Qeshm Town: There’s nothing much to see in the island’s main settlement, most Iranian visitors head to the extensive Bazaar Bozorg (Pasdaran Sq.) and the newer but uninspiring duty-free malls along this trip, but these don’t hold much allure for foreign visitors.
Portuguese Castle: This crumbling edifice is Qeshm Town’s best-known sight, but once you’ve photographed the palm tree through a curved hole in the ramparts, it won’t detain you for long.
Laft: This fishing village on the northern coast of the island is the best place in Iran to encounter the fast-disappearing traditional culture of the Persian Gulf. Perched on a rocky slope overlooking the Khoran strait, Laft’s roof-scape is a wonderfully photogenic forest of badgirs and minarets. Views are best from the hill near the ruins of the Portuguese-built Naderi Fort. From this vantage point you’ll also see dozens of ancient wells and a white-domed ab anbar(water cistern(.
A few hundred meters north of Laft, on the road to the car-ferry dock, is one of Qeshm’s many lenge-building yards. These traditional cargo boats are still used to carry goods back and forth across the Gulf. Other yards are found along the north coast, most notably around Peiposht, Zeinabi and Bandar-e-Guran.
Harrah Sea Forest: In the local dialect, Harra is the word for grey mangrove, and this is the Persian Gulf’s largest mangrove forest. During spring, more than 150 species of migrating birds can be found here, including the Great Egret and the Western Reef Heron. The finless porpoise, humpback dolphin, common dolphin and endangered green turtle are also regularly spotted.
Sea Forest Tours. From the village of Tabl, south of Laft local boatmen offer 40-minute tours of the sea forest in their motorized dinghies. Note that operation times can change with the season. Each boat can take six passengers.
Qeshm Island Geopark: In 2006 the 300-sq-km mountainous area on the western half of Qeshm Island was gazette as the Qeshm Island Geopark, Iran’s first member of the UNESCO-listed Global Geo park Network. Whether you’re driving through this area or looking at it on a Google Earth image, the geological significance is easy to see. Nature has carved steep-sided stone canyons, eroded flat-topped hills into sandy dunes and dramatic organ-pipe ridgelines, and dug deep into the island to form caves including Namkdan Cave (GhareNamaki), which at 6.8km is the longest known salt cave system on earth.
The park is operated by a small but extremely motivated team that works with the Qeshm Free Zone Organization, UNESCO NGOs, ecotourism operators, Iranian naturalists and the local community to preserve the island’s unique geology and heritage. Its programs include a project to create employment and socialization opportunities for local women and the construction of a visitor’s center at the entrance to Chahkooh Canyon, the most spectacular of the park’s eight geo sites. Here, you can climb up to the intersection of two narrow vertical canyons and drink from a Chah (well) that has been used by shepherds for centuries.
The onshore preservation of the hawks bill turtle through community participation is one of the many environmental projects overseen by the geo park team. Between 180 and 240 of these turtles lay their eggs on the beach at Shibderaz village near the airport between March and May each year, hatching occur between April and July. Residents of Shibderaz work in shifts to protect the eggs from predators (including other locals, who have traditionally eaten them (.
Other projects include the responsible aquaculture of pearls by the people of BerkehKhalaf village and the propagation of native plants and mangroves by the people of Shibderaz and Dayrestan village.
Larak & Hengam Islands: These two islands off the southern coast of Qeshm are surrounded by impressive soft coral reefs. Larak is the best for driving, but Hengham is known for its wildlife, including birds, gazelles and dolphins. The beaches are pristine, but only men are allowed to swim.