Qatar trip 17-20 May 2017
After a fairly short 7 hours flight we landed in Hamad International airport, Doha. The airport is quite new, having only moved and re-opened in its new location in 2014. It has recently joined the top tier of global airports becoming the sixth airport in the world to receive the ‘5-Star Airport’ designation by Skytrax and looks the part, being quite an attractive airport.
Once out of the air conditioned airport you notice the heat – Qatar in May is close to 40 degrees! First impressions of Doha were that it appears to be a spectacular mix of Arabic traditional landscape mixed with outstanding architecture. Because most of the buildings are relatively new, many of them were built recently by architects that seemingly had free rein to build fantastic designs. The contrast of these modern buildings with the desert and sea is breathtaking.
I stayed at the Intercontinental Doha, a fabulous, modern beachfront hotel with its own private beach, several swimming pools and eight restaurants and bars. My room was extremely comfortable with a beautiful bathroom featuring both bath and shower cubicle.
I also visited many other hotels – including Intercontinental Doha the City, Four Seasons Doha (which features the world’s largest Nobu!), Sheraton Grand Doha (the oldest hotel out of the lot, having been built in 1979), the Crowne Plaza and even a hotel that hasn’t quite opened yet but will be spectacular - The Centara Grand Hotel Doha.
Apart from visits to hotels, we also visited many sites in and around Qatar.
We visited Zubarah Fort situated around 1 ½ hours from Doha. It is a very interesting fort and has a little museum attached which describes what happened over the years, however the distance makes it a long way to go just to see the fort.
We also visited the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, located on one end of the seven kilometers long Corniche. This is housed in a beautiful building designed by I.M.Pei, the designer of The Louvre in Paris among many other buildings. He designed the building so it appears to have two eyes looking at you as you approach. The artifacts within the museum are interesting and represent Islamic art from three continents over 1400 years.
One evening we went on a traditional Dhow boat and had a delicious meal onboard while watching the beautiful buildings (including the Museum of Islamic Art) as we sailed. In Qatar, the boat owners like to decorate their dhows with brightly coloured lights of which we had plenty!
The next day we went sand dune bashing in 4x4s. Admittedly I was a little apprehensive about doing this as I’m the opposite of a speed freak but I’ll admit, I loved it! Our driver chatted about everything under the sun and with no warning would take his car over the top of huge sand dunes and then bomb it down the other side. Sometimes we felt like we were driving off the side of the dunes! The car ride concluded with a magnificent view of the inland sea at the Saudi border. However leaving the car to view this inland sea meant we experienced the searing desert heat and sand that could have easily cooked an egg, let alone our toes!
The last thing we visited in Qatar was the souk. I have been to a few souks in various countries and the Doha version was very similar to the others. Some lovely products were available to buy including various fabrics, key rings, nuts, spices and of course dates!
I did really enjoy my trip to Qatar and would say it would be perfect for someone wanting to visit a destination quite similar to Dubai. It would be a great option for some early season sun as temperatures do rise quite sharply the closer you get to summer. It would be ridiculously hot in our summer (we were assured the stadiums would be fully air conditioned for the world cup!)
Definitely an up and coming destination.