Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
US$40 & underUS$41-150 More than US$150
These prices are for double rooms and include the 17% for tax and service charged by upmarket hotels. All rooms
include bathrooms, and rates include breakfast, unless otherwise stated.
Camping
Iranians love tents, but there are few official camping grounds. Unless you can make
yourself look like a nomad, camping can draw unwanted attention from the authorities.
Trekkers and mountaineers who need to camp should discuss plans with the provincial
tourist information office first (
Click here
)
if not accompanied by a recognised guide. The
office may be able to write a letter of introduction.
Couchsurfing
Iran has a fast-growing
Couchsurfing
(
www.couchsurfing.org
)
community and making
contact with its members is an easy and increasingly popular way to get 'inside' Iranian
culture. Most readers who have surfed Iranian couches, or more likely carpets, have repor-
ted a memorable time for positive reasons. However there have also been warnings that
some Iranian hosts expect to accompany their guests everywhere, and if you're not up for
that it's best to commit to less time with the option of extending to avoid an early and em-
barrassing departure. Also,
ta'arof
or not, do insist on paying for at least something during
your stay, or take a gift from home.
PRACTICALITIES
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Electricity
Current is 220V AC, 50Hz. Wall sockets are mainly the European, two round-pin type.
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Newspapers
Iran's English-language daily newspapers are the
Tehran Times
and
Iran News
, both of which
cleave to the government line with exceptions from the wires. They are available only in Tehran and some other
large cities. Both offer decent, if sometimes eccentric, international coverage.
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Radio
Frequencies for the BBC World Service (
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice
) include 11760Hz, 15575Hz and
1413kHz; and for VOA (
www.voanews.com
) 11740Hz and 15195kHz.
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Television
All Iranian broadcasters are state-controlled. However, many Iranians get Farsi-language satellite TV
from North America. On Iranian TV, channels 1 to 4 are national, 5 and 6 province-based. Most hotels have the
24-hour IRINN news channel, which has a news-ticker in English.
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Weights & measures
Iran uses the metric system.
