Ghasem-Abad

If you want to try light programs around Gileboom homestay and save your energy for the rest of your trip, we would suggest you Observing Fishing Activities or Damkesh spring sightseeing programs. All of these programs are one-day excursion which you may walk to the Caspian Sea or take a taxi to drive you there. It is possible for Gileboom guests to join the fishing parties and experience it.

There are some other excursions such as visiting Tea factory; a kind of Industrial tourism to get familiar with the process of making Green and Black tea, the differences between organic and non-organic tea, and the harvest time of tea plants.

Another exciting program is Javaher-Dasht Safari; a safari with 4WD Jeeps to the middle of Hyrcanian mixed forests to reach a high-altitude plain, called as Jordasht or Javaher-Dasht (1900 m).

Farm tourism, which is also known as “Agritourism,” has been defined as the opportunities for tourists to “reside and sometimes participate in the working activities of farms and ranches” (Smith & Long).

It is the business of attracting visitors to farm areas generally for educational and recreational purposes.

Rural farms are becoming attractive tourist destinations as well, because more visitors are nostalgic for a “simpler” time. They want to escape from the hustle of city life and connect themselves with natural and cultural heritage and enjoy a richer and authentic leisure experience. They want to learn, connect with meaning, and meet genuine people engaged in a rural/agricultural lifestyle.

Farm tourism helps the tourists to be part of day–to–day agricultural activities. They can also buy products from there along with enjoying the local cuisines. The additional income from this can be utilized for the improvement of farming.

Benefits from farm tourism

• A get together in a farm will be some precious moments in tourist life
• It involves group work
• An opportunity to meet new people
• Getting closer to nature

Gileboom Homestay provides variety of farm tourism activities in Ghasem-Abad village. If you are travelling in spring you can participate in manual tea processing, rice planting, and orange blossom picking. In summer you can try manual tea processing though, if you want to try a kind in autumn, kiwifruit picking is the choice and for winter, orange picking is the best.

Eastern Guilan is famous for its variety of Handicrafts including; Feltmaking, Chadorshab-Weaving, Pottery, Bamboo and mat weaving, Woodturning, sculpture making, even Making Carpet.

Handicrafts play an important role in the tourism industry. When you travel to a country like Iran which is famous for its handicrafts, visiting workshops and artisans is one of the things to do.

It might be interesting, the thing happened to us; after visiting Mahtab Suzanduz who was a world famous needle worker in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, we decided to start a new chapter in our lives and give local artisans like her the recognition they deserve and what you see in Gileboom homestay is the result of that handicraft visit.

In Gileboom we provide the local community an opportunity to showcase and sell their hand-made products and crafts. The Products made by hand each have a story of their own and each crafted item, shaped, reshaped and mastered carefully results in unique art pieces that are slightly different from the other because no two handmade products can turn out exactly the same. You can still find some, still being used in our daily lives today.

It seems that you are just going to stay here and relax, drink tea, and read books at first by reaching Gileboom and staying in its cozy rooms; but the pretty landscape around the lodge, breathing fresh air, and great activity maps will not let you just loll here, walking in rural lanes and strolling in the hinterland is the first enjoyable activity to do here.

You can walk to the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake, and enjoy sandy beach – which is a great place for swimming –and sale there while enjoying a beautiful view of jungle and snowy Somamous peak. From early fall till spring you can also watch teams of fishermen catching fishes there.

You may also pick the walking maps and move towards Eisal-Kool, the rice fields and reach the Sal (water reservoir for rice planting), tea and kiwifruit farms and a plant nursery where hectares of ornamental plants are grown neatly by the owner and rural men and women are working there.

Mish-Sere Dasht is another option, which means ‘sheep pasture’ in Gilaki dialect. The plain is full of Kunos trees (gilak term for wild medlar trees) so you can eat the fruits in late fall and winter.