8-Day Afghanistan for Women

Your female guide meets you at Kabul airport, and the first afternoon eases you in: the Kah Faroshi Bird Market and the mausoleum of Timur Shah Durrani, taken at a gentle pace. In the evening the whole group sits down to a private women-only welcome dinner with your group leader and guide — the moment the trip properly begins. A headscarf and loose, modest clothing are all you need to feel comfortable from day one.

The drive to Bamiyan takes most of the day, climbing out of Kabul and into the heartland of the Hazara people. You walk the hilltop ruins of Shahr-e Gholghola for the valley panorama, then stand before the empty niches where the 55-metre and 38-metre Buddhas presided until 2001. The evening is free to settle into the hotel and the mountain air — Bamiyan sits at 2,550 metres, so take it slowly tonight and drink plenty of water.

This is the day mixed groups cannot have. You spend the morning with a charma duzi cooperative, watching and trying the silk-thread embroidery passed from mother to daughter — a craft that remains an important source of income for Hazara women — followed by a workshop on traditional Hazara clothing-making. Lunch is served in the women-only side of a family home, a room male travellers never see. In the afternoon you visit the Hussain Naveed English School, founded by one of Darya's founders and featured by VICE World News in 2022. Bring small afghani notes if you would like to buy embroidery directly from the makers.

Today is the long road day, seven to eight hours in total, so the group leaves early — snacks, water and a travel pillow all help. Ghazni breaks the drive: the Ghaznavid minarets with their carved terracotta and Kufic script, and the Soviet tanks and aircraft of the Military Open Air Museum. You roll into Kabul in the evening for the night.

A morning flight takes the group west to Herat. The afternoon covers the city's two anchors: the Masjid-i Jami, the Friday Mosque with its twelve minarets and shimmering tile, and the citadel of Qala Ikhtyaruddin above the old town. Overnight in Herat.

Herat is Afghanistan's saffron heartland, and today you cook with it: a class in a women-only kitchen where you learn Herati saffron rice from the women who make it best. Afterwards you visit the ateliers of the tailoring quarter, where embroidered silk dresses and velvet cloaks are still cut and stitched by hand — purchases and commissions are possible if something catches your eye. The evening closes with a female-only farewell dinner with your guides.

The morning is planned around Gazurgah, the shrine of the Sufi saint Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, where women and men traditionally visit on different days — your guide arranges the timing. You then fly back to Kabul and, if the schedule allows, end the day in the golden hour on Wazir Akbar Khan Hill above the city. Exact Herat activities depend on the day's flight time and are confirmed at booking.

The final morning holds two quiet farewells: the Kushan-era Shewaki Buddhist Stupa and the terraced gardens of Bagh-e Babur. Then it is the transfer to the airport. Kabul connects onwards with flydubai to Dubai, Qatar Airways to Doha, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and Air Arabia to Abu Dhabi — book an afternoon departure so the morning never feels rushed.