10-Day Pakistan and Afghanistan Tour via Kabul, Bamyan and Balkh

• Arrive at Islamabad International Airport, meet your guide, and transfer to the hotel.
• Visit the Afghan Embassy and explore Taxila.
• In the morning at 8:30 a.m., drive to the Afghanistan Embassy with the required documents, fill out the visa form, and pay the fee for an Argent visa. Once you are free from the embassy, visit Taxila's famous archaeological site and museum. Have lunch in Taxila, and in the evening, drive back to Islamabad for an overnight stay at the hotel.

• Morning visit to Islamabad and collection of the visa from the embassy.
• In the morning, visit the Pakistan Monument and National Museum. Around 11 a.m., collect your visa from the Afghanistan Embassy and enjoy lunch in Islamabad. After lunch, drive to Peshawar, the ancient living city. On arrival, visit Khyber Old Market and stay overnight at a hotel.

• In the morning, drive to the Torkhum border, with a short break in Peshawar and at the famous Khyber Pass. On arrival at the border, visit the Pakistan-side customs and migration office and cross from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Have lunch in Jalalabad, and after lunch, drive to Kabul. On arrival, check into your hotel.

Explore the capital of Afghanistan and visit the national museum, King's Palace, and the old market. After lunch, visit Garden Babur, which was built in 1504 by the Mughal Empire. In the evening, visit the local market and Ziarat-e-Sakhi. Overnight in a hotel.

Early in the morning, drive to Bamyan through Chahar Qaleh, stopping for pictures and a tea break. On arrival, transfer to the hotel. After lunch, visit the famous Bamyan Buddha area, and in the evening, visit the market. Overnight in a hotel.

• After breakfast, drive to Band-e Amir National Park. Afghanistan established its first national park on April 22, 2009, to promote and protect the natural beauty of a series of intensely blue lakes created by natural dams high in the Hindu Kush. Band-e-Amir is a chain of six lakes in the mountainous desert of central Afghanistan. Drive back to Bamyan to visit the ruined Buddha. The ruined Buddhas are the main reason most people visit Bamyan, although some feel that visiting at all is to reward cultural vandalism and desecration. Created in the 6th century, they were once the largest in the world and a pilgrimage site for Buddhists. Over the centuries, they were damaged by various invaders, and in 2001, the Taliban declared them "un-Islamic," rolled in tanks, and destroyed them completely. All that remains are the "footprints." However, there are many interesting caves, and inside many of them are remains of painted frescoes.
• The Buddhas were built by the Gandharan Kingdom, which ruled the area a few centuries BCE. This was that kingdom's capital and contains better-preserved art from the same period.
• Caves are abundant throughout the mountainside, and many of them are used as residences. It is best to observe from a distance, out of respect for the residents and for your safety.
• Shahr-e Gholghola is a ruined fortified citadel situated on a hill just east of Bamyan, providing some of the best views of the entire valley.

• Today, you will visit the most attractive areas of Bamyan and Pol-e-Khomri, have lunch at Pol-e-Khumari, and drive to Mazar. On the way, visit Takht-e Rustam, just off the Balkh road between Mazar and Pol-e Khomri. This 5th-century Buddhist stupa and Buddhist cave complex is unusual because, unlike most stupas, Takht-e Rustam is not built above the ground but dug out from the bedrock. On arrival in Mazar, transfer to your hotel. After lunch, visit the local market. Overnight in a hotel.

• With a population of more than 485,000 (2020), Mazar-e Sharif is the fourth-largest city in Afghanistan. It was founded in the 12th century after a local mullah dreamt of the secret site where Ali bin Talib, the Prophet's cousin and the fourth caliph of Islam, had been buried. Outside Afghanistan, most Muslims believe that Ali is buried in Najaf, Iraq. A shrine, later rebuilt as the Blue Mosque, was constructed on the site, and the city of Mazar grew around it.
• Historically, this region was known as Bactria. Its capital was Balkh, while Mazar was a smaller nearby town. However, Balkh was abandoned due to disease in the mid-19th century, and Mazar assumed the role of the regional capital, a position it has maintained ever since.
• Visit Qala-i-Jangi, a fortress 30 minutes from Mazar-e Sharif that became infamous during the American-backed defeat of the Taliban by the Northern Alliance, when video footage of US and UK soldiers appeared on television sets around the world firing into rebelling Taliban prisoners, and an American Taliban was taken prisoner as one of the few survivors. The uprising started right after the death of an American CIA agent.
• Balkh was historically an ancient place of religions, including Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and one of the wealthiest and largest cities of Khorasan from the earliest periods of its history. The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa and to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra, giving its name to Bactria. Marco Polo described Balkh as a "noble and great city." Today, Balkh is, for the most part, a mass of ruins situated some 12 km away.
• Drive back and stay overnight at the hotel.

• Today, after breakfast, drive back to Kabul, have lunch at Pol-e-Khomeri, and cross the famous Salang Tunnel on the way to Kabul. Along the route, stop for pictures and tea. On arrival, transfer to the hotel.
• Fly from Kabul to homeland.

• Today you will fly back home after your amazing adventure in Afghanistan. End of the tour.