A quick guide on how to get from Yazd to Farahzad. Farahzad is a small town in the desert, about days away from Yazd.
Farahzad is a little desert oasis in the middle of the Dasht-e Kavir desert. The Lonely Planet highly recommends it, and although we believe this is exaggerated, it is a decent place to get away from city life for a bit.
Getting from Yazd to Farahzad
Although Farahzad is in Isfahan province, it is quicker to go from Yazd to Farahzad.
To get from Yazd to Farahzad, you first have to make your way to Khoor (pronounced as Ghoor). There is one daily bus, which leaves a small bus terminal from Homafar Square at 14:00. The bus costs 130,000 IRR per person and takes about five hours. A taxi to the square from the city center shouldn’t cost more than 50,000 IRR.
The bus terminal with service to Mesr is through the opening and behind some buildings at Homafar square.
No food or water was served on our bus, so stock up at the convenience store/kebab shop near the bus terminal. For caffiends, head out of the terminal and turn right for real (and cheap!) coffee at a small hole-in-the-wall café.
In Khoor, you will be dropped off near a playground and a mosque. Khoor is also the drop-off point for Garmeh, and several taxis will be waiting for you. A taxi to Farahzad costs 400,000 IRR, and takes about 40 minutes. There is no public transport to Mesr, the town next to Farahzad, so a taxi is your only option. The taxis are a bit expensive in our opinion, likely because the guesthouses and taxi drivers have a monopoly on everything in the area.
A review of Barandaz Lodge and the desert in Farahzad
Farahzad is nice enough, but the “highly recommended” status that the Lonely Planet Iran gives Barandaz Lodge is undeserved. The food is good, but not amazing, and even though it is in the middle of the desert, there is quite a lot of light pollution from Farahzad and Mesr. The stars are therefore nice, but not amazing. Don’t expect to see the Milky Way anytime soon.
The people running Barandaz are okay, but we hardly got to talk to them–definitely not the epitome of Iranian hospitality that the Lonely Planet touts. The only interactions we had were about food, and after they brought food out, they disappeared again. Barandaz is therefore nice if you really want to get away from Iran’s cities, but there are other options that offer more value. On the bright side, they did let us camp on their roof for a bit of a discount. If you go, don’t forget to bring bug spray!
Interested in visiting a desert in Iran? We recommend the Kaluts!
Room quality: 4/10. View: 10/10
Where to stay for cheap in Yazd
A side note: we had some trouble finding cheap sleeping options in Yazd. In the end, we found the Amir Chakhmaq Hostel. The beds were hard, the toilet smelly, but the price (500,000 IRR for a double) and location (basically attached to the Amir Chakhmaq mosque) more than made up for this. Ask for a room that doesn’t face the square, since it will be bloody hot otherwise!
Since our visit, several other budget hotels have opened up in Yazd. Some of which can be booked and paid for online. Check out 1StQuest for sleeping options in Yazd (use the code LWP-QST to get a 5% discount)
Have you recently been to the desert towns of Farahzad or Garmeh in Iran? What did you think? Was your experience better than ours?
