Estakhrgah is a village located in the heights of Alborz mountains of Gilan province. If anyone is looking for an offbeat destination in Iran that offers woodlands, pastors and looks nothing like the scenery of Iran’s classic route, Gilan is your best bet. There are so many villages to choose from and each one puts the other to shame in terms of great views and untouched landscapes.

I’ve visited quite a few places in the mountains of Gilan, but they’ve mostly been great summer destinations to escape the heat of Tehran. Places like Olsebelangah are almost impossible to reach during late autumn and winter and they’re probably too cold to survive considering the facilities. So for our annual road trip with my friends, we were looking for a destination that had bearable weather conditions in late autumn but went long enough through the mountains to be unspoiled.

Estakhrgah was just what we were looking for. We were a bit late to enjoy the colours of autumn and the weather was, of course, chilly, but nothing to stop us from taking long walks in the village and hikes in the mountain.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

Where is Estakhrgah and how can you get there?

Estakhrgah is around 4 hours drive from Tehran. It’s not really the kind of place you’d go with public transportation, so it’s recommended to hire your own car. You’ll need to take the Qazvin-Rasht highway and take a turn around Rudbar. If you’re unable to arrange for a rental car, you could take a bus from Tehran to Rasht, get off in Rudbar and try to find a local taxi toEstakhrgah. The trip up the mountain shouldn’t take more than 30-40 min. A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

Our road trip started with all of us meeting up at Azadi square of Tehran, which is a meeting point of many road trips for Tehraners. We had planned to have breakfast in Qazvin and went to try the famous omelets of Dehkhoda breakfast place in town. They are a well-known and laidback breakfast place that’s quite popular with local Qazvinis and they serve this unique version of eggs with lots of fried onions and delicious lentil soup. We tried both and they were absolutely divine!

Later we decided to visit S’ad Saltaneh caravanserai in Qazvin which was restored a few years ago and it’s now full of galleries, cafes, confectionaries, and souvenir shops. It has also become a trendy hangout place for young locals. The caravanserai was mostly closed when we got there but we had a stroll through its corridors and soaked up the early morning sun in the courtyards.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Enjoying the sunshine in S’ad al-Saltaneh in chilly Qazvin

We then continued our trip toEstakhrgah

Just before turning for an uphill drive to the village in the mountains, there’s the small town of Rudbar which is well known in Iran for producing the highest quality olive oil and other olive products. Olive oil is not really consumed in Iran as much. First of all, we don’t have much of it and second, it’s very expensive for daily use. However, I feel like it has become quite popular among middle-class Iranians and while we might still not find it convenient for cooking, we love it on salads.

So if you happen to stop at Rudbar like we did, make sure you try the variety of olives, the pomegranate molasses and Zeytoon Parvardeh (a combination of olives, pomegranate paste, herbs, and crushed walnuts).

Almost half an hour later, we arrived at our host’s home inEstakhrgah.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
We were staying in the second floor of this building.

Where to stay inEstakhrgah?

Although, Estakhrgah is still very much unspoiled and less known among Iranians, there are already a few guesthouses in the village which are easily booked for summer weekends. In this time of the year, however, we had the whole village to ourselves.

Mr. Ghorbani was the son of an old couple living in the village. They had recently renovated the second floor of their house to rent to travellers. The house was a big two bedroom place. There was a sink in the balcony if you needed to wash dishes, a fridge inside and no kitchen. But they were kind enough to let us cook in their own kitchen downstairs if needed. There’s also a bathroom in the balcony which was a pain to use in the cold. There was no shower, no beds but enough mattresses and blankets for all of us to sleep on the floor.

For a village home in a place like this, it was actually not that bad. You can’t really expect much when you visit places like this. But on the bright side, it had a gorgeous view of the village and a decent heating system to keep us warm through the night.

Mr. Ghorbani’s number: +98-9113406319

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Our balcony view!
A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Gloomy afternoons from our guesthouse.

We had arrived here around noon and we decided to make ourselves a light lunch and go for a short walk around before dark. We also paid Mr Ghorbani to cook us local food for dinner for once we’re back home.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
The village would get all foggy towards the evening.

The next day we woke up after a good night sleep, prepared ourselves an omelet for breakfast and headed for a hike to discover Estakhrgah.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

Estakhrgah is a gorgeous chunk of land. There’s everything from bright green pastors, small lakes, crumbling villages, quaint cottages, and intriguing panoramas. Locals are kind and humble and you’re likely to meet up way too many dogs walking around the neighbourhood.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, IranA leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran

On our walk, we met a group of women collecting medicinal herbs and a shepherd, his kids and his flock who were kind enough to share their fire with us. A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, IranWe then headed back home to prepare ourselves a chicken barbecue.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
The boys on the barbecue.
A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Nom!

There’s really not much to do in Estakhrgah apart from chilling and eating! And that’s exactly what we did!

It’s the kind of place you’d when you want to just do nothing. There are good hikes, probably some waterfall chasing in the summer, some great good reading spots but that’s about it. It’s probably why I mostly visit these sort of places with family and friends so that we have enough time to catch up on everything and enjoy each other’s company.

We stayed in Estakhrgah for two nights. Our second night in the village was just before Yalda (winter solstice) and as we Iranians make a big celebration out of the longest night of the year we decided to go all the way.

Yalda is normally celebrated with family (read all about it here), but since we were all stuck together just one day before Yalda, we thought we’d make a friends version out of it. We had already bought some of the essential food such as pomegranates and nuts, but the boys found the closest market in the village and got us a pile of food. Anything from junk food, to sweets and watermelons.

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Preparing for Yalda…

And Yalda started…

A leisurely getaway to the unspoilt village of Estalakh Jan, Iran
Our humble yet grand feast!

On our last day, we had a late breakfast and drove off home before noon. We made a stop at Nemooneh restaurant in Qazvin to try their local Gheimeh Nesar for lunch and it was a success.

The route back to Tehran could possibly take a little longer than 4 hours and traffic is not uncommon close to Tehran and that was exactly the case for us. We arrived in Tehran somewhere around 5-6 in the afternoon.

11 thoughts on “Estakhrgah, Iran | A Leisurely Getaway to an Unspoiled Village

  1. Mousa Fathi says:

    Apart from your interesting NAME! your photos and descriptions are fantabulous and appealing. Tnx a bunch for introducing beauties of our country IRAN to all of the world.

  2. Homayoun Niroumand-Rad says:

    Beauty, chunk of unforgettable land, harmony and peacefulness, simple but yet incredible images of my beloved home country.
    Last I visited was 1978….
    Please keep on the great work as you all do.
    A homeless but a proud Iranian..
    Homayoun

  3. FT says:

    I really didn’t know anything about this place and that’s a shsme. May be because I left Iran in 1975 when the Shah was still ruling the contry.

  4. F.T says:

    May be because I left Iran in1975 when the Shah was still ruling the country and I never got a chance to discover and enjoy this beautiful and memorable place.

  5. Ali Tarjoman says:

    I am NOT Matin Lashkari but I still like traveling to new places (especially other countries) meeting new people and experiencing new cultures.

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