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>>1076051
I've never been to Iran but everyone who has gets super passionate about what a great place it is, and super pissed at any ideas to the contrary.
And I do mean everyone; I don't think it's possible to find a single negative review of travel to Iran. Even Rick Steves loved it.
And Iran's in the Middle East.

I've been to Iran. Loved it. You should go, everyone should go. But I hope you're not American, OP. Americans need guides accompanying them.
I brought the lonely planet phrasebook with me. Really helped me out a lot.
If you have any questions just ask.

>>1076096
I'm just worried about its security. I'm probably wrong tho, i just looked at the map again and realised iraq is inbetween iran and syria so it's probably not any more dangerous than visiting turkey or egypt
can you name some places to go? just some names i can throw at google

>>1076198
I've not been but am looking in to it. I'm British so it's much easier than if you're American, but there are a lot of reports about how there are women who go alone and have the best time of their lives their.

It's about seven times the size of England so unless you're near the borders you will be fine. I am hoping to go to Tehran and Esfahan, but may travel elsewhere.

Despite not needing a guide, I am still tempted by it.

>>1076198
There is nothing dangerous about Iran. Please be aware of their religious laws though. I.e. keep your distance between the opposite sex, no alcohol, no homosexuality, no public affection...
Turkey and Egypt are way more dangerous than Iran. Both countries have regular bombings and Turkey is pretty much at civil war. There is no ISIS, Al Qaieda or whatever in Iran. Iran is the only country in the entire middle east that has its shit together.
Esfahan is an obvious pick. In Teheran i do recommend Khomeini's mausoleum. Non muslims are welcome, it's the only place where you'll see women praying btw.
I really liked Qom, Yazd and Shiraz too, moreso than Esfahan tbqh. They say the Mazandaran province and the Persian Gulf are beautiful in terms of nature, i have yet to visit both regions. Other good cities would be Kerman, Kermanshah and Mashhad, though i didn't make it to any. I did go to kashan, which i don't recommend, and Tabriz, which has some interesting atractions nearby, plus it's on the way from Armenia, another country i like a lot.
Be aware that the visa process, though not very difficult, may take some time, particularly for Britons. Don't leave it till the last moment. You don't need proof of onward travel.

>>1076232
There's no reason why you should get a guide. Iranians are friendly and helpful. Do your research before you go, and again, i do recommend bringing a phrasebook as many Iranians don't speak English. The different alphabet and numerals are an extra hurdle.

>>1076248
>There's no reason why you should get a guide
WTF. Did you mean there's no reason why you should need a guide? Because there are lots of reasons to get one.

I'd stay out of Iran, anon, unless you are muslim and from some friendly state citizenship. Your desire to go can be best described as naivete. If you don't have the money of a Bourdain, or the fixers, you should assume that when Rick Steves went there, he was well connected too, and has a name that isn't going to be tolerated within a jail.

>>1076252
What the fuck? Are you serious? I spent three and a half weeks in Iran by myself and i had the time of my life. I'm a christian from Belgium and you are full of shit.

Besides, Iran is cheap as fuck.
Not once did i hear 'marg bar amrica' (death to/down with the usa). Only when i kept asking did some people say they didn't like the us government, but the people are okay and more than welcome to visit. They couldn't stress this enough. I had more people straight up tell me they hated the ayatollah.
Please tell me anon, how do you know so much about iran?

>>1076252
Certified shitpost

I've been to Iran three times now for around a month each time. I love the place and I've now been studying the language for a year. Pro tip for foreigners, if you are into having a good time (i.e. drinking, getting high and flirting with local girls) then you can do these things pretty easily but you should stick to places like Shiraz, Esfahan, Tehran and Rasht. These cities have a fairly liberal culture and many Iranians there are not remotely religious. Consider meeting up with locals from couch surfing or something to get into a social circle. Things are noticeably different in cities like Mashhad and Yazd where most women wear the chador and things are pretty boring to be honest (except for seeing the attractions).

Learn some Persian if you can, because except among educated people (of which there are many) there isn't a lot of English spoken. It can be challenging getting around remote areas and interacting there.

>>1076252
Im fairly certain that you wont get problems with muslims there, ever. The only case i could think of would be some muslim asking you ethical or political questions and you giving dumb answers. If you're in a alcohol forbidding state, inhabited by people that dislike alcohol, you shouldnt talk about how much alcohol you're drinking back at home.

Stay out of protests, dont photograph military, political or otherwise important things. Just bring some money, have a good time, dont be an asshole, dont be a criminal, and go home once you're done. You should be fine. And come on now, unless you're driving around in a terrorist-occupied desert alone you wont get kidnapped.

>>1076271
man today i tried to just read some persian letters and their alphabet alone is confusing as shit. i imagine its difficulty is on par with german, with the completely different alphabet ontop of that

>>1076274
Arabic script is tough, but the Persian language is staggeringly easy to learn, at least for travel purposes. Do the first couple lessons with Pimsleur and you'll see what I mean.
Persian is a textbook example of how large empires tended to develop very simple standard languages that all subjects could understand.

>>1076307
why all the rules about letters being different at the start and the end of a word then? why all the stuff about vowels not being directly visible like in roman alphabet? why so many non-distinctive letters? i mean some letters are differentiated by "2 or 3 dots". When i have to write down something by hand quickly i fuck up a lot of things and getting dots ontop of each other or doing too many or too few of them would probably happen a lot

>>1076312
We use capital letters, they don't. I'd say our capital letters are as difficult as their ending letters, because some don't even look like the lower case version: 'g' vs 'G' or 'r' vs 'R'
We also have letters that look alike: 'b' vs 'p' or 'E' vs 'F'
The vowel thing is a pain though.

Like the other anon i also learned a bit of Persian. I thought the alphabet would be impossible to learn at first, but i got the hang of it, but by no means can i 'fluently' read it yet.

>>1076273
I was once asked to leave a mosque when the friday prayer was about to start. The dude apologised to me later. That was litteraly it.

>>1076347
>I was once asked to leave a mosque when the friday prayer was about to start. The dude apologised to me later. That was litteraly it.
To be honest, i'd be completely fine with this. Politely asking me to leave a (i dont know the word for it, closed party??)? Okay for me! Just come back an hour later and you can back to whatever you were doign
>The vowel thing is a pain though.
so did you get any sense to it? i still dont know how to read vowels. Hassain seems to be the same thing as hossoin for them

>>1076312
Dude I said the alphabet was hard, the language is easy.
If you want to learn the Arabic alphabet, just go to an Arabic country. Most signs, logos, food wrappers, etc are written in both Arabic and Latin alphabets so you can compare. If you pay attention you'll learn in no time.

>>1076351
Yeah the alphabet will take a bit of work, I can read it pretty well when it's in computer print but I'm still lost when it comes to handwriting. The vowel thing sucks, after a while you'll pick up a rhythm and guess how some words are pronounced, but often you'll just have to ask someone and remember word.

It isn't essential to know though, street signs are usually in English as well so for travelling purposes it's fine to learn it using the Latin script. Like the other guy said, it's an easy language.