"If you have a nice place at home you don't need a nicer one when you go abroad," the 77-year-old former civil servant told AFP on Friday as she made her way to a Baghdad off licence.

"We thought it would be nice to have some wine with dinner so we are nipping out for some," she said, wearing a black headscarf to blend in better.

While most people her age would be happy at the English seaside, Jones is happily exploring Iraq in what can best be described as an unorthodox package tour for foreigners.

The sprightly pensioner is one of five Britons, two Americans and a Canadian on the first officially approved tour group since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. They have been touring Iraq in a minibus since March 8.

"With great difficulty," is how Jones described their journeys to Babylon and the southern religious cities of Najaf and Karbala.

"But we also saw Ur, one of the two places where everything started," she said of the ancient Mesopotamian city, one of the world's greatest archaeological sites and the birthplace of the Prophet Abraham, 350 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Security was arranged at key locations for the group although they did not take such precautions everywhere.

The trip, costing several thousand pounds and sanctioned by the tourism and antiquities ministry, is the first of what the government hopes will be regular income from tourism.

Jones is not the oldest member of the tour party.

Jo Rawlins, a 79-year-old retired probation officer from the San Francisco Bay Area, who writes a "One Woman's Travels" blog, has previously been to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

She even underwent hostile environment training before heading to Iraq.

"This country has historical significance and that is my interest," she said, admitting her family is routinely "amazed and appalled" at her travel plans and would rather she not venture to dangerous places.

"I have nieces and nephews, and apart from one niece they think I'm mad. I travelled a lot with my husband and since he died four years ago I have gone to the places that he wouldn't go to," Rawlins said.

"…the people have been very friendly to us…"

"I am a curious person who likes to form my own opinion about places rather than just read what the papers say about them. I think Iraq is steadily improving itself and the people have been very friendly to us."

Fellow American David Chung, a financial executive, echoed Rawlins this sentiment.

"I think it is more dangerous in New York right now, given the financial crisis, than it is in Iraq," joked the 36-year-old banker, who has previously visited hotspots such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Sometimes the stories in the news do not reflect what is happening on the ground. Parts of the trip have exceeded my expectations and others have been frustrating," he added, referring to the often monotonous delays at security checkpoints that are a constant feature of daily life in Iraq.

The group left Iraq on Sunday but hoped to see the National Museum, reopened amid much fanfare in Baghdad last month, before flying out.

"We've had security problems everywhere but we expected some of these," said Geoff Hann, managing director of Hinterland Travel, the British firm that organised the trip.

"We've seen most of what we intended to see" from Arbil in the north to Babylon — site of the Tower of Babel — and the holy Shiite pilgrimage centres of Najaf and Karbala, he said.

"Mosul is off though," Hann added of Iraq's tinderbox second city where US and Iraqi forces are still battling Al-Qaeda and Sunni rebels.

AFP