Journey #001: Afghanistan
Past and Present: From the Timurids to the Taliban
Our ‘Past and Present’ journey is our original and we think still the best trip we run in Afghanistan.
If you are interested in a real deep dive into Afghanistan’s social and cultural history then this is the trip for you. The trip takes you to 4 unique areas of the country, crossing invisible lines in the map that explain Afghanistan’s recent and often bloody past.
Unlike other trips that simply drive through the south of the country ticking off Helmand and Kandahar, we have invested time and energy in building the relationships required to spend time in both provinces. Many of our guests are amazed at being able to travel and spend the night in districts Sangin - that are synonymous with violence in Western countries. We think it is impossible to really get a feel and start to understand Afghanistan without visiting this Pashtun heartland.
Our past and present trip is a journalistic look at modern Afghanistan through a historical lens, lead by experienced journalists who have decades of collective experience in the country.
This journey takes us through high mountains and through the south of the country and so we only run this trip in Spring and Autumn.
➤ Kabul – Ghazni – Kandahar – Arghandab – Lashkar Gah – Sangin – Herat – Chaghcharan – Bamiyan
➤ Kabul – Ghazni – Kandahar – Arghandab – Lashkar Gah – Sangin – Herat – Chaghcharan – Bamiyan
Your Guides
Joe Sheffer, Charlie Faulkner & Qudratullah Noory
Safarāt was founded to offer a window into a closed world. We understand that in choosing to join us on our journey, you are trusting us with your safety and security.
Joe Sheffer lived in Afghanistan between 2013 and 2014 and has made dozens of trips back to the country since. He is a former CNN photojournalist who has also worked for The Guardian, NBC and Vice news. He is a FREC3 qualified first responder and has 13 years experience working and living in hostile environments.
Charlie Faulkner covered the fall of Kabul in 2021 for The Times newspaper and spent the next two years reporting all over the country. She continues to work on a freelance basis for the world’s biggest newspapers including The Guardian and Daily Mail. She has covered the wars in the Middle East and has spent time in Ukraine.
Qudratullah Noory is a former producer and ‘fixer’ with a wide range of experience working with international broadcasters. He is a native of Kabul, whose family originate in Wardak.
To better understand our experience, the way we operate, our safety and security plans and the realities of traveling in Afghanistan, we have written the following guides.
Itinerary
We understand that our travellers need to know where they will be visiting on our journeys, and broadly our tours stick to the routes published on our maps and on our website. What we don’t tend to do is publish our exact itineraries online for several reasons.
Firstly, and most importantly, this gives your guiding team the chance to make last minute changes to the itinerary based on seasonal opportunities or based on their decades of personal connections and relationships.
The focus of Safarat is on experiencing Afghanistan with Afghans, and that means spending as much time in the countryside and experiencing village life. While we guarantee you won’t miss out on the Buddha’s of Bamiyan or Qala-E-Bost if you are visiting Helmand, it does mean that we don’t visit the same places on every tour or use the same hotels and guesthouses on every trip.
This also gives the chance for our travellers to play a more active part in the trip, by becoming involved in the planning process. We recently had a traveller with an interest in an Achaemenid site on the Amu Daryu River and as a group were able to spend a day trying (…and succeeding) in finding the site.
We may choose to extend our stay in a town to take part in a festival or visit a village that we’ve been researching. We may choose to avoid a certain mountain pass if there is late seasonal snow or reverse the whole route to avoid a sandstorm. All our itineraries are designed with one day of float built into them, to account for mechanical problems, broken bridges, or bad weather.
Based on our experience over the past 2-years we have decided to extend this itinerary by a day to 15-nights in order to make sure we can make the journey through Ghor and to the Minaret of Jam - the road conditions are extremely variable and this year the journey between Chagcharan and Herat took nearly 30 hours.
Day #001
After arriving on a morning flight from Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Istanbul you will be greeted by Noory and Joe and transferred to your Kabul guesthouse. Travellers arriving from Pakistan’s Torkham border will have arrived the day before on our free transfer.
If you aren’t too tired from your flight, we will visit the impressive Buddhist collection at Kabul Museum or one of the city’s surrounding Buddhist stupas. We’ll then move onto the old bazaar of Kabul to take a wonder round the city’s bird market.
Many travellers will take the opportunity to have a couple of sets of local clothes tailored for the journey ahead of them, it’s both fun and practical and prices start from as little as $20USD. We’ll also get the chance to change local money and pick up any last-minute supplies for the road ahead.
Accommodation at 3* equivalent hotel in Kabul
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At Babur's mausoleum with friends.
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Kabul city view.
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Joe having dinner at one of the bustling restuarants in Shar-E-Naw
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Playing hide and seek with street kids in the old city on Kabul.
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Joe buying a 'karakuli' hat in Kabul's main bazaar
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![Partridges for sale in Kabul's bird market]()
Partridges for sale in Kabul's bird market
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Kabul city wall walk.
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Artefacts in the National Museum
Day #002
An early morning start for you as we hike across the Shir-Darwaza wall walk across the roof of Kabul. The hike is a great way to burn off the jet lag and takes about 4 hours. This is our favourite Kabul site – it is an ancient wall connecting two incredible monuments to defeated empires. We will start our hike at the Mughal Emperor Babur’s Garden.
Our route will then take us to the Bala Hissar Fort, scene of the pivotal events of both Anglo-Afghan wars. It’s also a good chance to have a chat with members of the Taliban who will accompany us on the walk and take some photos of them hiking up the wall.
After lunch we will drive through Wardak province and over several mountain passes above 2,500m to arrive in the city of Bamiyan. We’ll arrive in the evening to visit one of the abandoned cities of Shahr-E-Zahak or Gholgala. Both are relics of Genghis Khan’s destructive quest to conquer the Bamiyan valley.
Accommodation at ATO Guesthouse in Bamiyan
Salang Pass - over the Hindu Kush and onto Bamiyan. Always an adventure in summer or winter.
Day #003
A dawn walk through the remains of the Buddha’s of Bamiyan is one of the greatest ways to start the day and they are only a short walk across farmland from the hotel. The Buddhist niches are far more impressive than pictures suggest. The site is several kilometres long and most people will enjoy a couple of hour walking around them before wondering round the bazaar. Bamiyan is one of Afghanistan’s friendliest cities and local people are always desperate to chat and test their English.
In the afternoon we will make our way to Yawkawlang and onto the remains of Chehil Burj, via the famous lakes at Band-E-Amir. Our host will join us for a traditional Hazara dinner under the mulberry trees.
Accommodation at homestay/camping at Chehil Burj or another local village
Members of the Taliban hanging around the remains of Bamyan's famous buddha.
Pedalos are parked at the bottom of the Band-E-Amir national park
A close up of the remains of "Shah Mama" the female buddha at the East of the Bamyan city complex.
The journey to Bamyan through Kabul takes us through stunning mountain scenery rising to over 2000m in places.
Day #004
The mud brick village at the foot of the famous ‘forty towers’ of Chehel Burj is hidden from the valley floor, but is a maze of mud brick houses, irrigation streams and small vegetable gardens. You’ll have a couple of hours in the morning to make your way up the hill to explore the archaeological site including the Kushan period Buddhist niches and the thick walls of huge, abandoned garrison which once guarded the valley below.
We will then begin the long journey towards the town of Chagcharan. The road conditions are very poor particularly on the mountain passes just beyond Yawkawlang, but there is a lot of road work being done now. Expect a long day in the car.
Accommodation in 2* Chagcharan Hotel
Day #005
The rolling green hills behind the city of Chagcharan city make you feel more like you’re in Mongolia than Afghanistan and our path will take us over them towards Jam. Upon arrival at the Minaret, we will set up camp almost directly under the monument and spend an easy afternoon watching the stars! You’ll have time to hike up the surrounding hills and get pictures of the minaret in the best light.
Camping at the base of the minaret of Jam in Ghor.
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Sham's shows off one of our standard vehicles.
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A typical hotel room at the Rahat hotel in Mazar-e-Sharif.
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Typical homestay provision in Ghazni.
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Our head driver Shamuldeen Sarai.
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A typical bathroom in an an Afghan hotel.
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The interior of one of our vehicles, showing how you will travel.
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Homestay shower provided by our host.
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Homestay Breakfast
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Fitting snow chains in the mountains
Day #006
Another long day in the car (10 hours) but unavoidable sadly! Despite this being the longest day of the trip, the road follows the Hari Rud River and feels like a real adventure. We’ll come across the ruined remains of Chist-e-Sharif en route which featured on the front cover of Rory Stewart’s book the “Places in Between.”
Accommodation at Sadaf International Hotel in Herat
Day #007
A full rest day in Herat in a good hotel will be welcome by all. We’ll spend the day sightseeing in the city and recharging our batteries after the long journey. Herat is my favourite city in Afghanistan, and we won’t need to even get in the car at all today – it will all be walking supplemented by the use of a few tuktuks.
We’ll visit the city’s citadel, abandoned silk bazaar and of course the Great Mosque joined by our friend and city guide Shafi Mohammadi who will introduce us to the men who are restoring the ancient site in the tile factory.
Accommodation at Sadaf International Hotel in Herat
Day #008
An opportunity to explore the countryside south of Herat and spend time and picnic with the farmers tending the city’s famous ancient vineyards. We’ll cross the Pul-i-Malan bridge on our way, which is nearly a thousand years old.
Accommodation at Sadaf International Hotel in Herat
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Fresh bread at a local bakery
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A member of the Taliban security forces
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A lady wears a mandatory Burkha in order to remain covered in public
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A young shepherd with his goats
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Day #009
The journey south towards Helmand takes us through the harsh but beautiful deserts of Farah and Nimruz provinces. We’ll be making a stop to be hosted for lunch by the Ahmadi family in their architecturally unique village, before arriving in the provincial capital of Helmand by nightfall.
Accommodation at homestay or Lashkah Gah Hotel.
A fresh pomegranate
Day #010
The day starts again at dawn as we walk from the ruins of Lashkar-e-Bazaar along the Helmand River all the way to Qala-E-Bost, famous for its 11th century decorative arch, which appears on the 100 Afghani note.
After lunch in the bazaar, we will be making the journey towards Sangin district and our homestay in Malmul Qala. This is for many of our guests the most special night of the trip, camped under the stars of the Helmand desert in the shadow of the village’s ancient castle joined by many of the elders of the community.
Accommodation in camping-homestay in Malmul Qala
Day #011
A short drive takes us from Helmand province towards the city of Kandahar and onto Shamsher district, where we will find an enormous and ancient cave complex. The caves were first explored in 1956 by a French archaeological expedition who found remains of human habitation of the caves from the Kushan period. Several ancient relics were found by the expedition, including pottery from Samarra. Since then, few people have been able to visit the caves, and we will be some of the first foreign visitors at the complex for some years.
We will then spend the afternoon in Kandahar which is Afghanistan’s de-facto new capital. There will be lots of time to waltz through the the old city’s bazaar, eating Shir-Yakh ice cream, visiting the home of the ‘father’ of the Afghan state Ahmed Shah Baba and end the evening climbing the famous 40 steps of the city as the sun sets.
Accommodation in 3* equivalent hotel in Kandahar
Day #012
After spending a couple hours visiting the site of “Old Kandahar” where Alexander the Great is said to have established the city, we will have the chance to explore the rich green Arghandab valley, which experienced some of Afghanistan’s most intense fighting against foreign forces.
The river basin is the birthplace of Mullah Omar and the spiritual heartland of the Taliban. We will be able to sit eating mantu dumplings in the orchards with our hosts, talk about the new Afghanistan and hear about the past from them. We will finish the day with the opportunity to swim in the cool waters of the Dahla dam before camping under the pomegranate trees of a village.
Accommodation in Arghanadab Homestay
Day #013
A long day’s drive through Zabul province on our way to Kabul takes us back across the Pashtun ethnic belt, to the city of Ghazni. The city is one of Afghanistan’s most ethnically diverse, with a rich and bloody history to match.
Accommodation at 2* equivalent hotel in Ghazni or village homestay in Khwaja Umari
Homestay host, Ghazni
Day #014
An early morning start in Ghazni to visit the city’s incredible citadel, the famous minarets of Ghazni and the Buddhist site of Tepe Sadar. We will then drive to Kabul (4-6 hours).
Accommodation at 3* equivalent hotel in Kabul
Day #015
As you prepare to depart Afghanistan many of our guests like to spend the morning walking through the shops of Chicken Street. Many of the shopkeepers selling carpets, crafts and antiques have run their businesses since the ‘Hippy Trail’ and will tell you stories of young Europeans driving through Kabul on their way to India in the 1960’s and 1970’s. We hope that your Safarat journey will have contributed a small part to a return to these happier times in Afghan history.
Most flights to Dubai, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Delhi and Doha leave Kabul after lunchtime.
What’s Included:
- All accommodation: based on 2 guests sharing a room.
- Breakfast: is provided by our guesthouses. If we are required to make an early start you will be taken for Bolani and Sheer Chai in a local cafe.
- Private Transport: in your own air conditioned 2 wheel drive car
- Guiding by Joe Sheffer, Charlie Faulkner and Noory Qudratullah
-Local Travel Permits and Photography Permissions
- Visa support and invitation
What’s Not:
- Lunch: We will be happy to recommend restaurants to fit all budgets in Kabul and Bamiyan.
- Dinner is not included on single person tours
- Snacks and Water
- Visa Fee: Please see our FAQ below on how to get your visa.
- International Flights
- Entrance fees: There is currently a charge to enter Kabul Museum, Babur Gardens and a shared ticket for the sites of Bamyan.
Book Now
Our ‘Past and Present’ journey is our original and we think still the best trip we run in Afghanistan.
If you are interested in a real deep dive into Afghanistan’s social and cultural history then this is the trip for you. The trip takes you to 4 unique areas of the country, crossing invisible lines in the map that explain Afghanistan’s recent and often bloody past.
This journey takes us through high mountains and through the south of the country and so we only run this trip in Spring and Autumn.
This trip is lead by Joe Sheffer, Qudratullah Noory and Charlie Faulkner.
This is a 25% deposit for the full price of the trip. As per our terms and conditions full payment is due 60 days before the scheduled start of the trip.
We will be in contact you within 72 hours of your booking to discuss plans for your visa, your plan for arriving in Afghanistan and other details.
Highlights
1. Hike across Kabul’s Sher Darwaza mountain along an ancient wall...
Connecting two monuments to defeated empires. Starting at the Mughal Emperor Babur’s garden, our route will take us to the Bala Hissar Fort, scene of the pivotal events of both Anglo-Afghan wars.
2. Discuss the new Afghanistan with the pomegranate farmers of Kandahar’s Aghandab valley…
The birthplace of Mullah Omar and heartland of the Taliban. Eat mantu dumplings in the orchards with our hosts, who witnessed some of Afghanistan’s most intense fighting against foreign forces
3. Wild Camp at the crumbling base of the remote Minaret of Jam, built in 1190 and rumoured to be the remains of the lost city of Turquoise Mountain.
It is at a real risk of disappearing forever. We’ll pitch our tents next to the 65m tower, under a night sky unchanged in the minaret’s history and completely undisturbed by light pollution.
4. Explore the remnants of America’s longest war, against Helmand’s desert moonscape.
Little is left of the lives and billions of dollars lost here, apart from bleached concrete blast walls, abandoned runways and roads pockmarked by thousands of mines between villages.
5. Imagine a different history in Afghanistan’s cultural capital Herat
…as you walk through the city’s citadel, first built by Alexander the Great in 330BC.
Journey #001: From the Timurids to the Taliban
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The trip is a 14 night (15 day trip) which starts on a Sunday at Kabul international airport. We are happy to recommend which flights you should take, landing in Kabul from Doha, Dubai, Ankara or Istanbul.
If you are getting your visa in Pakistan, we offer a free transfer from the Torkham visa on the day before the start of the trip. You will be able on this day to visit the consulate in Peshawar and then make it to Kabul on the evening of the Saturday.
If you are interested in travelling outside of these dates, or are interested in a custom itinerary then please contact us directly.
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The situation with Afghan Consulates around the world is currently confused due to the change in regime in Kabul in August 2021.
The best places for our tourists to get a visa at the moment are Peshawar in Pakistan and Abu Dhabi both of which offer visas quickly on a same day basis.
As part of every Safarāt trip we now run a free shuttle from the Torkham border with Pakistan to Kabul for the start of the trip. This enables you to get your visa in Peshawar on Saturday morning and arrive in Kabul the same day. An additional nights accommodation is payable directly to the guesthouse.
For more unto date information on the ever changing Afghan visa situation please check this page.
Please contact us directly if you have any questions about visas at hello@safarat.co
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There are now daily flights between Kabul and Tashkent, Islamabad, Doha, Jeddah, Riyadh/Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Istanbul and Ankara via multiple airlines including - Turkish Airlines, Air Arabia, Ariana, Kamair and Fly Dubai
If you are struggling to pay for your flights via Kamair’s website, we recommend that you use their app which seems to work better with foreign credit cards.
To book a flight on Ariana please use their website. Their flights do not show up on google flights .
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The cost of this trip is on the booking page – a non refundable 25% deposit is required to secure your place at the point of booking.
The balance of the trip is due 60 days before departure.
There is no single supplement although we will always try and make sure you have your own room. This is not always possible, so please be prepared to share a room for a couple of nights if you are travelling alone.
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We have recently changed the way our travellers are insured. You can read about this decision here, but you must now arrange your own suitable medical and evacuation insurance.
The upshot of this is that there are now a range of insurers offering better value and good cover to travellers visiting Afghanistan and we are happy to recommend an insurer to speak to before your departure.
This is a legal requirement for all our guests and a copy of your insurance policy must be produced to the Company by the Traveller prior to the Departure Date and a further copy given to the tour Leader on arrival in-country.
If you fail to provide evidence of adequate insurance prior to the Departure Date, the Company reserve the right to deny your participation in the tour, with no right to refund.
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Please find our full terms and conditions here.
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Our maximum group size is 8 travellers plus your guides.
We will be spread across spread across 2 or 3 4x4 vehicles.
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Originally we sold this trip as a 14-night journey through Afghanistan, but based on our experience this sometimes felt rushed due to difficult road conditions in the central highlands.
The road running to the Minaret of Jam is very unpredictable and travellers this spring experienced delays of 30+ hours due to landslides and generally appalling road conditions. It also meant that our guests were getting to spend little to no time at the Minaret of Jam itself, as we often arrived in the dark and were forced to leave very early the next morning. We’ve added a day in the itinerary to make up for this.
What’s Included:
- All accommodation: based on 2 guests sharing a room
- Breakfast and Dinner - or your main meal of the day.
- Private Transport: in your own air conditioned 2 wheel drive car
- Guiding by Joe Sheffer and Noory Qudratullah
-Local Travel Permits
- Visa support and invitation - we will provide more details about how to get your visa and provide an invitation where required from our registered Kabul company.
-Admission Fees to sites.
What’s Not:
- Lunch - often a casual/light affair particularly when we are driving
- Visa Fees payable directly to embassy
-Flights to and From Afghanistan
-Local Flights in Afghanistan in event of an emergency or change of schedule due to security or schedule.
-Laundry in hotels
-Tips to Drivers, Porters and Local Guides
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![A man standing in a desert landscape with a herd of goats in the background, mountains in the distance, wearing traditional clothing and sandals.]()
A young shepherd strikes a pose for us in Sangin, Helmand,
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Sunset over Kabul.
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Bread for sale in the bazaar of Herat city.
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![Noory visiting the famous museum of Jihad.]()
Noory visiting the famous museum of Jihad.
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Fighting Partridges for sale in Kabul's bird market.
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The classic shot of the buddhas of Bamiyan. A highlight of the trip.
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Band-E-Amir national park in Bamyan.
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A Taliban fighter who requested we took his portrait whilst visiting historic sites in Helmand.
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Golden hour in Lashkari Bazaar, Helmand.
