Iraqi Kurdish women dance wearing traditional clothes dance during a wedding party in Sulaymania City, northern Iraq, which is controlled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

There's sun, there's sand and there's adventure. So why not plan your next vacation in beautiful Iraq? OK. We know what you're thinking: The rented minivan might get blown to pieces by an insurgent-placed IED or shot up by nervous soldiers at a checkpoint.

Qubad Jalal Talabany -- the son of Iraqi President and revolutionary leader Jalal Talabani (yes, they spell their names differently) -- doesn't doubt that those are possible ends for a family vacationing in Baghdad.

But there's more to Iraq than the Sunni triangle, he wants you to know. Come check out northern Iraq, known as Kurdistan, a semiautonomous region that's considered a haven compared with the rest of Iraq.

Talabany, born in exile in the United Kingdom, is the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative here in the U.S. -- and the region's tourism booster.