Kabul welcomes first holidaymakers

Wares are for sale on the streets of Kabul

By Kylie Morris BBC correspondent in Kabul

It isn't a city you immediately associate with package tours, but a group of brave-hearted travellers have landed in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, for a summer holiday with a difference.

It did seem like a daft idea - but not any longer

Enna Giddings, tourist in Afghanistan

They are the first post-Taleban travellers to enter the country on tourist visas only recently made available by the Afghan embassy in London.

It is an unlikely tourist destination - a country ravaged by war, in the middle of a drought, and thickly sown with landmines.

A small blast outside a UN office in Kabul on Sunday was a reminder of how fragile the current peace is.

But for the six Britons and one 72-year-old Portuguese woman who make up the group, the risks are worth a week-long holiday.

All of them are veterans of difficult destinations. Last year, some visited Iraq.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, once a tourist attraction, were destroyed by the Taleban

The British Foreign Office warns against visiting Afghanistan, and travellers like Anna Giddings admit it may seem like a strange idea.

"I do feel mad," she told me.

"But as long as I go back in one piece and I can say, 'Well, I wasn't quite as mad as you think I was'.

"Before, I was a bit embarrassed to tell some people, because it did seem like a daft idea. But not any longer."

The group is planning to do as much travel as is possible outside of the capital, Kabul - but they say just being here is already worth the effort.