Iran travel tour recommendation....?

I didn't know Americans were welcome in Iran, if there are tours from American companies I would like to hear about it also.

I don't know if this helps - the operators I've come across have largely been in the luxury category. You are right in that you must go with a tour/guide since independent travel is not allowed. Good luck! Hopefully you'll get some leads. You can also send an e-mail to the RS folks and try to get more ideas, couldn't hurt (although I'm fairly sure Rick has more resources at his disposal including private guides).

If you have time and the inclination, give the related comments a read (as well as the article). I learn a lot from other NYT readers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/travel/iran-tourism-sanctions.html

I have a fairly recent (but might be from 2015) catalogue from G Adventures with a 14-day trip to Iran in it. I think G Adventures is a Canadian company. Its tours are not high-end.

Mir Corporation does tours to Iran. This is a more upscale company, I believe. In addition to group tours to the country, it arranges custom tours.

I have no personal experience with either of these companies beyond meeting a small G Adventures tour group on a train trip from Romania to Bulgaria.

I know of an excellent tour company run by Umit Dogan. He owns Treasures of Travel. He usually has a tour to Iran in March and in September. He is honest and I heard nothing but good reports. My husband and I are thinking going in the next year or so. He is based in Edmonds Washington. If you google the company name if will come up.

Many thanks for your responses to my query especially Agnes for the NY Times article and
Pat for your recommendation of Treasures of Iran. There is such a wealth of info out there
and, fortunately, we have time.

I will be taking the Road Scholar tour of the Silk Road soon and have opted for the extension to Iran for 8 days. They also have a stand alone 17 day tour. I prefer a Rick Steves tour but this will be my 4th Road Scholar, which I use when it is someplace Rick Steves does not go. It tends to be an older crowd but, so far, with good guides and seeing a variety of sites (some famous, some out of the way, visiting a village etc.) They tend to use bigger tourist hotels than Rick Steves but in other ways are pretty similar.

Google "Discover Iran with SRM Travel". This is a Turkey based tour company that runs a few tours each year to Iran. I know at least one Rick Steves tour guide in Turkey is part of SRM. Great guide and a great Iran itinerary. My wife just won't let me go (nor to Egypt). I guess I don't have enough life insurance yet😉

Really interested to see the responses to this - Iran is somewhere I really want to go to as well.

As I'm currently in the UK have done a little research on this and there are a few UK companies who cover Iran. eg www.intrepidtravel.com. www.explore.co.uk.

I have also bookmarked a story in the Guardian newspaper re Iran travel - and I have seen quite a few articles covering travel there which may give you some ideas.

www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/aug/31/10-ideas-for-adventurous-holidays-in-iran

Katy

My thanks to Ray, Michael, and Katy for your input. I will be checking out the Intrepid, Explore, SRM, and Road Scholar websites.
Great article, Katy. By the way, Ray, I grew up in McMinnville (almost neighbors). Ha!

All of Rick's Turkish tour guides are with SRM Tours. We're required to use a local operator in Turkey, and they're the one. I'm booked to travel on their Iran tour next year (a departure that they offered just to staff). We've collected a few other names at https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/tv-specials/iran/iran-pledge-special.