This is a really cool and insightful week long travel trip. It's a backpacking journey through Iraq. You will be staying in the Kurdistan part of Iraq which is in the north and you will be touring the main cities there while enjoying the local food, history and culture in a country not often associated with backpacking. It might be a tad cliched to use the term "off the beaten track", but travelling in Iraq is exactly that.
We start the journey in Zakho having crossed the border from Turkey. A little bit of an introduction into Kurdish culture in this quiet town and a night with local food, we will check out the famous bridge before heading onto Duhok the next day.
We will spend 2 days and 2 nights in Duhok but this will also include the day trip out to Amadiya to explore an ancient city on the top of a mountain and enjoy the views. In Duhok, we will visit the Bazaar, Mosques, Waterfalls and Dam.
The day trip to Amadiya will be memorable. This old town is on the top of a mountain. We can visit the Mosque and the old gates and walls to the city and grab lunch up there in the quiet town.
We will spend a total of 3 days exploring Erbil including a night out in Ainkawa and an afternoon in the Christian Quarter. This will also include a visit to Sami Abdulrahman Park and Erbil Citadel.
We will finish the 8 day tour in the city of Sulaymaniyeh, which is by far the most "westernised" city in Iraq. Our time in Sulaymaniyeh will involve a pub crawl and a visit to the Amna Suraka Red Security Museum, which is where hundreds of Kurds were tortured and killed during Saddam Hussein's regime.
