Posting this on the Africa/Middle East Forum as well, since Iran is oddly grouped with Africa for purposes of this forum. Specific to Iran, we went at a great time of year (late September), but April might be even better, as the river in Isfahan might have water, and overall things might be a bit greener.

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This fall we went to several places rich with history, but not so rich with visitors (at least relatively speaking) - Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. We hit a lot of places in short order, so this isn't really a "deep-dive" into a specific location, but rather highlights for almost two dozen different places all over Central Asia. We had a hard time getting a good idea of what to expect, so hopefully some of you considering visiting these areas will find this helpful. Here's a link to the report itself - http://justinandcrystal.com/CentralAsia/index.htm

The Cliff's Notes are that we felt very welcomed everywhere by the local people, and the sites were amazing. Some of the highlights included the Pink Mosque and Ali Ibn Hamzeh shrine in Shiraz, Persepolis, Naqsh-e-Jahan Square and Jame Mosque in Isfahan, the Gateway to Hell in Darvaza, the walled city of Khiva, the Kalyan complex in Bukhara, nearly everything in Samarkand, snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan, and great food in Almaty and (frankly everywhere) along the trip.

Compared to our other travels, this area is relatively less expensive, and if anyone is looking for a great spring or fall trip, we'd really recommend most everywhere we went.

Enjoy.

Terrific stuff.

I had the privilege of visiting several Uzbek cities (and one in Tajikistan) in the early 1970s, before there was much of a tourist industry to speak of, and I spent some time in Iran shortly before the revolution. In many years of travel I don't think I've encountered more interesting and hospitable people, nor more fascinating places, all of them alive in the present but also displaying such important (and beautiful) records of their turbulent histories.

Well done.