Mazar-i-Sharif is my favourite city in Afghanistan. It’s best known for the Blue Mosque, which felt far more authentic than similar buildings in Uzbekistan with only locals (and us) wandering around, before we were invited in for tea, which is standard practice in Afghanistan!

Yet beyond that, it has great food, incredibly friendly people, interesting markets, and is the capital of buzkashi, a brutal sport played on horseback which I’ll explain later on.

But first up, the boring stuff. You need a permit to travel in Mazar (and every other Afghan province you visit). If you came from Kabul, you may already have the permit from there. However, if you crossed the Hairatan border from Termez, then you’ll need to make the permit office your first stop before getting into the fun stuff.

How to Get Permits in Mazar-i-Sharif

You need to go to the permit office in Mazar-i-Sharif to get your permits for Balkh province (the province Mazar is a part of) and other provinces you wish to visit in Afghanistan.

The permit office is open from Saturday-Wednesday 9am-4pm (closed 12:30pm-1:30pm for prayers), and Thursdays from 9am-12:30pm. It is closed on Fridays.

Now, travel in Afghanistan has to be done with a guide these days. Officially, that’s the rule. In practice, it isn’t widely enforced, especially outside of Kabul.

But sometimes the rules change on the spot, and you could really do with finding a good guide to at least help you get your permits on the first day, if nothing else.

If you want to do a half-day trip to the town of Balkh, which I thoroughly recommend, then a guide and Taliban bodyguard are compulsory. But for major cities such as Mazar, Kabul and Bamyan among others, you can easily travel without one… for now.

You may require a guide to help you get the permits. I was lucky as two of us went to get our permits, met another guy with his guide at the office, and tagged along with them for the day. I never had another guide for the rest of my stay in Afghanistan. However, we may have benefited by meeting the guide in the office which convinced the Taliban we had someone for our entire trip.

Now once you’re at the permit office, you simply go through to where the Taliban are based. You enter the complex (shared with the Afghan Melli Bank), turn right and head to the back outside, then take a left turn. You will see some small buildings opposite that are separate from the main bank complex, this is where you need to go. The head Taliban member is located at the far end of the corridor after you enter the building.

The Taliban will warmly welcome you to Afghanistan, and send you back to another room near the entrance, which is where you may have contact with English-speaking staff.

You must tell them which provinces you plan to visit, and they will give you a slip which you take to the bank around the corner. You will need to pay 1,000 afghanis (£12/US$16) per province.

After payment, head back to the office and your permits will be printed off and signed for you. The Taliban member who did this for us kept getting confused between two of us, despite looking different from each other and holding different passports (US and UK), so just double check to ensure you’ve received the correct permits.

If you have the wrong one it could cause a lot of issues down the line.

This whole process should take under an hour, but as with any timings in Afghanistan, be prepared to stay much longer, especially if other people are getting permits at the same time.

Make sure you have your permit with you at all times during your stay in Afghanistan. You will be asked to show it often, either at places you visit (including the Blue Mosque) or at roadside checkpoints. Take a picture too just so you have some proof in case you do end up losing it.

The Best Things to do in Mazar-i-Sharif

Mazar is a small city, but it has a lot worth seeing. You can see just about everything in a day, but what a day it will be. By the time I took the night bus to Kabul, I was wide awake at 3am still processing everything I’d experienced in this chaotic yet charming city. I guarantee you won’t forget this place in a hurry.

Visit The Blue Mosque

Entry cost: 350 afghanis (£4/US$5)

Recommended visit time: Under 1 hour

The Holy Shrine of Hazrat Ali, or the Mausoleum of Imam Ali, is commonly known as the “Blue Mosque”. And just by looking at it, you can understand why.

Built in the same Timurid architectural style you will see all over Uzbekistan, the mosque is a pretty impressive building.

Important note: Non-Muslims are not allowed inside the actual mosque. We can enter the complex, but the mosque itself is off-limits.

That didn’t stop us having a great time here however. We were invited into an office round the back of the central building, which bizarrely seemed to double up as a chemistry lab with all sorts of tools and scientific equipment inside.

We met a wise 67-year old man in here who invited us in for tea, and shared stories of his time growing up throughout decades of war.

It helped that we tagged along with a guide for our day here, because he was able to translate our questions and this man’s stories which allowed us to learn a lot about how difficult it was living in Afghanistan. You could tell that it was tough for the poor guy, he seemed exhausted and looked much older than his age.

Outside the office, you can take pictures of the mosque, although half of it is covered in scaffolding after an earthquake in November 2025.

You should be respectful whilst taking pictures. It’s okay to have the odd photo of yourself by the mosque, but this is a holy place and not a photography studio, so don’t go around taking all sorts of selfies and posing for self-centered “influencer”-style images. The locals don’t like this.

They may however ask for photos with you whilst you’re here. Afghans love taking pictures with foreign guests!

The dress code is anything “modest” really. Everyone should wear something with long sleeves on your top half, and something that goes down to your ankles on your bottom half. Ladies must also cover their hair to come here.

Check Out Pigeon Square

Entry cost: Free

Recommended visit time: 10 minutes

Just around the corner from the Blue Mosque is a small park that’s absolutely full of pigeons. It’s possible to buy grain here and feed the pigeons if you really want to.

This is a little side quest that’s fun for 5 minutes, but no more than that. It’s interesting to see as you pass around the mosque since it’s literally around the corner.

If feeding pigeons doesn’t take your fancy, there are vendors selling beads here as well. These beads are known as misbaha or tasbih, and are an important tool used by Muslims for focus whilst praying amongst other things.

On the downside, we also encountered child beggars here. Some of them can be aggressive, so you should never give anything to them, as this sends out the message that harassing foreigners is okay, which creates problems for future visitors as well as condemning the child to a life of poverty where this is seen as a viable “career” option.

Try Sheer Yakh at Afghanistan’s Most Famous Ice Cream Shop: Haji Abdul Rahim Creamery

Cost: From 100 afghanis (£1.20/US$1.50)

Recommended visit time: 30 minutes

You cannot come to Afghanistan without sampling the sheer yakh ice cream. We first tried it during a half-day trip to Balkh, and loved it so much that we came back for more in the afternoon.

But this time we didn’t just go to any old ice cream place. We went to the popular Haji Abdul Rahim Creamery which just so happens to be the most famous ice cream shop in Afghanistan. And we weren’t disappointed at all.

Prices start from 100 afghanis (£1.20/US$1.50) for the standard sheer yakh made up of milk, cream, saffron, sugar, cardamom and rose water. You can pay more for flavours such as mango or strawberry, or you can have a large extravagant ice cream, but really you don’t need that. Pistachios are a common sheer yakh topping.

Sheer yakh, like all Afghan food, comes in very generous portions. I had more when I returned to Mazar at the end of my trip just before crossing the Hairatan border back to Uzbekistan, and couldn’t even finish my dinner afterwards because they gave me so much!

Be sure to stop at Haji Abdul Rahim Creamery during your time here. You won’t regret it.

Explore Chaotic Local Markets

Entry cost: Free

Recommended visit time: Up to 1 hour

Just north of the Blue Mosque, you have Mazar’s main markets. And they’re fascinating but absolutely chaotic. Things get pretty intense here fast.

The markets are full of stall selling all sorts of fruits, meats, snacks, drinks, sweets and more. Oh, and you can’t escape Labubu, that’s here too. Yes, it has made its way all the way over to the streets of Afghanistan…

The meat section is pretty graphic. They had severed goat heads still covered in fur, only separated from the wet concrete ground by some intestines and hooves they’d been placed on top of. I won’t share the pictures I took.

There is a censored version of a similar sight I saw in Kabul on my Afghanistan Instagram story highlights, but it’s not the most pleasant image in the world, so I kept the gruesome parts off social media.

But the real challenge of the markets is the street children. Many kids are harmless and will ask you for photos which is fun.

But they create a lot of noise and draw attention to you which quickly leads to crowds gathering. Unfortunately, not everyone here has good intentions, and one shaven-headed teenager in particular kept grabbing us. We had to hold our pockets tight and pull away every time he or his friends attempted to do this.

With the crowds growing increasingly bigger, the markets went from being enjoyable to uncomfortable. Even though Afghanistan is a lot safer nowadays, you still don’t want hundreds of strangers knowing where you are, especially when the number of foreign tourists in the city at any one time is likely to be in single digits. We really stand out here.

The markets were incredibly interesting, and a vendor even gave one of my travel buddies free food from his stall because “you are a guest in Afghanistan”. This wasn’t the only time I experienced this sort of generosity from locals.

Coming here is one of the most memorable things we did in Mazar, even if it did begin to get out of hand towards the end. You should walk fast, don’t stay still for long, and keep a guide close to you whilst keeping a close eye on your belongings here. Afghanistan is the only country I’ve been to where children pose a greater threat than adults.

Shop For War Rugs Opposite The Blue Mosque

Cost: The cheapest rugs cost US$10-25, although it’s possible to pay a lot more

Recommended visit time: 30-60 minutes

One of the more bizarre souvenirs you’ll find in Afghanistan is the war rugs.

In the Persian-speaking world across the likes of Iran and Afghanistan, carpet making is an important tradition and a lot of hard work goes into creating them.

Women in Afghanistan will almost never be seen in customer-facing roles. But some do have jobs behind the scenes. One of these is making carpets and rugs by hand, with weeks of graft going into perfecting them.

But what’s really interesting here is that Afghanistan loves war rugs. Not just any old rugs, but ones with gun and grenade images all over them.

Those aren’t the worst though. Some rugs are covered in 9/11 images displaying planes flying into the twin towers. Yikes.

The rug shops are all located in a row just opposite the road from the entrance to the Blue Mosque. From the mosque, cross the road and turn left to find them. You’ll know you’ve found them as massive cylindrical carpets will be located outside.

You can expect to be invited in for tea here. The carpet guys are typically hospitable, as you’ll quickly come to expect from Afghans. Make sure you put time aside for a chat of at least 30 minutes if you show any real interest in buying something here.

We even found one shop run by a chap called Rafi selling all sorts of other souvenirs including old coins and fridge magnets. Yes, if you want to bring your mother a magnet to say you’ve been in Afghanistan, this is the place to do it! They cost US$5 though which seems steep, but you may be able to negotiate.

The rug shops are an interesting place to stop in Mazar.

Attend a Buzkashi Match

Entry cost: 40 afghanis (£0.50/US$0.70)

Recommended visit time: Around 3 hours

If you really want to experience something unique in Afghanistan, go to a buzkashi match.

They play variations of this brutal sport across Central Asia, but in Afghanistan, the players really don’t hold back.

A group of men on horseback compete to grab possession of a sack (they used a sheep’s carcass until recently). They then run around a flag, back towards a “goal” circle on the ground, and drop the sack in the circle to win money.

The prizes can be quite generous, with US$100 bills being handed out in the game we saw. That’s a lot of money for an Afghan.

Players will charge towards whoever has the sack and compete in a melee where several blokes ferociously slash their whips and rile up their horses in an attempt to grab the prize for themselves.

I’ve never seen such a brutal sport in my life. The guide I spent my first day with said that people have died playing this, and it’s easy to see why. In fact I’m astonished that I didn’t even see anyone get injured here.

Games take place in winter time, generally from November-March. Mazar is the buzkashi capital of the country, and games take place at the Buzkashi Ground at approximately 2pm (although when I went, gates opened at 1:30pm and the game started at 2:53am).

At just 40 afghanis (£0.50/US$0.70) per person, this memorable experience is an absolute must if you’re in Mazar in the winter.

Where to Stay in Mazar-i-Sharif

If you’re looking for a good place to stay in Mazar-i-Sharif, then look no further than Rahat Hotel.

It costs upwards of 2,000 afghanis (£24/US$31) per night, and is cheaper on Booking.com compared to booking over WhatsApp.

I stayed here for two nights at the beginning of my trip, paying a “discounted” price of 2,300 afghanis (down from 2,500), before returning at the end and realising it’s cheaper on Booking.

The staff there are very friendly and hospitable. The manager speaks fluent English. And in Afghanistan, it’s important to have English-speaking allies who know the area and can help with guides, transport, safety etc.

They did some great things when I stayed there. They let me check in at 5am when I arrived from Kabul on the night bus, even though checkin time wasn’t until the afternoon. I really didn’t feel good about the idea of being stranded alone in the dark in Afghanistan. So this was a very welcome touch.

They also arranged a taxi for me to get back to the Uzbekistan border for 1,320 afghanis (all the money I had left), when it should normally have been 1,500-2,000.

In terms of price, it’s pretty mid-range. You can definitely find cheaper places. But certainly not of the same quality, and with the value you get from staying here.

The breakfast is a choice between an omelette or fried eggs. Then you have various fruits and other small things alongside it. Oh, and tea. Of course there’s tea.

It’s a little dated, and the Wi-Fi wasn’t perfect (although that’s true of anywhere in Afghanistan). But the positives by far outweigh the negatives here.

Where to Exchange Money in Mazar-i-Sharif

There are three main options for changing money in Mazar-i-Sharif. You can exchange at the Hairatan border, with your hotel, or outside the Blue Mosque.

Don’t exchange Uzbek som at the border. The rates are horrific (you’ll lose a quarter of your money).

You should bring US dollars to exchange. All three of the above places will offer just below the official rates.

However, there’s a catch. You will only receive okayish rates for $100 bills. For $50 and $20 bills you’ll be given lower rates, and anything below that won’t be accepted at all.

Oh, and they won’t usually take bills with slight tears or marks on them. They need to be in great condition. If only I’d known this before visiting…

I find this pretty cheeky to be honest. Afghanis are filthy, torn and crumpled. I had some held together with sellotape. So it seems pretty hypocritical to only accept “nice” USD bills. Unfortunately that’s just the way things work in Afghanistan.

Don’t rely on ATMs here, you may find one that works with foreign cards, but it’s a gamble and they charge fees of around 8% for withdrawals. Bring USD with you to exchange into afghanis. I have seen euros and Turkish lira accepted, but I wouldn’t advise relying on these.

Is Mazar-i-Sharif Safe to Visit?

Yes, Mazar is a safe city with a low risk of crime or terror attacks, something that hasn’t always been the case in Afghanistan.

It’s not Singapore or Dubai. But it’s not a war zone either.

You do still have some dangers to be aware of.

The traffic is horrendous and there seem to be no laws on the roads. Drivers fight each other to weave into the narrowest spaces, and being in a vehicle here feels like an accident waiting to happen. It’s a bonkers thing to witness first-hand.

Crossing the road isn’t much better. My strategy was to mirror the movements of locals in the end, even if it meant waiting several minutes to cross. They have years of experience, so they know how to cross the roads safely… hopefully… maybe… sometimes…

There aren’t official crossing points in Mazar. You’ve just got to see a gap in the traffic and go for it.

Another danger here is street children: kids in extreme poverty who live on the streets and will beg for money.

Some can be very aggressive, and as mentioned earlier, we had to physically pull away from being grabbed in the market here.

I noticed two hotspots for being harrassed by the street kids: the market, and the Buzkashi ground. So watch out in these two locations especially.

You should keep a close eye on your belongings, and avoid being surrounded by these kids. Many children are nice and just want to say hello, but others will see you as a target.

Never give money to them, or you just embolden them and create more problems for future visitors. You’re also encouraging this as a lifestyle for them which is irresponsible and bad for everyone involved. Don’t do it.

The other hazard you’ll face here is the rugged infrastructure across the city. After dark especially, it’s easy to fall into a ditch in the poorly-lit streets, or stumble over some obstacle that shouldn’t be there. Try to stick to exploring in the day time, and it will be a lot easier to spot these problems.

Where to go After Mazar-i-Sharif

It will be hard to top Mazar, but there are several awesome places you can visit directly from there.

First up is Balkh. Okay, this is really a half-day trip you’d do whilst in Mazar rather than your next stop, but it’s still well worth a visit. Balkh is one of the few places where requirements needing a guide to enter are enforced. We also had to go with a Taliban bodyguard who we picked up at the police station, “for show rather than security”, so we were told…

Balkh is fun as you have small markets, the Green Mosque which wouldn’t look out of place in Uzbekistan, ancient walls built by Genghis Khan, and the home of famous poet Rumi, which was unfortunately damaged by a recent earthquake.

Then you’ve got Kabul. The capital is a 10-hour 5pm night bus away from Mazar (+2.5 hours of waiting for more passengers… welcome to Afghanistan), and it’s the busiest city in the country for sure. The traffic is the worst I’ve ever encountered.

Yet Kabul has many cool spots such as the Ka Feroshi bird market, where vendors sell birds on the streets, and they may even invite you over to drink tea with them. I also enjoyed the OMAR Mine Museum, whilst Kabul has awesome mosques and great viewpoints to offer to.

Herat is another viable option, although the rough roads and having to stop in Maymana make it an uncomfortable journey, lasting about 15 hours in total.

Herat is an Uzbek-style city with great importance from the ancient Silk Road days. The Great Mosque of Herat is the highlight, but Herat Bazaar, the Gawhar Shad Mausoleum and the Jihad museum are also worth checking out.

If Mazar is the final stop of your Afghan adventure, then Termez in Uzbekistan is an easy 1 hour 20 minute taxi ride away. Although the Uzbeks will search every single item in your bags which can be frustrating…

Termez isn’t as famous as Samarkand, Bukhara or Khiva, but is said to have some pretty impressive architectural sites. I say “said to” as I only went there to get an Afghan visa because it’s one of the best places to do it, and therefore didn’t see much, but other travellers report some impressive sights in the area.

So Is Mazar-i-Sharif Worth Visiting?

Absolutely yes! This is my favourite city in Afghanistan. In fact, in the whole of central Asia. The kind people, the world class architecture (Blue Mosque), the bustling markets, the quirky war rugs, the sheer yakh ice cream, the tea invites, the wild buzkashi matches… Mazar-i-Sharif has so many amazing things to do.

As mentioned earlier, I was wide awake at 3am on the night bus as I’d experienced so much beauty and chaos here that it took a while to process everything and take it all in. Mazar was a sensory overload which I hadn’t experienced since my 18th country, India (Afghanistan was my 89th country, so I was pretty used to extreme cultural differences by this point).

It’s not a beginner travel destination, but that’s true of anywhere in Afghanistan. This country is rugged and the logistics are a nightmare. Infrastructure is poor and you’ll inhale a lot of dust and filth along the way.

But if you can overlook the downsides, the ultra kind people, supreme hospitality, enjoyable culture, awesome nature and impressive sights by far outweigh the negatives.

Mazar really is a wonderful place to visit, as is Afghanistan overall. If you’re looking for a fun adventure, there are few better places to find it than here.

More Posts on Afghanistan

• The Best Things To Do In Balkh During Your Afghanistan Trip
• The Complete Guide To Watching Buzkashi In Afghanistan
• What I Wish I Knew Before Travelling To Afghanistan
• What Are The Best Things To Do In Mazar-i-Sharif?
• How To Cross The Hairatan Border From Termez To Mazar-i-Sharif
• How To Get An Afghanistan Visa In Termez (Uzbekistan)
• The Complete Afghanistan Travel Guide