Isfahan Hostels & Free Walking Tours
Isfahan is a city that is worth visiting over and over again. You are bound to find new attractions, historical sights, and new delights each time around, and one of the best ways to facilitate this is by taking a walking tour of the city. In this blog post, we’d like to talk about the free walking tours provided by many Isfahan hostels and what makes them a great way to get introduced to or more acquainted with the city, but first, let’s talk about the concept of a walking tour and the different forms that it can take.
When you come by our city, we’d love to host you in Sarv or Mahbibi! Also make sure to take a look at our other Isfahan blogs!
- Things to do in Isfahan
- Isfahan hidden attractions
- Beauties of Isfahan
- People of Isfahan
- Isfahan hostels
- Cheap Isfahan accommodation
- Isfahan hotels
- Moshir Al-Molk House
- Breaking your journey between Kashan and Isfahan
- The Zayandeh Rud River
- The Jameh Mosque
- The Naghshe Jahan Square
- The Best Restaurants in Isfahan
Walking Tour
The concept is simple: You will be accompanied by a local tour guide as you walk through the city of Isfahan and learn more about its history and culture. The walking tour is also a great excuse for you to interact with the people of the city, get to know some other travelers (if you so choose), and even learn how to buy premium handicrafts and souvenirs at the right price.
Free Walking Tour
If you acquire the services of an official tourist agency for a walking tour, that means you’ll be paying around 30 Euros -or more- per person. Now if you’re traveling on a budget, that might be a bit of a turn-off for you. Or, you may subscribe to the mentality that discovering the city by yourself is more meaningful and more affordable, and cannot justify this extra expense on what you would usually do basically all on your own. If that is the case, you may want to look into websites like GuruWalk or Free Tour Community, where people offer to take you on walking tours all around the world without charging you anything.
If you choose this method, you are of course accepting the very real possibility that your “tour guide” is just looking for an excuse to interact with new people, and may not necessarily have too much expertise about Isfahan and its history. While this can certainly make for a fun experience, it might not be exactly what one would hope for. You can also definitely find expert guides using these services, it’s just that you can’t be completely sure about what you’re going to get. Another thing that comes along with pretty much every community-based service is the matter of safety and the extra level of caution that you should abide by.
Free Walking Tour (Tip-based)
If you’re looking for something that falls between the somewhat expensive walking tours and the free but not-too-reliable community-provided tours, your Isfahan Hostel of Residence may just offer the best option for you. Tip-based walking tours have become a common feature of a lot of Isfahan hostels, and what makes them so great is that you essentially get a chance to know some of the fellow travelers who may choose to come along on the tour with you, and you get an experienced tour guide to accompany you but you pay however much you like for it.
Now, you may think that the concept of tips may be foreign or even offensive to the people of the East. While it is true that tipping service workers isn’t common practice in most Asian countries, no one is going to be offended by being appreciated for their craft, and in this case, monetary appreciation remains one of the best kinds of appreciation one can receive.
Threaded Routes
As we previously mentioned, the great thing about taking a free walking tour starting from your hostel in Isfahan is that you will essentially be able to cover all of the important attractions of the city in a 3 or 4-hour long walk. That’s because a lot of prominent Isfahan Hostels are located in close proximity to the highly concentrated parameter that holds within itself the Naghshe Jahan Square, the Chehel Sotoun Palace, and the Chaharbagh Abbasi Street among many more attractions.
Naghshe Jahan Square
The Naghshe Jahan Square is bound to be the primary stop for any Isfahan walking tour, and it’s the place that makes most people fall in love with the city as a whole. We’ve talked about the beauties and attractions of Isfahan quite a lot before, and we’ve also talked about how Naghshe Jahan Square stands out as the city’s most prominent feature. A walking tour will not only help you appreciate this magnificent monument and its history from up close, but it will also help you thread the Square as a local would, and give insight into the artery of industry and handicrafts that is the Qeysarieh Bazaar -that is, provided you have a good tour guide of course.
Most walking tours that are provided by Isfahan Hostels take place in the morning, after breakfast. While that is a great time for visiting the square -what with all the shops opening and the crowds of locals walking the chambers of the Bazaar or taking strolls through the grassy fields- you should not deny yourself the pleasure of seeing Naghshe Jahan at its least crowded times.
Also, if you want to know about some of the lesser known Isfahan attractions, don’t hesitate to read our latest blog!
Jolfa – The Armenian Quarters
Another highlight of an Isfahan walking tour tends to be the beautiful and vibrant Armenian Quarters: Jolfa. A trip to this neighborhood with its stone-paved streets and back alleys includes visiting the many churches and monasteries like the famous Vank Church and the Holy Bethlehem Church with their beautiful wall paintings, the Armenian-owned places of business (be sure to pop into some of the pastry shops), and enjoying the bustling nightlife.
The Role of the Tour Guide
Your tour guide is the person who will shape your experience in the city, so naturally, choosing the right one is a very important task. The right tour guide is not only knowledgeable about the city but is also fluent in an agreed-upon language (usually English), can easily form interpersonal connections, and is aware of the best ways that tourists can spend their time in the city and the ways that they might be scammed by overly eager locals.
If you take a tour provided by your Isfahan hostel, you may very well be accompanied by one of the staff as your tour guide. Since you may have already formed some level of a connection with the people working at your place of accommodation, you already have a bit of a built-in trust there, which can be a bit hard to come by in different situations.
Cycling Tours
Another exciting way to explore Isfahan is by riding a bicycle through the beautiful streets of the city. We know the best guy in town who offers his services as a tour guide and bicycle aficionado! You can check out our friend Saeid’s Instagram page to get more information!
