Qatar airways now offers a free tour of Doha if you have a layover in the airport of more than 5 hours. 4 tours a day are offered at different times, specifics can be found on Qatar’s website: https://www.qatarairways.com/en/offers/doha-city-tour.html
We had a layover of around 18 hours on New Year’s Eve so decided to take the tour and then have dinner in the city before heading home. Unfortunately the plan didn’t quite work out how we expected. We landed at 5:00am and wanted to take the first tour, at 8:00am so we would have time afterwards, but unfortunately they insisted we could only join the 16:00 tour, due to the time of our onward flight... so that meant 6 hours of sitting around the airport killing time. Doha airport does at least have a good quiet lounge for this and a large food court. We started with Turkish coffees to try and wake up.
Eventually we showed up at 2:30, the meeting time for the tour, and everyone had to go through passport control, this took almost an hour, then we were herded through the airport and told to sit again and wait. It felt more like a tour of the airport than the city. Finally we were on the bus just before 4:00.
The tour had over thirty people, on a bus with driver and guide, both from Nepal. The guide spoke great English and gave us some interesting facts about the country and city. First stop was the dhow harbour and museum of Islamic art. This was a great place for photos of both the old and new city, the museum (we didn’t get to go in) and the pearl monument. The old wooden dhows were beautiful. We only had 10 minutes here.
Next was a 30 minute drive to the pearl of Doha, a man made island consisting of upmarket residences, shops, restaurants and commercial space. This is where the rich hang out: every designer shop you can think of is here, along with Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Bentley showrooms and many others. The boats parked in the marina are insane!! Each one must be worth a million dollars or more. We also only had ten minutes here for photos as the guide said there would be traffic on the way back.
Finally we headed back to the old town and souq. This was my favorite part of the tour, we were given 45 minutes to walk around, shop, grab a coffee or just explore. The souq feels older and a bit more authentic, although it is still very touristy and is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants. In the early evening it is lovely - bustling and energetic, nicely lit up.
The tour then returned to the airport after about 2 hours 45 minutes. We stayed on to go for dinner at Nobu - a restaurant with an amazing view of the city.
In summary, the tour was a nice diversion from the boredom of the airport, a good option if you have a long layover and time to kill. It doesn’t really give much of a feel for the city, if you want that you would be better to leave the airport immediately, and consider taking the hop on hop off bus instead. The city tour desk at the airport also offered us an add on option of a desert tour in a monster truck for US$69 but we didn’t take that.
The city tour operates on a first come first served basis, and you have no choice of which time you get allocated, so don’t plan for the tour and then feel disappointed if it doesn’t work out. To leave the airport, most countries are granted visa on arrival, but it did seem like they wanted a hotel to be booked before letting you do this. For a cheap to midrange option I can recommend the Ramada encore, it’s nice, and is much more reasonable than the five star hotels the city is famous for!
We had a layover of around 18 hours on New Year’s Eve so decided to take the tour and then have dinner in the city before heading home. Unfortunately the plan didn’t quite work out how we expected. We landed at 5:00am and wanted to take the first tour, at 8:00am so we would have time afterwards, but unfortunately they insisted we could only join the 16:00 tour, due to the time of our onward flight... so that meant 6 hours of sitting around the airport killing time. Doha airport does at least have a good quiet lounge for this and a large food court. We started with Turkish coffees to try and wake up.
Eventually we showed up at 2:30, the meeting time for the tour, and everyone had to go through passport control, this took almost an hour, then we were herded through the airport and told to sit again and wait. It felt more like a tour of the airport than the city. Finally we were on the bus just before 4:00.
The tour had over thirty people, on a bus with driver and guide, both from Nepal. The guide spoke great English and gave us some interesting facts about the country and city. First stop was the dhow harbour and museum of Islamic art. This was a great place for photos of both the old and new city, the museum (we didn’t get to go in) and the pearl monument. The old wooden dhows were beautiful. We only had 10 minutes here.
We then drove a bit through the new city, which consists entirely of enormous glass clad high rise buildings, government offices and 5 star hotels. This part feels a bit soulless but is still impressive!
Next was a 30 minute drive to the pearl of Doha, a man made island consisting of upmarket residences, shops, restaurants and commercial space. This is where the rich hang out: every designer shop you can think of is here, along with Ferrari, Rolls Royce and Bentley showrooms and many others. The boats parked in the marina are insane!! Each one must be worth a million dollars or more. We also only had ten minutes here for photos as the guide said there would be traffic on the way back.
The tour then returned to the airport after about 2 hours 45 minutes. We stayed on to go for dinner at Nobu - a restaurant with an amazing view of the city.
In summary, the tour was a nice diversion from the boredom of the airport, a good option if you have a long layover and time to kill. It doesn’t really give much of a feel for the city, if you want that you would be better to leave the airport immediately, and consider taking the hop on hop off bus instead. The city tour desk at the airport also offered us an add on option of a desert tour in a monster truck for US$69 but we didn’t take that.
The city tour operates on a first come first served basis, and you have no choice of which time you get allocated, so don’t plan for the tour and then feel disappointed if it doesn’t work out. To leave the airport, most countries are granted visa on arrival, but it did seem like they wanted a hotel to be booked before letting you do this. For a cheap to midrange option I can recommend the Ramada encore, it’s nice, and is much more reasonable than the five star hotels the city is famous for!
No comments:
Post a Comment