Going into the country side?

Hi all,

We're in the lucky circumstance to have two offers to come to the region, one in Erbil and the other in Doha.

We've already lived for a while in Doha, so know the place fairly well. But Erbil is completely new for us (which makes us lean towards going to Erbil!).

As we want to make an as informed as possible decisions, we're making a pro's/con's comparison between the two.

One of the things we find important is being able to just go outside into the country side. But that's one thing we can hardly find any information on.

Can you easily drive into the countryside yourself or do you always need a guide/driver? And how safe is it (provided we're not leaving Kurdistan)?

TIA,

Lone Hansen