Kurdistan
Kurdistan in Four Days
The northern route, and the greenest. Four days from the Erbil Citadel through Lalish, the Yazidi holy valley you enter barefoot, up to Amedi on its mesa, out to Shanidar Cave where a Neanderthal was buried among pollen. Mountains, not desert.
4 DAYS · STEADY PACE · 4–12 TRAVELERS · FROM $820
This is the easiest part of Iraq to travel and the greenest. Kurdistan runs on its own visa-free entry, its own checkpoints, and a landscape of terraced hills that surprises people expecting sand. It suits travellers who want mountains, walking, and time in places that are still lived in rather than fenced off. Be honest about the driving: Day 3 to Amedi and back is the long one, several hours of switchbacks, and the road to Lalish and Khinnis eats a morning. You will spend real time in the car, watching the country change. What stays with people is smaller than the scenery — removing your shoes at the gate of Lalish, the walnut sellers at Shaqlawa, a family's washing hung on the roofs of a citadel six thousand years old. Come April to June or September to October; summer is hot and the high roads can close in winter.
DAY BY DAY
Day
01
Up onto the Erbil Citadel
Start at the Jalil Khayat Mosque, the modern one with the Ottoman-style domes, then the leaning Choli Minaret, all that survives of a 12th-century mosque. The afternoon climbs the citadel mound, lived on without a break for about six thousand years; one family was kept resident through the restoration so that claim holds. Down into the Qaysari bazaar for tea.
Day
02
Barefoot into the Lalish valley
Lalish is the holiest place in the Yazidi faith, a cluster of conical shrines in a wooded fold of hills. You leave your shoes at the entrance and step over, never on, the thresholds. Later, the Khinnis reliefs — Assyrian kings cut into rock above the head of an old canal — and the Delal Bridge arching over the Khabur at Zakho.
Day
03
The long road to Amedi
This is the day of the long drive. Amedi sits on top of a flat mesa, reached by one road that spirals up to a town you cannot expand. Walk out to the Mosul Gate, carved with figures worn almost smooth, then the hours back east — tiring, but the valleys on the return are the reward.
Day
04
Shanidar Cave and Shaqlawa walnuts
The last morning goes to Shanidar Cave, high in the Bradost mountains, where ten Neanderthals were dug out — one of them buried among pollen, which set off a long argument about whether they laid flowers on their dead. Stop at Shaqlawa on the way down for walnuts and sheets of pressed apricot, then the drive to Erbil and out.
THIS ROUTE, PHOTOGRAPHED
What you will be looking at
What's included
- A guide who has led this route before, not a freelancer we found last week
- Driver and private vehicle for the whole route
- Hotels, booked for you on request
- Meals, arranged on request
- Visa support and your letter of invitation
- Entry tickets to every site in the itinerary
What's not
- International flights to and from Iraq
- Personal spending and tips
- Alcohol — it is not sold south of Baghdad, and we will tell you where it is
BEFORE YOU COME
Questions we are asked about this tour
Is Iraq safe to visit?
We have run group trips continuously since 2008, and the answer we give is practical, not promotional: the cities on our routes — Baghdad, the shrine cities, the south, Kurdistan — receive foreign travelers every week. You travel with an Iraqi guide and driver the whole time, we handle every checkpoint, and we adjust routes if conditions change. We will always tell you plainly what is and isn't sensible.
Do I need a visa?
Citizens of more than 30 countries — including the EU, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea and China — receive a visa on arrival at Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and Erbil airports (around US$77, cash). We confirm the current rules for your passport before you commit to anything.
Can I pay by card or withdraw cash?
Treat Iraq as a cash country. US dollars exchange easily everywhere; cards work in a growing number of Baghdad and Erbil hotels and malls but nowhere you should rely on. We tell you exactly how much cash to bring for your trip — most travelers are surprised how affordable the days are.
What are the groups actually like?
Eight to sixteen people, usually five or more nationalities, ages from late twenties to seventies. An Iraqi guide and driver stay with the group throughout; hotels are the best available in each city (solid 3–4 star). The pace is curious rather than rushed — long lunches are part of the itinerary, not a failure of it.
Can I join alone?
Most of our travelers come alone. We match roommates by request or arrange a single room for a supplement, and solo women regularly join our groups — see the questions above about dress and safety, and ask us anything else directly.
What is the food like — and can I drink the water?
You will eat well: masgouf grilled over embers by the Tigris, qeema in the shrine cities, Kurdish breakfasts of honey and clotted cream, dates from Basra groves. Stick to bottled water, which is cheap and everywhere. Vegetarians manage easily; tell us about allergies and we brief every restaurant ahead.
The gate is open.
Tell us which month suits you and we will tell you which group fits.