"Take Me To The Serena"

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Ongoing security concerns mean that there's never an ideal time to visit Afghanistan, but the hardy business travelers and intrepid tourists who make the journey can at least stop worrying about finding a decent place to stay in the capital, Kabul. The city has unveiled its first luxury accommodation, the Kabul Serena Hotel (serenahotels.com), offering a sorely needed alternative to those somewhat disheveled media and diplomat haunts, the Intercontinental and the Mustafa, as well as to the dilapidated guesthouses where many visitors have had to hole up.

Costing $35 million to build, the Serena was erected over the shell of the old Kabul Hotel, destroyed in the civil war. The new property is a sealed world, insulated as far as possible from the daily difficulties of life in Kabul. At a cost of some $1.2 million a year, the hotel will run its own electricity generators — essential in a city where power often flickers on for only four hours every other day — and will treat its own water and sewage.

Step into the Serena's marble lobby and the almost medieval street life of Kabul — with its open drains and mud-brick hovels — seems impossibly remote. The only reminders that you're in Afghanistan are the armed guards at the front door and the views from some windows into President Hamid Karzai's heavily fortified palace next door. So shiny and bright does the hotel seem in comparison with the rest of the country that locals are booking weekend stays. "We are already getting walk-in guests who are living in Kabul and feel like a getaway," says sales director Vishal Sood.

What they find within the Serena's walls are uncommon luxuries by local standards. The 177 rooms come with modern furnishings, marble bathrooms, satellite TV and Internet connections on demand. Guest amenities include a business center, a health club, a swimming pool and a beauty salon. There's an international buffet restaurant, the Café Zarnegar, and, incongruously, an Asian specialty restaurant, the Silk Route, which offers Malaysian, Singaporean, Indonesian and Thai cuisine.

As you'd expect, none of this comes cheap. Standard room rates start at $250 a night. But the Agha Khan Foundation for Economic Development, the Serena's main backer, is betting that guests will happily pay a premium for an oasis of luxury amid the rubble. Says spokesman Aly Mawji: "Mainstream tourism is still years away but we hope the hotel will encourage some more adventurous travelers." Or perhaps that should be less adventurous. After all, a holiday in Kabul has never been so delightfully and unexpectedly comfortable.