Iran - Andrew Burke [284]
Sleeping
Hotel Kormesh ( 332 3647; Imam Khomeini 18th Alley, off Imam Khomeini Sq; tw/tr/q IR100,000/140,000/170,000) Facing Imam Khomeini Sq across a children’s play area, the basic Kormesh is very central but easy to miss: find an unmarked door (usually covered with a towel), go inside then knock on the glass door to the right. Apathetic staff do their best to deter customers, suggesting randomly high prices, hiding the shower room and locking the doors at 10pm. Squat toilets are shared. The cheaper Mosaferkhaneh Chaharfazl, diagonally across Imam Khomeini St, is only open sporadically. Look for the Pepsi sign.
Ghods Hotel ( 332 2177; Imam Reza Sq; d US$30; ) Some rear rooms have cracked windows and worn furniture. Front rooms are better with TV and fridge but suffer more from road noise. Overpriced.
Semnan Tourist Inn (Mehmansara Jahangardi; 444 1433; Basij Blvd; tw US$37; ) Behind a dowdy exterior, this friendly 36-room hotel offers international standard rooms with new furniture, curtained showers, toiletries and freshly laundered towels: good value but 3km from the old-city core.
Eating
Ghandil Sabz ( 334 0129; Motahhari St; 9.30am-1pm & 4-11pm) There’s a grotto theme in this curious ice-cream shop about 700m north of Imam Khomeini Sq after 21st Alley.
Sofrakhaneh Sonati Haft Khan ( 333 0463; Mashahir Sq; breakfast/kabab meals IR10,000/30,000; 9am-11pm) The menu is a very short list of ordinary kababs but the décor is unique. Achaemenid figures lead down to a cane-vaulted cavern full of tea-beds, Corinthian columns and an artificial grotto. If that looks fanciful, wait till you see the incredible party room accessed through a secret door between the two gold suns.
Pizza Max ( 332 7012; Sa’di Sq; pizzas IR23,000-30,000; noon-3.30pm & 6pm-midnight) Good if typically Iranian pizza, mostly for takeaway.
Getting There & Away
The main bus terminal is 3km west of Sa’di Sq, 100m beyond Imam Hossein Sq. Between 5.30am and midnight, buses leave every half hour or so for Tehran (IR20,000 to IR25,000, three hours). Taavoni 2 has a 6am bus to Mashhad (IR60,000) and a 7am service to Sari (IR20,000, four hours) via Kiyasar, passing through seasonally beautiful valleys full of sunflowers. Alternatively, go to Qa’emshahr (IR13,500 IR22,000, 3½ hours, 10 daily). For savaris to Qa’emshahr (back/front seat IR35,000/40,000, three hours) or Tehran (IR35,000/45,000, two hours), sign up at a special office in the terminal.
To Damghan, hourly buses (IR9000 to IR12,000, three hours) use a terminal 100m south of Standard Sq (3km east of the centre). The last is at 6pm. Savaris leave more conveniently from Mashahir Sq.
For Shahmirzad via Mahdishahr, minibuses (IR1200) and savaris (IR3500, 25 minutes) start from Mo’allem Sq.
Three Mashhad–Tehran trains (stopping at Semnan) and two Semnan–Tehran local services (three hours) operate daily. The train station is 1.5km south of Imam Khomeini Sq.
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AROUND SEMNAN
Caravanserais
Several partly renovated caravanserais lie close to the main Mashhad–Tehran highway either side of town, notably at Lasjerd (36km west) and Ahowan (42km east). Semnan Miras can get you in by advance arrangement.
Into the Mountains
MAHDISHAHR
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Sprawling in arid rocky folds, Mahdishahr (16km from Semnan) is dominated by the impressive if mostly contemporary blue-domed Al-Mahdi Hosseinieh. The town’s other notable building is the 40-year-old Kakh Palace, now used as the remarkably good-value Sangesar Hotel ( 362 4280; fax 362 4380; Saheb Zaman St; d/ste US$30/41) with blue tiling, grand lobby and two-storey chandelier of 1970s rope-glass. Take the best suite for full effect.
SHAHMIRZAD
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This popular weekend getaway for Semnanis is a quietly charming oasis amid spiky rock ridges. Gushing streams and a few remnant mud-compound houses