[forvelin]

We have been there with my girlfriend a year ago. Tehran is a fairly safe place, not that 'tourist oriented' and only seriously annoying thing was traffic as we were not expecting such time to go waste in hours of traffic jams. We intend to visit Isfahan next and hope it is better.

Food, people, museums, landmarks, stuff you find in markets and once more people are quite awesome. As soon as you look like a lost tourist, people attempt to help you 'genuinely'. They try to chat with you everywhere and show that their country is nice, unlike how they paint it in western media.

[icebraining]

Regarding western media, I can't say I get that impression in my corner of western europe; the image I see is of a nice place with nice people, and a messed up government. Even the online newspaper comments are usually nice!

[senorjazz]

Iranian traffic! I've driven all over the world, but Iran was definitely one of the worst. Not like India where you have elephants / camels / bullock carts, but just sheer aggressive driving. Cars going the wrong way, crossing lanes purely because you need to cross not that there is space to cross etc

[mr_overalls]

I've never been Iran. And I know how misleading national stereotypes are. But anecdotally, I'll be damned if every single Iranian I've gotten to know in the US isn't one of the kindest, warmest people I've met. (sample size=6)