Telegraph:

All right, so I’m a travel extremist when it comes to holidays. Don’t come to me with your tales of fortnights in Dubai or the Maldives: it’s Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea that I’m interested in. The first thing I think of, when I hear of trouble in Egypt, is the Valley of the Kings emptying out and being able at long last to get a decent look at Tutankhamen’s belongings.

This being the case, though, please don’t simply disregard the country I want to suggest to you for a strenuous but immensely rewarding holiday: Iran. OK, now you’re thinking of seething crowds of angry men and black-wrapped women screaming “Death to” whoever it is this week. Stonings. Glowering ayatollahs.

These things exist, just as the danger of being hijacked in South Africa exists, or being randomly shot in America. But they aren’t the norm. They’re just what people like me put in our news reports.

So let’s start again, with a clean sheet. Think of a country, largely cut off from the outside world, with a lovely dry climate, sophisticated and charming people, superb archaeological monuments, mountains, deserts, the Caspian Sea. If recent history had been different, it would be the India of the travel business, only without the beggars and the chaos. Iran is, quite simply, the most charming country I know...

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