I like it a lot.
It’s good, it’s good, it’s good.
I expect Qatar will be the same.
In fact, I just decided to spend time there because I needed to get from Thailand to the UK
For me, it offered the perfect opportunity to work on a stopover in a new country. This is typically how I found myself in the Middle East recently. I visited Dubai during a stopover between Cape Town and London, Muscat and Abu Dhabi during a stopover between London and Saigon, and Qatar would be the perfect stopover between Phuket and London.
Knowing very little about the country, I gave myself four days to explore.
I expected Qatar to be full of dust and sand and pastel colors. I expect affluence and pomp and circumstance. I expect hookah. I expect tea. I expect souks. I expected dozens of skyscrapers.
I found all of these, but what I didn’t expect was incredible architecture. Green spaces. Street food trucks. Turquoise seas lapping at the shores of a sand-filled ghost town.
Qatar is so much more diverse than I expected, and I can’t wait to share why I fell so in love with the country.
Today, I want to dive deeper into what it’s like to travel there.
Souk Waqif smells amazing.
I don’t think I’ve ever been to a city that smells as good as Doha.
Souq Waqif – the main market – smells like it makes my mouth water. There’s a lot of hookah here, and I love the fruity notes intertwined with the scents of kebabs and fresh cardamom tea. Spices, perfumes and incense fill the air and it all makes for the most wonderful mix of scents.
I spent most of my time wandering around the area, wanting to dive into every restaurant and market stall I passed first. When I think back to my time in Qatar, my memories are focused solely on the smells.
Everyone is obsessed with falconry
One of the most unexpected areas of Souq Waqif is the falconry market. In Qatar, falconry is an obsession – like soccer in England – so much so that Doha has a dedicated falconry hospital that offers free treatment and even hosts an annual falconry festival. Falconry is a big part of Qatari culture, and if you have enough money to fly first class on Qatar Airways, your falcon can even travel with you for free. Oh yes, you can also get a passport for your falcon.
Three thousand people own falcons in Qatar, so if you don’t have a few thousand dollars lying around to buy one for yourself, fear not. You can usually hold a falcon for a few photos as you walk through the falconry market at Souq Waqif.
You can also choose to get an in-depth look at Souq Waqif with a traditional market tour. A private two-hour tour costs $79, during which your guide will take you to the falconry store to get up close and personal with these magnificent birds of prey. You can also visit the spice bazaar, pet bazaar, gold bazaar, handicraft bazaar and – most importantly – pick up some souvenirs without being ripped off or overcharged.
Visiting Qatar on a budget is easy
Despite Doha’s reputation for glittering skyscrapers, Qatar is a very easy country to spend very little money on.
Doha is home to Q Hostel, where dorm beds cost just $16 per night, so there are affordable places for my budget-minded travelers. Food is also cheap. I usually spend about $7 for a meal in Doha – I’d spend less if I were buying street food from the trendy Airstream. I was surprised to see street food carts all over Doha selling everything from Chinese dumplings to hot dogs.
Transportation is inexpensive. A bus tour of Doha costs less than $1, while a bus ride to another city can cost $3 or $4. YouTubes are also available in Doha, and I choose them most of the time, or have my hotel call me a cab. As in many countries around the world, you need to make sure the driver uses the meter and remind them that if they don’t use the meter, your fare is free.
When it comes to activities, you don’t need to spend much on entrance fees. The wonderful Islamic Art Museum is completely free to visit, as is the UNESCO-designated fortress at Al Zubarah. Other free attractions include the Abdul Wahhab Mosque (very beautiful), Al Shahaniya’s camel racing competition, robot jockeys and the Ras Abrouq Nature Reserve.
For something quirky, head to the Sheikh Faisal Museum, home to a Qatari businessman’s collection of Weird Shit – for QR45 ($12), you’ll find 600 vintage cars, ancient coins, dinosaur fossils, a peacock farm, a Syrian horse random weapons, and more. A lot. Much more.
So Qatar is quite affordable, with one exception, and that’s traveling alone.
I paid a whopping $140 for a trip to northern Qatar, which was the cheapest option I could find online.
If you’re lucky, luxury in Qatar can be surprisingly affordable. I managed to get a heavily discounted stay at a five-star hotel for $90 per night, simply because it was a last-minute reservation and they had plenty of rooms available.
The last thing I want to mention is that Qatar Airways offers an incredible stopover program that I highly recommend you take advantage of. You can stay in the country for up to four days and the airline will arrange a four or five star hotel for you without you having to spend a dime. Seriously. For some reason, my flight wasn’t eligible to take advantage of this, but if your flight can, it would be a very inexpensive trip to Qatar.
Doha’s skyline is extraordinary
I’ve always loved the beautiful city skyline, and Doha’s skyscrapers were built for futuristic photo shoots.
The best place to photograph the skyline is the Islamic Art Museum or the MIA Park around the museum. Have a picnic or grab something from a street food truck and sit for hours watching the boats whiz by.
It’s too hot in the summer
I visited Doha in February – winter in Qatar – and that was the best time of year to visit. I encountered blue skies and sunshine, the temperature was usually around a perfect 23°C/73°F, and I was able to cover up without breaking a sweat.
I found traveling in Qatar to be both comfortable and cool. In the summer, not so much. In July and August, temperatures often soar to 42°C/108°F during the day and drop to 32°C/90°F at night.
The old mosque in the ghost town of Al Thakhira. I like the shape of the minaret.
I highly recommend leaving Doha.
My love for Doha exceeded my expectations, but what really fascinated me was getting out of Doha.
There are three options for day trips from the capital: head north, west or south. In a country as large as Connecticut, it’s easy to cover a lot of ground.
I decided to go north. My tour took me to Al Khor, Al Thakhira and Al Zubarah for a full day of exploration. We started by visiting the fishing village and market of Al Khor – it is the second largest city in Qatar and has amazingly beautiful beaches. Next, we headed to the mangroves to see parts of Qatar that are not covered in desert sand. The famous Al Zubarah fortress is the only UNESCO site in the country and I was happy to see it in person. We ended our trip with a visit to the ghost town of Al Thakhira. I loved it. The sparkling sea washed over this old abandoned town just a few meters away and it was so cool to wander around. I especially enjoyed wandering around the old mosque.
The other day trips sounded equally interesting.
If you decide to head west, you’ll be taken to the 18th century fortress of Zekreet and Zakreet Film City – a replica town in the desert originally intended to be used as a backdrop for a movie, although nothing was ever filmed there. You’ll end your time by wandering around a bizarre desert sculpture called East/West. It consists of four steel walls, each 17 meters high, stretching more than a kilometer across the beach. I would have loved to see this if I had been in Qatar longer, as it looks a lot like the Burning Man Festival.
A trip to the south of Qatar is also filled with desert. You’ll ride camels through the dunes, drive 4WD vehicles in exhilarating dune sprints, and visit the famous Inland Sea, where turquoise waters are surrounded by white sandy beaches. khor al-Adaid is one of only three places in the world where the sea meets the dunes, and from here you can look down on Saudi Arabia. Once again, this is something I really wanted to see when I was in Qatar, but I didn’t go because when I went to Dubai to punch the sand, there was nothing but nausea.
You could easily spend four days in Qatar exploring Doha, the north, west and south and then leave after having seen almost the entire country.
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