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Custom Iran Tours from the US:
The Classic Tour

13 days and 12 nights,
including UNESCO World Heritage sites

13 days/13 nights. Prices based on all in the group traveling together in one vehicle.

Starting at $2395 per Person

All Prices Have Been Sharply Reduced due to Downward Movement of Iranian Currency. Call Us for Current Prices!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Because of the sharp slide in recent months in the value of the Iranian currency, the Rial, the prices of our tours have dropped accordingly. Please check with us about our new lower prices for all our Iran tours.

Please note: These prices are for a completely PRIVATE tour. You would NOT be part of a larger group. The prices listed above may be subject to small fluctuations due to Euro exchange rate changes.

This tour begins and ends in Tehran. You’ll spend time in particularly popular sites within the beautiful country of Iran, while not feeling rushed or overwhelmed. This tour includes one domestic flight. You can visit some of the country’s UNESCO World Heritage sites on this tour, and you can customize this tour to your tastes.

If you don’t have the time for the Comprehensive tour, the Classic Tour of Iran is the next best thing! This Iran custom tour is for Americans who like to travel at a more leisurely pace. Of course, since all our tours are customizable, you can extend, shorten or alter this itinerary any way you want. Let us arrange the best value, the best experience and the best satisfaction for the time you have.

Itinerary Highlights of the Complete Tour

• Day 1 — Arrive in Tehran: acclimate, relax and some sightseeing (overnight in Tehran)
• Day 2 — Tehran for the Golestan Palace and museums (overnight in Tehran)
• Day 3 — Fly from Tehran to Shiraz for Karim Khan and Eram Gardens (overnight in Shiraz)
• Day 4 — Shiraz City for the Citadel and the Masjid-I Nasir al-Mulk (overnight in Shiraz)
• Day 5 — Excursion to Persepolis and Naghsh-e-Rostam (overnight in Shiraz)
• Day 6 — Shiraz to Yazd, with a stop at Pasargadae (overnight in Yazd)
• Day 7 — Tour Yazd for Jameh Mosque and Towers of Silence (overnight in Yazd)
• Day 8 — Yazd to Na’in and on to Isfahan (overnight in Isfahan)
• Day 9 — Isfahan for Meidan Emam, Masjed-e Jameh and Vank Cathedral (overnight in Isfahan)
• Day 10 — City of Isfahan (overnight in Isfahan)
• Day 11 — Isfahan to Abyaneh (an ancient town) and on to Kashan, (overnight in Kashan)
• Day 12 — Kashan for Fin Garden and on to Tehran (overnight in Tehran)
• Day 13 — Tehran for sightseeing and your departure

Detailed Itinerary of the Complete Tour

This tour of Iran covers 13 days and 13 nights. To see the daily details, scroll down:

Day 1: Landing in Tehran

Arrive in Tehran (IKA Airport ). Most flights from the US arrive late at night or early in the morning. After passing through customs and claiming your baggage, you’ll see your guide, holding a sign with your name on it, waiting for you outside the baggage area.

He or she will be your guide for the whole trip. Your driver will be waiting for you outside. Your hotel is around 40 minutes away. Get a good night’s sleep at the 5-star Espinas Hotel in Tehran.

Day 2: Touring Tehran

After you enjoy a great buffet breakfast and leave the hotel, you and the guide can decide how you want to spend your time in Tehran.

There are many museums and places of interest, but obviously, you will have to pick and choose which are of the most interest to you. You won’t come close to seeing them all. Tehran is a huge city, with a population of around 12 million people.

The Alborz Mountains, snow-capped most of the year, rise just outside the city in the north. Traffic in Tehran is heavy and chaotic. The foothills of the Alborz have a number of beautiful restaurants, and you might want to tour that area and have dinner there. There is also a cable car that runs most of the year and offers some very scenic views.

Among the sites that you can visit in Tehran are the Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site, a complex of 17 palaces built during the Qajar Dynasty in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

There are several youtube.com videos you can watch for further information about the Palace.

The Archaeological Museum: A must-see in Tehran. The collection includes pottery, ceramics, stone figures and carvings from 5th & 4th millennium BC. Four tablets inscribed in cuneiform, Darius I inscription, carved staircase, tiles from Apadana Palace, and salt man are some of the highlights.

The Carpet Museum: Founded in 1976, this museum exhibits a variety of Persian carpets from all over Iran, dating from the 18th century to present.

The National Jewels Museum: The treasury of Iranian national royal jewels accommodates the world’s most precious jewelry collection. The treasury has an interesting history, going back centuries.

The Glassware and Ceramic Museum (Abgineh): The premises have been turned into a museum where glass and clay works are on display and were built about 90 years ago. The building is a combination of the traditional Iranian style and the European architecture of the 19th century.

The collection of glass and clay works that are on display at the museum is among the rarest in Iran and it includes clay pots dating back the 4th millennium BC up to the present time, as well as glass works from the 1st millennium BC up to the contemporary era. European glass works from the 18th and 19th centuries are also part of the collection.

You might also decide to visit a large student art center, where art students exhibit their work and you might have the opportunity of meeting some of them.

Overnight at 5-star Espinas Hotel.

Day 3: Shiraz

After a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel, it’s time to head for the domestic airport, Mehrabad, for the 1-hour flight to Shiraz.

Your guide will be traveling with you for the rest of the trip. Outside the airport in Shiraz, you’ll be met by your driver, who will also be with you for the rest of the trip. After checking into your hotel, you will still have time to visit some of the most interesting  places inside Shiraz.

Among the places to see are Karim Khan complex, resembling a medieval fortress; the mausoleum of the 8th-Century poet Hafez, the main Bazaar, established in the 11th Century and the Eram Gardens.

The Eram Gardens are a series of Persian gardens, which as a whole, have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Video about Shiraz

Overnight Shiraz at either the 5-star Chamran hotel or the 5-star Shiraz Hotel (pictured below).
Day 4: Shiraz

Shiraz will be your base for visiting three famous historical sites nearby: Persepolis, Pasargadae and Naghsh-e-Rostam. All three of these sites are within easy driving distance of Shiraz and the day-long tour to explore them will be the major activity for tomorrow (Day 5).

But for now we will continue touring the wonders of Shiraz city. Visits can be made to the Pars Museum, the Citadel and the Masjid-I Nasir al-Mulk (Pink Mosque). There is also time to relax, since many sites are closed during the height of the afternoon heat.

Overnight in Shiraz.

 

Day 5: Shiraz — Excursion to Persepolis

After another good buffet breakfast, prepare for your excursion to Persepolis. Persepolis is probably the most famous single historical site in lran and a Unesco World Heritage Site as well.

When it was founded by Darius III in 518 BC, Persepolis was the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, where the king of kings created an impressive palace complex inspired by Mesopotamian models. The importance and quality of the monumental ruins make it a unique archaeological site.

Persepolis was the example par excellence of the dynastic city, the symbol of the Achaemenid Dynasty, which is why it was burned by the Greeks of Alexander the Great in 330. According to Plutarch, they carried away its treasures on 20,000 mules and 5,000 camels.

What remains today, dominating the city, is the immense stone terrace (530 m by 330 m), half-natural, half-artificial, backed against the mountains.

As in Mesopotamia, the principal building material was sun-dried brick; much of which, has happily survived the vicissitudes of time.

Watch this short video about Persepolis.

Naghsh-e-Rostam

This is one of our favorite sites in Iran. You will see four tombs belonging to Achaemenid kings carved out of the rock face at a considerable height above the ground. They are somewhat reminiscent of Petra in Jordan, but much, much easier to get to.

The tombs are known locally as the ‘Persian crosses,’ after the shape of the facades of the tombs. In addition, there are seven over-life-sized rock reliefs at the site, depicting monarchs of the Sassanid period. It is believed that they were created to celebrate a great victory of ancient times.

Watch this short video to learn more about Naghsh-e-Rostam.

Overnight in Shiraz.

 

Day 6: Shiraz — Yazd

After breakfast, it’s time to set out for the city of Yazd, where you will be spending the next 2 nights. On the way, not too far outside Shiraz, you make a stop to visit Pasargadae.

Pasargadae
Pasargadae is still another UNESCO World Heritage site, Pasargadae was the first dynastic capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Cyrus ll the Great in the 6th century BC.

Its palaces, gardens and the mausoleum of Cyrus are outstanding examples of the first phase of royal Achaemenid art and architecture and exceptional testimonies of Persian civilization.

Particularly noteworthy vestiges include: the Mausoleum of Cyrus ll; Tall-e Takht, a fortified terrace; and a royal ensemble of gatehouse, audience hall, residential palace and gardens.

Pasargadae was the capital of the first great multicultural empire in Western Asia. Spanning the Eastern Mediterranean and Egypt to the Hindus River, it is considered to be the first empire that respected the cultural diversity of its different peoples. This was reflected in Achaemenid architecture, a synthetic representation of different cultures.

Here is a link to a short video about this UNESCO site.

After a leisurely visit to Pasargadae, you continue on through the desert to the city of Yazd.

Overnight Yazd

Day 7: Yazd 

In the morning, after breakfast, begin your tour of the fascinating city of Yazd. Watch a 50-minute video about Yazd.Among the first things you notice are the many wind-catchers (badgirs) perched on the rooftops of many buildings. The wind-catchers were an ancient form of air conditioning and Yazd is famous for having so many examples of them. Your guide will explain how they work.

You may take a stroll through the old city of Yazd, made up of a labyrinth of narrow, winding alleys, where without a guide, it might be easy to get lost.

Yazd was known as a center of Zoroastrianism (there are still around 150,000 Zoroastrians living in lran today). The Towers of Silence, on the edge of the city, were used to expose bodies to the elements until the 1960s, when the practice was banned by the Shah.

You can climb up the large hills where the towers can be seen and you can also enter the ancient houses where members of the funeral parties stayed. Even in the surrounding heat, these houses are amazingly cool.

Yazd is also a place where you can learn about the fascinating ‘qanat’ water system, an ancient method of supplying water to cities and farms by means of underground channels. There is even a water museum!

One of the most exciting things you can do in Yazd is to see the body building men who show up twice an evening at the Zurkhane or House of strength. This is an ancient martial arts ritual, accompanied by music and lasting an hour, that is open to the public.

It is in the same building that houses an ancient reservoir that you can visit first. The men easily twirl 20-kilo pins or clubs as part of their exercises. Here is a link to a Youtube video showing the men of the Zurkhane in action.

Overnight in Yazd at either the Moshir Hotel or Hotel Dad (pictured below)

 

Day 8: Yazd — Na’in — Isfahan

After breakfast, set out for Na’in (155 km) en route to Isfahan. Na’in is an ancient town in the desert and a good place to break up the trip. In Na’in stop to see the Jame Mosque, one of the oldest in Iran, dating back to the 9th Century.

Then continue on to lsfahan, another 145 km along the desert road. Approaching Isfahan the road starts to climb and the scenery becomes more interesting.

For many tourists, Isfahan is the high point of the trip. It can be called the tourist center of Iran and you are likely to run into many foreign groups there. After arriving in Isfahan and checking into your hotel, it will be time to start seeing some of the many sights of the city.

Isfahan is justly famous for its 11 Bridges spanning the Zayandeh River (although the presence of water in the river is seasonal). These bridges are beautiful architectural feats, each one being distinctive and impressive in its own right.

We will be able to visit several of these unique bridges and can walk across some of them. Overnight Isfahan at a 5-star hotel, such as the Abbasi Hotel or the Kowsar Hotel, both of which are very nice.

There are quite a few  videos to see about Isfahan. Here is a link to a long one (you need to skip past the first 20 seconds of a commercial): Isfahan.

 

Day 9: Isfahan

Isfahan boasts two UNESCO World Heritage sites. You may have already seen photos of the Meidan Emam. Built by Shah Abbas l the Great at the beginning of the 17th century, and bordered on all sides by monumental buildings linked by a series of two-story arcades.

The site is known for the Royal Mosque, the Mosque of Sheykh Lotfollah, the magnificent Portico of Qaysariyyeh and the 1Sth-century Timurid palace.

They are an impressive testimony to the level of social and cultural life in Persia during the Safavid era. There will be plenty of time to walk around the square, visit some of the adjoining buildings and the great mosque and to explore the nearby bazaar. The bazaar itself is huge and you may well find some things to purchase, even carpets (see our Q&A on buying carpets in Iran).

The second Unesco Site is the Jameh Mosque. Located in the historic centre of Isfahan, the Masjed-e Jameh (‘Friday mosque’) can be seen as a stunning illustration of the evolution of mosque architecture over twelve centuries, starting in AD 841.

It is the oldest preserved edifice of its type in Iran and a prototype for later mosque designs throughout Central Asia. The complex, covering more than 20,000 square meters, is also the first Islamic building that adapted the four courtyard layout of Sassanid palaces to Islamic religious architecture. Its double-shelled ribbed domes represent an architectural innovation that inspired builders throughout the region.

The site also features remarkable decorative details representative of stylistic developments over more than a thousand years of Islamic art.

It may even be possible for you to meet with some Muslim clerics who speak English and are interested in discussions with Americans. You may not always agree with what they have to say, but it is guaranteed to be an interesting discussion.

Another place well worth visiting in Isfahan is the Vank Cathedral, established by Armenian immigrants after the Ottoman War of 1603–1605.

The church has beautifully detailed wall paintings which retell Biblical stories. You can also visit an Armenian museum at the site.

The neighborhood around the Vank Cathedral has become somewhat “trendy” and is an interesting area to walk around and have dinner.

Overnight in Isfahan at a 5-star hotel.

 

Day 10: Isfahan

These are only some of the highlights of Isfahan. There is a lot more to see and how much you see depends on how early a start you get in the morning. Your guide and driver will leave as early as you like and, taking into account your guide’s recommendations, together you can decide on your day’s itinerary.

Overnight in Isfahan at a 5-star hotel.

 

Day 11: Isfahan — Abyaneh  —  Kashan

After breakfast, set out for the ancient town of Abyaneh, 160 km away.

One of the interesting things here is seeing how the women dress. Abyunaki women typically wear a white long scarf (covering the shoulders and upper trunk) which has a colorful pattern and an under-knee skirt.

The Abyunaki people have persistently maintained this traditional costume despite pressures from time to time by the government trying to change it.

Abyaneh is one of the oldest villages in Iran, attracting numerous native and foreign tourists year-round, especially during traditional feasts and ceremonies. It is a very popular tourist destination for Iranians, and staying at the hotel here will give you a good opportunity to meet some Iranian tourists.

Here is a short YouTube.com video about the old “red” village town of Abyaneh.

After leaving Abyaneh, it’s another 80 km to Kashan.

Overnight at Ameri hotel Hotel.

 

Day 12: Kashan — Tehran

Kashan a city famous for its carpets. There are a number of things to see here, including the bazaar, which is a particularly interesting one.

There are also several restored 18th Century houses which you can visit.

You can have a walk in the Fin Garden, which is a historical Persian garden. containing Kashan’s Fin Bath, where Amir Kabir, the Qajar chancellor, was murdered by an assassin sent by King Nasereddin Shah in 1852. Completed in 1590, the Fin Garden is the oldest extant garden in Iran.

After a good exploration of Kashan, it’s time to head to Tehran, 200 km away.

Overnight at 5-star Espinas Hotel in Tehran.

 

Day 13: Tehran — Departure

Today is the last day of your trip and it can be a leisurely one, or you can still see some of the many museums or historical sites in Teheran that you did not have time for at the beginning of the trip.

Tehran is a huge city and there is a lot to see and do there, so you can again confer with your guide and decide how you want to use your time there.

Almost all international flights leave late at night or early in the morning. Depending on your flight time, you can stop for dinner before leaving for the airport. Your guide will make sure that you get there in plenty of time to make your flight home.

 

Major Points of Interest on an Iran Map

The map below highlights the most famous historic sites and points of interest in Iran covered by the Complete Tour package. Click to view a larger map:

NOTE: Please be aware that not all locations on the map are available for all tours.

Classic Tour of Iran Prices

All prices are based on double occupancy, but tours for single travelers can be arranged. A non-refundable deposit of $500 per person is required at the time you book your trip. The balance is due no more than 60 days before your trip. You may pay by check or credit card.

13 days/12 nights. Prices based on all in the group traveling together in one vehicle.

• 1 person $3995
  2 people $2995 per person
  3–4 people $2695 per person
  5–7 people $2595 per person
  8–10 people $2395 per person

What’s included?

• Visa authorization — not the actual visa itself, but the visa authorization you need in order to get the visa.
• Comfortable air-conditioned vehicle with an English-speaking National Guide and a private driver, from airport to airport.
• Best available hotels for every overnight stay, usually 4- or 5-star.
• 1 domestic flight Tehran to Shiraz
• All breakfasts.
• All admissions to sites and attractions.

What’s not included?

• International airfare.
• Visa fees — $90 per person plus $30 for FedEx shipment of all visas together. These fees are subject to change.
• Additional meals.
• Personal expenses, such as laundry, snacks, phone calls, etc.
• Tips for guide and driver (see our Q&A).
• Travel insurance, including trip cancellation insurance.
• Extra hotel nights beyond those listed in tour itinerary.

View the tour payment terms and conditions.

Ready to Book Your Tour to Iran Today?

Either call us at 1-919-726-2044 or click the link below for more information about Iran custom tours:
How to Book One of Our Luxury Tours to Iran (everything you need to know)

 

Contact us today for the best rates. You can rely on our experience and expertise to answer all your questions.

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See the beauty of modern Iran and discover the history of Ancient Persia for yourself. Call Iran Luxury Travel at 1-919-726-2044 or contact us online for more information on travel to Iran.

Book a tour for six or more people and earn a free tour for yourself, including airfare. Call for details today.