Yes, this is hard to believe and may appear to be counter-intuitive, but Iran is one of the safest places in the world that Americans, or anyone else for that matter, can travel to today. While tourism to such places as Turkey and Egypt remain much more popular than tourism to Iran, Turkey and Egypt, for example, have had several instances of terrorism and attacks on foreign tourists. There has been none of this in Iran. Even Western Europe is statistically much more dangerous than Iran. In addition, there is virtually no street crime in Iran. And yet, when we tell people that we offer tours to Iran for Americans, one of the first comments we hear is “Isn’t it dangerous to travel there?”
The crazy thing is that not only is this not true but Americans are tremendously popular in Iran, more popular than almost anywhere else that we have traveled, and that includes a lot of places.
Iranians certainly have problems with the United States’ government, but they are able to make a sharp distinction between the government and the people. And, just as we have many misconceptions about Iran, they have misconceptions about us.
What can be done about this? We feel that the more American tourists travel to Iran the more these misconceptions will break down. The Iranians are hospitable people with an ancient civilization. Iran has 21 Unesco World Heritage sites, including Persepolis. In the next few weeks we will be offering several new tour itineraries in Iran. These will include several rail tours, a Biblical tour and a Jewish tour. Please stay tuned to our website for these new offerings.