Iran - Andrew Burke [161]
Ordibesht Hotel ( 252 2056; Shohada St; s/tw/tr/q IR100,000/150,000/180,000/200,000) Bright and unusually airy, this no-nonsense mosaferkhaneh is compulsively cleaned and Ali speaks some English. There are separate toilet facilities for men and women and ‘free showers for foreigners’. Most rooms are quads (IR150,000 for single occupancy).
MIDRANGE & TOP END
Except for the Arian, Hamadan’s better accommodation is lacklustre and charges ‘foreigner rates’ in US$ that are around 70% higher than local rial prices. However, discounts of 30% are not uncommon if you ask. The new Hotel Khatam at Felestin Sq should be complete by the time this book goes to print.
Hotel Yass ( 252 3464; fax 251 2680; Shohada St; s/tw US$20/25) With an excellent location and some early 20th-century features, the Yass could be a pleasant choice given some TLC. But for now the rooms are dreary with institutional beds, aging showers and feeble-flush Western toilets. The building is marked in Latin letters but no English is spoken. Reception is on the 3rd floor.
Marmar Hotel ( 827 1840; Shari’ati St; tw IR300,000) In Japanese, mar-mar would translate as ‘so-so’. Very apt. A creaky glass elevator takes you to rooms where crimson curtains and bedspreads are lit by bright unshaded lamps. The bathrooms could be cleaner and there’s no shower curtain. No English (spoken or signage) except to state the misleading foreigner rack-rate of US$50: that’s baldly ignored should you ask in Farsi.
Arian Hotel ( 826 1266; www.arianhotel.com; Takhti St; s/tw/tr US$40/50/60) At this inviting midrange hotel, each floor has a different, gently appealing style of décor with modernist lamps on the 3rd floor and a more opulent period look on the 4th. Check out the 2nd floor to see what they consider ‘British style’. The lobby has a couple of gratuitous Persepolis-aping columns. Some English is spoken.
Hotel Eram ( 825 2001; Eram Blvd; d US$75; ) Behind a swishly upgraded lobby, rooms are less impressively renovated with aging bed-boxes and half-length baths. It’s at the southwest edge of town. Some English spoken.
Buali Hotel ( 825 0856; Buali St; tw/ste US$87/138; ) The standard rooms have fridge, BBC World TV and floral pseudo-silk fabrics, but the bathrooms are rather outdated. Suites are a considerable step up.
Baba Taher Hotel ( 422 6517; fax 422 5098; Baba Taher Sq; s/tw/ste US$103/134/161; ) The mirror-tiled lobby and restaurant offer a dazzlingly garish festival of Las Vegas kitsch while corridors test out the full palate of pastel colours. The reasonably well-appointed rooms are thankfully somewhat more subdued, but barely justify the discounted price (from US$70) let alone rack-rates. English spoken.
Eating
Apart from Hezaroyek Shab, none of the following have menus in English. For that you’ll have to resort to hotel restaurants of which the BuAli’s (meals IR40,000 to IR70,000) is about the best.
Chaykhuneh Baharestan ( 254 2777; Shohada St; dizi IR7000; 6am-7pm) This atmospheric, if decidedly down-market 100% male teahouse is charmingly adorned with metalwork, sepia photos and Quranic murals. It’s ideal for a greasy fried-egg breakfast, cheap abgusht (aka dizi) lunch or a puff on the qalyan, and is populated by photogenically haggard old white-beards. To find it, head upstairs through a partly illustrated doorway opposite a small branch of Bank Maskan.
Kaghazi Pizza-Coffee ( 825 3870; Pastor St; coffee IR5000-12,000, snack meals IR16,000-24,000) Pine furniture and a few African masks bring some character to this gently stylish two-room café whose pizzas are refreshingly crispy and thin-crusted.
Delta