What a visitor's money does in Iran: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Iranian Rial (IRR) · 1 EUR ≈ 2,900,000 IRR on the open market · 1 USD ≈ 2,580,000 IRR on the open market (early October 2026; moves weekly)
Bring cash for the whole trip, in euros or US dollars, in clean recent notes. Foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Iran because of sanctions — not in shops, not in hotels, not in ATMs — and nothing can be paid online from abroad. Change money in stages at a licensed exchange office (sarraf), which pays the open-market rate; the official bank rate is far worse, and the street is not the place. The thing that confuses everyone: prices are written in rials but almost always spoken, and often written, in toman, and one toman is ten rials. A price that sounds a tenth of what you expected is in toman, so ask. The rate moves weekly, sometimes faster, so change a few hundred at a time rather than everything on day one.
Avoid: every ATM, for a foreign card — none will work
Use: licensed exchange offices (sarraf), with euros or dollars brought in, a prepaid tourist card such as Mah Card, loaded with cash
Foreign Visa and Mastercard do not work anywhere in Iran. Budget the whole trip in cash before you fly, and change it in stages — the rate moves weekly.
Cake Yazdi, small cardamom-and-rosewater muffins, and the city's sweet shops in general — Yazd is known across Iran for them. Eat in a courtyard-house hotel, several of which serve dinner to non-guests, and try shooli, a sour vegetable soup that is the local winter dish.
Rose water is what Kashan is known for, in the sweets and the sherbet, and the shops sell it by the bottle. Eat in one of the restored merchants' houses, which serve lunch in their courtyards; the bazaar teahouses are the cheaper alternative.
Kufteh Tabrizi, a meatball the size of a fist with a whole egg and dried fruit inside, is the dish to order. The city is known for its sweets — qurabiya, the almond biscuits, above all — and the bazaar's carpet halls have teahouses tucked into them.
Pistachios, which are grown across the province, and kolompeh, a date-and-cardamom pastry that is the thing to take home. Drink tea in the Vakil teahouse, a domed former bathhouse in the bazaar.
Honey is what Kandovan sells, from hives on the mountain, and the stalls along the river let you taste before you buy. The village has a few simple places for kebab and tea; for a proper meal, eat in Tabriz.
Beryani is the city's own dish: minced lamb and lung, griddled and served on flatbread, and the old places near the square do it best. Gaz, the pistachio nougat, is what everyone takes home. Eat in a converted courtyard house at least once.
Faloodeh, frozen rice-noodle threads with lime juice and sour-cherry syrup, is the city's and worth the queue. Shirazi salad, cucumber, tomato and onion with verjuice, comes with everything, and kalam polo, rice with cabbage and herbs, is the local dish to ask for.
Dizi, the lamb-and-chickpea stew pounded at the table, kebab koobideh with grilled tomato, and tahdig, the crust from the bottom of the rice pot, which is the part people fight over. Tajrish bazaar in the north is the best place to eat your way round. There is no alcohol anywhere — it is illegal — so it is doogh, the salted yoghurt drink, or tea.
Fish and prawns, cooked the Bandari way with tamarind and a good deal of chilli. Look for mahyawa, the salted-fish sauce of the Hormozgan coast, spread on hot bread for breakfast, and the sambusas sold from carts in the evening.
Kolucheh, the walnut-filled biscuits of nearby Fuman, are sold in every shop on the steps. Gilan has the best food in Iran by many Iranians' reckoning: mirza ghasemi, smoky aubergine with garlic and egg, and baghali ghatogh, broad beans with dill, are the dishes to look for in Rasht on the way.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
IsfahanIranThe Safavid capital, built around one of the largest squares in the world and the tiled mosques on its sides
ShirazIranThe city of poets and gardens, with a pink-tiled mosque and Persepolis an hour up the road
TehranIranA sprawling capital under the Alborz, with a Qajar palace, a vast bazaar and the mountains at the top of the street
YazdIranA mud-brick desert city of windcatchers and covered lanes, and the centre of Iran's Zoroastrian faith
KashanIranA desert-edge town of merchants' mansions, a royal garden on a spring, and rose water made in the villages above it
TabrizIranThe Azeri-speaking capital of the north-west, with one of the oldest and largest covered bazaars in the world
KermanIranAn old caravan city on the edge of the Lut, the hottest desert surface ever measured, with its sand-carved kaluts two hours away
QeshmIranThe largest island in the Persian Gulf, a geopark of salt caves, eroded canyons and mangroves, with Hormuz across the water
KandovanIranA village of homes hollowed out of volcanic cones on the slopes of Mount Sahand, and still lived in
MasulehIranA stepped mountain village in the Gilan forests, where the roof of one house is the street of the one above