I live in a predominately Persian neighbourhood in Toronto (Canada) and I'm always told to visit Iran. It's apparently remarkably cheap & the people are very, very friendly. My biggest reservations about visiting Iran was the fact that crossing into the US becomes a bigger ordeal than usual. CBP becomes very inquisitive as to why you went to Iran etc.
I actually passed through the US a few months later (on the same trip - stayed with a friend in SF for a few days between Bangkok and Buenos Aires), the CBP were indeed inquisitive, but nothing beyond some simple questions about where we'd stayed and why we were there. All pretty friendly and non-confrontational. I was in the US again on the same passport a few weeks ago, the guy took a good flick over the visas (and Iranian visa is huge and very obvious), but no questions asked!
