Couchsurfing in Iran

If you haven’t heard of CouchSurfing before, you can visit the website and check it out. It has been around for a few years and provides another way for travelers to explore new countries and even their own country. I only heard about it when I read an article on from the NY Times (LINK), and signed up for the site. Since I have based in Shiraz, I really wanted to travel around, but I only know two Americans here, both of whom were busy with their research, and my Iranian women friends do not travel alone without their families for such extended periods of time. So basically I was on my own, I could either just stay in Shiraz for the whole time, or if I wanted to venture out, it would have to be alone.

I quickly found out that Iranians are very active on the site (probably the most active in the Middle East!) and found female hosts in a number of cities. I ended up staying with families in Qom, Zanjan, and Tehran (for one night, when I moved to a friend’s apartment for the rest of my stay there) and meeting up with locals in Esfahan, Tabriz, which made my experience much more enjoyable. I couldn’t find female hosts everywhere I went, so sometimes I had to stay in cheap hotels, which are really terrible and dirty in Iran, so staying with families was a welcome change from hotels. I especially enjoyed meeting up with local women, all of whom were highly educated and enjoyed showing me around their beautiful cities.

So, couchsurfing really works and you can use it in the most unexpected places – like Iran!