Silk Road Hotel

Most hotels in Iran aren't much to write home about. In fact, the Silk Road Hotel was the only place in Iran that was recommended to me by several different people. They were right, this may well be the best hotel in the whole of Iran. It is definitely the only true backpacker hostel in the country.

The setting is very nice in an old caravansary, with rooms arranged around a nice courtyard and an underground mixed dormitory.

The courtyard restaurant is a great place to meet other travellers. There is free Wi-Fi, as well as books and games and television available here.

The restaurant serves good value food and drinks. For those tired of Iranian food they have some excellent Asian and European alternatives and quite a few vegetarian dishes. The home made fries were the best I had in months.

Breakfast is an extensive buffet which includes fruits and boiled eggs and real filter coffee (a rarity in this country).

Staff is generally friendly and I like the fact that there is a very relaxed approached to ordering food and drinks. You can just get whatever you like from the fridge and pay for the items later.

Be aware though that not all staff is nice. There is one idiot who is obviously in the wrong place here. Unfortunately he also happens to be the guy who works there most of the time. We had reserved a room in advance, but when we arrived we were told that the hotel was full and we had to move to a different hotel, across the road. The Orient hotel is run by the same owners and is in fact a very nice place as well (the rooms are in fact nicer and more comfortable). However, it was the way he dealt with the situation that pissed us off. Rather than apologising for the inconvenience or asking us if we'd mind moving, he just said it very matter of factly that we were staying in the other place and that there was little choice for us but to accept it. We did get a nice discount in the end though (so be sure to ask for one when you go here).

The same guy was very pushy with the tours the hotel has on offer. While the tours may be reasonable value, we had already made up our mind to hire a taxi with three people, and this guy became very annoying, almost aggressive that we didn't want to take his tour (even though he didn't even have three seats available).

So as first impressions go, this place didn't make a very good one. We were glad we stayed though, as this hostel was definitely one of the highlights of our trip in Iran.