Vacation to Afghanistan

Posted on by Emily in Vacations

Vacation to Afghanistan

Canadian tour operator Bestway Tours & Safaris has begun offering vacation opportunities for interested parties to travel to Afghanistan. Starting this Fall, tourists can visit the war-torn country by the expert guidance of “chief explorers” like Mahmood Poonja, who claims that previous to the Russian invasion in 1979, Afghanistan was a popular tourist destination.

Of course when the Taliban took over tourism came to a screeching halt. Then came the U.S. invasion in 2001– yet another obstacle in the country’s attempt to welcome foreign visitors. However, this past June President Obama declared that he wanted a drawdown by 2014. The beginning of the troop withdrawal is slotted for the end of this year.

Vacation to Afghanistan

When most people think of dream vacations they usually aren’t conjuring up images of a country recovering from years of warfare. Still, Poonja and the people of Bestway Travel had stated that they developed the tour because there was a demand for it but not by the likes of families with young children.

Instead they say that the kinds of people who have a great interest in traveling to destinations like Afghanistan are typically 45 and older, highly educated and often like traveling on their own. In fact, Bestway specializes in “challenging destinations” which include Yemen, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Tajikistan.

The Afghanistan tour will avoid all military locations and focus predominantly on history and culture. It will start and end in Kabul and will include the Band-e lakes, the Koh-i-Baba mountain range, as well as the historical city of Balkh. The entire trip will last 9 days and so far has two designated departure dates: October 12th and April 15, 2012. The price of the tour begins at $2,990.

Is that reasonable? I suppose so. It seems as though Afghanistan is interested in drawing tourism to give the economy a little boost as they started reopening popular sites throughout the country like Mt. Noshaq– the country’s tallest mountain.

Vacation to Afghanistan

Despite the fact that price is decent and there will be a tour guide, I think some caution should still be taken. According to Wikitravel Afghanistan is “effectively still a war zone” and the government doesn’t have control over large parts of the country. I think that anyone who is considering this trip will most likely have a fascinating time, but they should be the kind of person who has tons of experience traveling through volatile nations and probably be in decent health.

I would definitely feel uneasy traveling through Afghanistan. From what I understand it’s an absolutely beautiful country with rich, brilliant culture but there is also still quite a bit of violence and until the government has more control, I’d be hesitate to do a 9 day tour. Even with a tour guide. Sometimes I wish I could be more like Indiana Jones, but I guess I’ll have to settle for being a regular, somewhat cautious traveler.

If you’re looking for interesting vacation destinations on a budget, why not consider traveling to Costa Rica or other Central American countries? There are often great package deals that include the price of flights and hotels and sometimes even rental cars. I’ve seen incredible deals to Costa Rica and Guatemala for under a $1000 which included a round trip ticket and a week at a hotel. Not too shabby.

For those of you who are considering vacationing in Afghanistan, I hope you have a safe journey.

Vacation to Afghanistan

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