The lure of Iran and the Persepolis in Fars province, made a theatre performer and a church cleric from the United States to pave the way for luxury train tours to Iran.
Diana Cobbe-Anderson and Francis Byrd-Scottsdale are two American cousins, whose fervent passion for Iran caused the CEOs of the Golden Eagle Danube Express and Pasargad Tours (an Iranian company) to collaborate on the development of a series of train tours, ISNA reported.
Two train tours were initially scheduled, but their popularity has led to nine more tours to be added till the end of 2015. The train which is also known as the luxury Hotel on Wheels in Europe sold out on the first round of train tickets in just ten days.
Around 12,000 Europeans tourists have signed up for tickets for the remaining nine tours, says Ebrahim Pourfaraj, Pasargad tours CEO.
The first Golden Eagle train arrived in Iran on October 22, with nearly 70 tourists on board, to visit the cities of Zanjan, Yazd, Shiraz, Isfahan and finally Tehran. The first group of passengers flew back on Tuesday, October 28, after a two day stay in Tehran. The train is now touring with the next group, who arrived by air on October 26.
Diana and Francis were also aboard the train which passed through Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and into Iran.
When asked what led them to put together such a program, Diana answered: “we were always eager to see Iran. I had the passion to see the Persepolis since my childhood, and finally my dream came through in 2011 when I came to Iran with my cousin. After visiting the country, we took a train tour of Golden Eagle to Uzbekistan, which was a thrill for us. So the idea came to us to get the Golden Eagle tour’s company in contact with our Iranian tour operator which had received us previously, to operate the same tour to Iran.”
The legal procedures took approximately a year, she said, and we were finally informed that the train schedule was in place to get us to Iran. We asked to be given a place on the train, so finally we could see Iran for the second time”, she added.
