After the Revolution, like many establishments tied to pre-revolutionary era, the Darband Hotel’s fate changed. Some parts were repurposed, while others faded into memory — but its legacy remains as part of the golden age of tourism in pre-1979, when Darband was the symbol of leisure, refinement, and escape. Before the 1979 Revolution transformed social and cultural landscape, the Darband Hotel stood as one of Tehran’s most beloved mountain retreats — a place where luxury met nature, and the city’s rising modern class came to breathe in the clean air of the Alborz foothills.
Located at the entrance to Darband, a charming village perched above Tajrish, the hotel was ideally situated for those seeking a break from Tehran’s growing urban energy. In the 1960s and 1970s, when the capital was rapidly expanding and modernizing under the Pahlavi era, Darband remained a sanctuary of calm — and the hotel became its crown jewel. The Darband Hotel was not grand in the sense of the international five-star chains that began appearing in Tehran during the late Pahlavi years — such as the Hilton or the Intercontinental.
