Iran: Through the Eyes of Travelers

Photo by Shahram Sharif via Flickr (Creative Commons)

I’ve spent the last couple days transfixed by events in Iran, where widespread protests and bursts of violence have followed a contested election result. The country’s hardly an American tourism hot spot (and this latest unrest won’t help on that front) but over the years, we’ve covered some travel-related Iranian ground. Here’s a look back:

• Rick Steves spoke with Jim Benning about travel as a political act and why his time in Iran is among his “richest travel experiences.”
• Stephen Colbert offered Mahmoud Ahmadinejad some New York City travel tips during the Iranian President’s last visit stateside.
• Michael Yessis checked out the diaspora in “Tehrangeles,” the largest Iranian community outside Iran.
• Tom Bissell looked back at Robert Byron’s The Road to Oxiana, the classic Persian travelogue that landed the number two spot on our list of the top 30 travel books of all time.
• Jim Benning lamented the ban on “indecent” Western music from Iranian TVs and radios.

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved