police station or something. I then got an escort for a couple of hours. Otherwise there were lots of checkpoints / searches but I never got an escort. I think in Jask I was made to go to the police station for some time-wasting and then was free to go again.

I deliberately travel in an unmarked Toyota pickup, as it blends in... the more obviously foreign you look, the more likely you are to get escorts.

Sticking to smaller roads is another good way to get in. If you take the road along the coast east of Minab (a very bleak stretch indeed) towards Charbahar you should be fine. If you go on the main Kerman - Zahedan highway you will be stopped and given an escort to the Pakistan border. Not sure what they would do if you said you wanted to go down to Charbahar... they might escort you all the way.

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Hi Laurent,

I didn't have any problems at all along the route I drove on towards Jask. There are police and army presence, however I wasn't stopped at all in the area.

Nick