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.
14-29th September 2024
3-18th May 2025
13-28th September 2025
➤ Kabul – Ghazni – Kandahar – Arghandab – Lashkar Gah – Sangin – Herat – Chaghcharan – Bamiyan
➤ Kabul – Ghazni – Kandahar – Arghandab – Lashkar Gah – Sangin – Herat – Chaghcharan – Bamiyan
Your Guides
Joe Sheffer and 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.
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.
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.
