Isfahan Hotels: Dibai House

The Dibai House is one of the prettiest hotels I've ever stayed at.  Sufi and her daughter Alale have refurbished two ancient houses.  The result is an oasis of tranquility and beauty.   

The entrance to the hotel is situated in a narrow high walled alleyway next to the Ail Mosque just off a busy road in the middle of the Bazar-e Bozorg.  Once behind the thick wood doors the noise of the Bazar fades into silence.  I've never experienced silence like that in any city.  

The rooms are furnished in Persian style with carpets, textiles and ceramics.  Sufi and Alale have kept the original layout of the house so the rooms are accessible through central courtyards.  They are high-ceilinged, bright and airy.  

The rooms we had did not have en-suite bathrooms although I understand that some rooms do.  I've never been in a hotel where I've had to share a bathroom but I've found sharing a bathroom at this hotel to be a minor inconvenience at best.  Breakfast was included in the room price and Alale was extremely helpful and friendly.  The Dibai House would be my first choice if I return to Isfahan.

Shiraz Restaurants: Shater Abbas Restaurant

Located at Azadi Blvd. and Khakshenasi St. the Shater Abbas is the only restaurant in Shiraz that we really liked.  Not that we had a lot of choice:

• Restaurant on the top floor of the Pars International Hotel: Tourist buffet a la mayonnaise; 
  
• African Restaurant (also at Pars): my Dad stopped looking at the menu after he saw "Monkey Gland" in the entree section - he said he was afraid that "Red Assed Baboon Anus" would be the next main on the menu; and
• Yord Restaurant: a highly recommended restaurant run by the Qashqa'i nomads next to a bubbling brook, set in a large yord (tent) where you eat cheap and amazing food accompanied by live traditional music.  Perhaps a restaurant imagined by travel guide writers - no one we asked in Shiraz had ever heard of it.

The Shater Abbas is a great restaurant run by a large friendly man with one cauliflower ear (pretend you don't notice). The bread is baked on site and is amazing.  The kebabs are generous and delicious.  

Shiraz Hotels: Pars International Hotel

The Pars International Hotel is a modern building located a distance from Bazaar Vakil and Hafez's Tomb but is close to Bagh-e Eram.  Decorated with 70's furnishings the Pars has very spacious rooms, very clean bathrooms and pillows the hardness of a Persepolis  column.  

Arguably, the Pars is the fanciest hotel in Shiraz.  And similarly with fancy hotels all over the world, there are details at the Pars which lets you know that you're staying at a top international hotel.   The girls behind the reception desk are, in the words of one online reviewer "the peatiest girls of Shiraz" (and also very helpful).  The carpets in the elevators are embossed with the relevant day of the week.  I traveled in the Middle-East extensively, so immediately assumed that the carpet was meant to say "Welcome" and not "Wednesday".  I was proved wrong on Thursday.  The Pars also has an overgenerous central  heating system.  

Overall, although expensive by Iranian standards, it is no less shabby and far, far less expensive than many hotels I've stayed in London.