Tabriz's main sights are concentrated in and around the old city centre. The Grand Bazaar is the obvious starting point and could consume an entire day on its own — combine it with stops at the nearby Jameh Mosque and the ruined Ali Shah Mosque right beside it.
A short walk away are the Blue Mosque, the Azerbaijan Museum — Iran's second-most- important archaeological museum — and the Constitution House, where the leaders of the 1906 revolution organised their resistance. The central Sa'at Tower makes a useful orientation point.
For an evening, take a taxi out to El Goli Park, where Tabrizi families come to walk around the artificial lake. The Maqbarat-ol-Shoara (Mausoleum of Poets) is a remarkable piece of modernist architecture in the Surkhab district.
Don't miss the day trip to Kandovan, an inhabited cave village an hour south of the city, and — with more time — the unreal striped landscape of the Painted Mountains.