It's not every day you get to visit a country that's been in the headlines this much. Although I knew I wasn't going to be roaming the streets in a flak jacket…I wasn't quite sure what to expect and was a little nervous. I think traveling here (Kurdistan) did what traveling is well known to do: it broadened my mind. Meeting the people in any country… makes a place more real., I look back and think it was a damn fine thing that I got the chance to.

Kurdistan! It’s a real miracle, if you think of the awful conditions of the rest of Iraq. In Iraq all you can find is war and destruction, one of the worst and most dangerous countries in the world, then you cross the border (to Kurdistan), you are always in Iraq but in a completely different place, safe, rich, peaceful, you can go everywhere without problems and dangers. Think of the differences between Erbil and Mosul… here peace and welfare, there death and despair… and they are in the same country and so close! Kurdistan should be a model for the rest of the world, and it’s really incredible that in western countries nobody speaks about it, it’s like Kurdistan doesn’t exist.

Visitors can tour significant cultural landmarks like Erbil’s citadel, which dates to the Assyrian empire, and the site of the Battle of Gaugamela, which ended in the defeat of the Persian king Darius III by Alexander the Great and led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. The biggest lure is the opportunity for authentic cultural encounters.

The Kurdistan region has become a model of economic management, tolerance and progress ... and boasts an enviable reputation as an oasis of stability and security.

How to visit "The Other Iraq?" The Other Iraq Tours (now Explore Mesopotamia) offers year-round services with flexible packages. It has done so much to influence the growth of the fledgling tourism sector and has brought groups to the Kurdistan Region from the USA and as far away as Australia. The feedback from these groups has been overwhelmingly positive.

The people of Kurdistan are very kind; everyone here wants to talk to foreigners. What the newspapers and TVs say about Iraq, car bombs and killing every day, it is not what it looks like, Iraqi Kurdistan is very safe.