I am Francois from Paris, France. I have travelled some 15 times across almost everywhere in Iran over the last two decades, which has given me the opportunity to know this marvellous country inside out. I have therefore come across different tour guides, most of whom were way below my expectations -some even cheated on me or were too lazy to bother.

Mehdi Dehghan genuinely stand out from the crowd. As a seasoned travel photographer who has been to more than 100 countries in the world, I have an extensive experience of how a good a guide should be and behave in order to meet my high expectations. This said, Mehdi always exceeds my expectations and manages to make all my dreams come true. Even in places where I have been several times before, he manages to find new topics for me, which perfectly match what I enjoy shooting.

Mehdi has outstanding communication and listening skills which allow him to achieve precisely what I would like to do during each of my trips, especially for my specific photography requirements. Mehdi is extremely knowledgeable and speaks English perfectly, besides being a very kind individual with a great sense of humour. In addition, he has an extensive network all across the country, so that he can quickly find the appropriate response to my sometimes complex requests.

Furthermore, Mehdi is extremely flexible and hard working, which is far from being the case with the vast majority of tour guides in Iran. The cherry on the cake is that Mehdi always negotiates prices in my best interest, so that I can benefit from prices for Iranians –not prices for tourists– as well as material discounts on accommodation.

I would highly recommend Mehdi to anyone who travels in Iran.

The 3 weeks spent with Medhi were a delight. We particularly appreciated his professionalism, his culture, his political and economic knowledge of his country. He also showed great adaptability and was able to take us to unusual places. In short, we spent very pleasant and enriching moments. It is with great pleasure that I would go again with him to discover other places and more particularly the region of Shiraz.

I'm Sergio and I'm a 28 italian guy who had an AMAZING 14 days experince in Iran thanks to this official tour guide: Mr. Mehdi, the best tour guide I ever had.

during the last summer a friend of mine started planning a trip in Iran and asked me if I was interested and ofcourse I was because Iran it's such an amazing and historical and wonderful and cool place to visit.

all the journey was tailored via a lots of mails step by step with Mehdi, the best tour guide my friend could find on the web according to a huge ammount of reviews and trip journals.

we felt that Mr. Mehdi was the right tour guide at the begging of our story, because he is smart, kind, very serious and he has a great great knowledge of his Country and all of its beauties and facilities also.

once we decided the dates and the flights, Mr. Mehdi also helped us with visas and gave us all the infos we had to know.

before writing down about how cool was travel with Mehdi, I want to say a big THANK YOU to him, because he really let us enjoy our trip to that marvelous Country.

with his perfect english and his courtesy, Mehdi waited for us at the airport of Shiraz when we landed in the night, at 1 am, and brouth us with his car to an amazing 4 stars hotel, exceding our expectation.

we asked him for very good places to stay and what he arrange for us was a real goal: every hotel was great and it's all thanks to his knowledge of litterally every place in Iran.

our trip took us from the south to the north and Mehdi was an excelent driver, always ready and very scrupolous and safe.

in every place we were, Mr. Mehdi kwons exactly what make us visit, offering us also some alternatives and suggesting us the better way to enjoy everything, strating from the food.

he offered us all the traditional experiences, but also some out of the map places, according to our taste, like a tea in the desert after the offroad trip, a martial art exhibition, an underground city, a bike tour in the old city of Yazd, some historical and also religious sites.

A great mention goes to the Iranian food (and I'm Italian, we know how a great food tastes) and to Mr. Mehdi, again, that knows the best places where we could savor and appreciate the true local taste.

as an official tour guide, Mehdi always monitored us, avoiding us to had any kind of problems or scams; we felt safe and it was really important in a place where customs, habits and language is so different from our.

I'm totally convinced that my trip would not be as amazing as it was without Mr. Mehdi, that's why I recommend everyone this guide, his wit, his knowledge in history, his openmindness, his ability to let you learn and learn from you in the meanwhile, his skills and, last but not least, his capacity to be always not too much and not little in every situation.

I really looking forward to have another experience like this with Mr.Mehdi because after 14 days I could feel him as a friend.

My name is Daniela from Bulgaria. My friend and I did a guided tour with Mehdi up along Iran for 13 days. We were 4 actually, two from Bulgaria and two from Portugal. It was amazing trip, travelling to many cities and sightseeings. Mehdi is really expertised in guiding services like proper restaurants, deep knowledge of Iran, English fluency and being hardworking at making you happy throughout trip. He has got roomy brand new sedan car which accommodates all luggage easily.  It ended up being one of the best guided trips that we have ever done. The guide Mehdi is a friendly and funny person, filled with interesting information and you can tell that he really loves what he does. As I'm a photographer Mehdi was very happy to morph the tour into exactly what I wanted, happily timing our trip perfectly so I could photograph the sunset from a perfect vantage point. I would highly recommend him and his guided tours to everyone. Just amazing!!!!!

Together with a friend, I had the great pleasure to visit Iran, a wonderful country with an amazing historical heritage. The turning point for my travel has definitely been the choice of our amazing tour guide, Mr. Mehdi Dehghan, who is an official tour guide recognized by the Iranian government with an official ID and licence. He really was the added value for our trip and we would have not experienced all we did if not thanks to him.

Since the first moment I contacted him for gathering general information, Mehdi replied promptly and precisely to all my questions: travel itinerary and recommended attractions; hotel accommodation; travel budget; general questions. We exchanged several emails (50+) and his replies were always accurate and exhaustive. I let Mehdi know about our travel preferences and must-see attractions and he prepared for us an exhaustive travel itinerary, according to the days we had available and our preferences, together with valuable recommendations thanks to his deep experience. Since my knowledge on Iran was limited, I followed almost all his suggestions and now that the trip is over, I cannot regret any of his choices.

After agreeing on dates and itinerary (which we slightly modified when we were there to visit more attractions thanks to Mehdi’s great flexibility), we started the process for Iranian Visa. For EU citizens, it is possible to request it when you arrive at the airport (Tehran and Shiraz). We preferred to request it before our trip; therefore, we went to the Iranian embassy in our country (Italy) with the passport, health insurance coverage certificate for Iran, personal photos and online application. The process was easy and quick: we had our Visa delivered at home in less than 15 days.

Once we got our Visa, Mehdi proceeded in booking the hotels we previously agreed on, which was great since we could get several discounts and we had the opportunity to book hotels that are not within European booking websites. All hotels recommended by Mehdi were wonderful: we slept in 5-stars hotels as well as small cosy hotels, which represented a great surprise, since they really embody the spirit of Iran and they were simply amazing. Just let Mehdi know your preferences for hotel stars and let him recommend you the right choice: you will never regret it.

When the day for our departure came, we kept in contact via WhatsApp and, as planned, Mehdi was waiting for us with his comfortable and clean car at the airport in Shiraz perfectly on time. From that moment, we started our incredible 15-days trip to the major cities and attractions: Shiraz-Persepolis-Yazd-Esfahan-Kashan-Qom-Hamadan-Tehran.

During the trip, Mehdi truly represented the added value.

He drove us to all attractions in every city, staying with us the whole morning and afternoon / evening, giving us a bit of rest at the hotel after lunch when the sun was strongly shining which was really appreciated. He goes at your pace, so just let him know if you are tired or want to see more and he will immediately react accordingly thanks to his flexibility.

He recommended restaurants in all cities and we were never disappointed, since we could try Iranian cuisine and regional specialties in each village we visited.

He took care of all small needs you might have during a 15-days trip, being always supportive: currency exchange, hotels check-in, shopping at bazar etc.

He knows several spots for taking fantastic pictures: whether you have a professional camera or not, follow his hints for superb shots.

He perfectly speaks English (better than us) and this was great to have a smooth communication. In all attractions we visited, he was well prepared and shared with us his deep knowledge on his country and its historical heritage.

He drives carefully and safely and, since he is an open-minded person, it has always been a great pleasure to discuss with him during the hours spent travelling by car. He has a strong sense of humour and the time together with him flies quickly.

In all cities we visited, we had a peculiar activity: we went playing bowling and table soccer; once we rented bikes to visit the city centre; we went to the barbershop; we had an off-road trip to the desert where we had dinner, enjoying the silence and the Milky Way above us; and many other breath-taking experiences…

Iran is a beautiful country where I never felt unsafe or in danger: on the contrary, I could experience the kindness of Iranian people and their generosity. News we hear in Europe are often biased and the normal reality there is different. Do not be skeptical or afraid and dive into the Iranian culture, visiting this marvellous and incredible country.

I strongly recommend you to contact Mehdi if you are thinking on travelling to Iran, whether you are planning a short trip or a long one. Mehdi will surely give you the right recommendations and customize your trip perfectly according to the number of days you have available.

To wrap up, I really want to thank Mr. Mehdi Dehghan and I fully recommend him as your tour guide. He really went the extra mile to fulfil all our requests and I highlight once again that he really was the added value during our trip. Thanks to him, time flew even too fast visiting wonderful places and breathing Iranian culture.