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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www.waarjijnunietbent.nl

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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2- and 4-wheeled explorer and photographer
Overland Aventure