6-Day Termez to Kabul — Mazar, Bamiyan, Band-e Amir & Kabul

Our team stays in Termez the night before so they meet you at the Hairatan / Termez land border in the morning. After immigration you drive into Mazar-i-Sharif and start at the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, the Blue Mosque, its 15th-century Timurid tilework alive with white pigeons — women should bring a headscarf for shrine visits. Then it is a 40-kilometre drive to Balkh, the 'Mother of Cities': ancient Bactra, where Alexander the Great wintered in 328 BCE, where Rumi was born, and which Genghis Khan levelled in 1220. You walk the earthen ramparts of the Bala Hisar, see the Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa Mosque, and stand inside the 9th-century No Gonbad Mosque, one of the oldest surviving mosques in the Islamic world. Back in Mazar the afternoon closes with the city bazaar. The night is spent at the Arsalan Guest House, Mazar-i-Sharif.

A very early start south. You break the journey at Samangan at Takht-i Rustam — a complete Buddhist stupa of the 4th to 5th century CE carved downwards into solid bedrock rather than built up from it. The nearby Samangan cave bazaar offers a good leg-stretch before the run into the Hazara highlands. You reach Bamiyan in the afternoon: the empty niches of the 55-metre Western and 38-metre Eastern Buddhas, carved between the 5th and 7th centuries CE and destroyed in March 2001, and the honeycomb of monastic caves beside them. The night is spent at the Bamyan Royal Hotel.

First stop is Shahr-e Zuhak, the Red City, its ruined watchtowers glowing rust-coloured against the cliffs, followed by Shahr-e Gholghola, the City of Screams that Genghis Khan destroyed in 1221. In the Kakrak Valley you visit a smaller set of Buddhist niches before reaching the main event: the empty niches of the 55-metre Western and 38-metre Eastern Buddhas, carved between the 5th and 7th centuries CE and destroyed in March 2001. You climb through the honeycomb of monastic caves beside them, then finish the day with tea in a cave house, hosted by a local family whose people have called this valley home for more than 700 years.

Today is a full 4WD day trip to Band-e Amir, Afghanistan's first national park, declared in 2009 — six lakes of improbable turquoise held back by natural travertine dams that look like walls of ice. You walk the rim of Band-e Haibat, where legend says Hazrat Ali created the dams with a blow of his sword, cross the water by boat, and visit the small mosque and footprint shrine that pilgrims still travel here for. Lunch is a scenic picnic on the shore. The lakes sit at 2,900 metres, so walk slowly and drink plenty of water. Back in Bamiyan by late afternoon, there is time to browse the town market before dinner.

After breakfast you leave Bamiyan on the mountain road over the Unai Pass at 3,200 metres, a drive of around five hours to Kabul with photo stops along the way. You arrive in the capital — not at the airport — and have lunch in the city. The afternoon begins at the tiled Sakhi Shrine, continues past the Shah-Do Shamshira Mosque, and slows down in the Kah Faroshi Bird Market, where cages of songbirds line a lane older than most capitals. The last stop is the mausoleum of Timur Shah Durrani, the ruler who made Kabul the Afghan capital in 1776. Kabul sits at 1,800 metres after the highland road, so take the afternoon in Kabul at an easy pace and drink more water than you think you need. Overnight at the Khyber Hotel, Kabul.

Breakfast at the hotel, then a last morning in the capital: the Kushan-era Shewaki Buddhist Stupa, the terraced garden of Bagh-e Babur where the Mughal emperor is buried, and the Id Gah Mosque. Then comes the airport transfer for an afternoon departure. Book your outbound flight for 17:00 or later and allow three hours for check-in. Kabul connects daily to Dubai with flydubai, and onwards to Doha, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi with Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and Air Arabia.