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Watch out when somebody says a ride is for free: it might in fact not be. Tarof is an Iranian custom of saying a white lie, which is understood by both parties. This enables everyone to keep face. For example, at the end of a taxi ride, the driver will say it's free, because tradition dictates you should be extremely hospitable to guests. If you reply with "na" (no), he will quote the real price. While you could ignore this, it can cause offense, as it is an integral part of Iranian culture, whether you like it or not. One of the more useful phrases is "Tarof nist?" (it's not Tarof?) with a rising intonation at the end. When the answer is no, you can probably expect the offer to be genuine. Maybe the answer is another instance of tarof, but I think you can safely probably stop playing the game at this point.

Every weekend, thousands of students from Tehran climb into their jeeps, and head out into the country side. It's difficult to catch them as they leave the city, but in the remote places, it's easy to pick them out. And in every car you will find at least one who speaks passable English. The downside is that Iranian weekends tend to make these places fuller, but as I was traveling in November, this was not an issue for me. This way, I [[User:Harveypekar|Harveypekar]] managed to hitch inside Alamout valley (but I got trucks and motorbikes too), and also inside of the Maranjob Maranjab desert. With that last one, I he stayed with them two days, seeing nearby attractions and camping out with them. Because cars tend to be full, it might not work so well when you are more than one person.