Last Updated on March 13, 2023 by PowersToTravel
Our Qatar Travel Blog covers three nights spent in Doha, Qatar in mid-January, 2018, as a final treat to ourselves at the end of our 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey.
We had chosen Qatar Airlines and on our way over to Bangkok from Boston, we just waited in the airport until our next flight. However on our return from Phuket to Boston, we also had to change planes in Doha, and planned a three night break there.
I wondered if I was extending ourselves just a bit too much? Would we be so tired from our 60 day trip that we would just want to be home? Oh, not so! We were so happy to add this little stopover to our trip. We knew we were heading from the lovely tropics back to chilly January in New England, and savored every warm day.
We engaged the services of Qatar International Adventures to go on the North of Qatar day tour one day, and acted as our own guides the next day.
We stayed at the Souk Waqif Hotel, right next to the souk and what a fantastic decision that was! It was far from the business district but right in the atmospheric (if not restored) souk, and right next to museums, and around the corner from all kinds of sights to see.
Qatar Itinerary
- Day 1 – Arrival from Phuket, Thailand at noon. Taxi to hotel, afternoon browsing in the Souk, to the camel pens, the horse stables and a falcon store.
- Day 2 – North of Qatar tour by Qatar International Adventures. Somewhat disappointing. They list six sites we would see, but we only saw two of them: Al Khor harbor and Zubara Fort. The others they said were closed or under renovation. So they took us to the Corniche for pictures instead, which we had planned to do anyway the next day as it was close to our hotel. It seems as if they should have let us know about the closures, considered it a half-day tour, charged accordingly and changed their website as well!
- Day 3 – Sightseeing in Doha by ourselves: Mseireib Museum (so very highly recommended!), Al Koot Fort, walk to Corniche and the Pearl Monument, taxi to the Sheraton Hotel, walk downtown, lunch at the Marriott cafe (very poor!), taxi to “The Pearl” area, wander around, then taxi back to the Souk
- Day 4 – Flight to Boston
Preparation
We booked the tour and hotel ahead of time, about the time we booked the airfare. I’ll admit, I book far ahead – I booked in Feb 2017 for the visit in Jan 2018!
When booking this kind of trip in which evacuation / health insurance is very important, I just go ahead and pre-book, and generally pre-pay, the tours and hotels, since we have cancellation insurance along with the evacuation insurance to protect our investment. For Qatar I wouldn’t have booked evacuation / health insurance but I certainly wanted it for Southeast Asia!
Impressions
We loved Doha and found its culture interesting, to say the least. That requires a full blog posting all on its own. I’m sorry it hasn’t been written yet.
Our hotel at the Souk Waqif was out of this world! Our room was traditionally styled, luxurious, with a roof top terrace, and came with a huge and beautiful breakfast buffet. It was the perfect cherry on top of our magnificent 65-day Odyssey! We had reserved a “Superior Room” with a king-sized bed, but when we arrived they offered us a luxury suite for only $30 per night more. We hemmed and hawed, the clerk said we would not regret this, and we splurged! What a wow!
Tourism was really down when we were there in Jan 2018 due to the tensions between Qatar and its neighbors, so crowds were really down, and we got personal attention everywhere we went – in the falcon store one of the owners talked to us, in the Museum the Director stopped to talk to us. It was very personal feeling.
Summary
It was not an inexpensive stop-over, and it wasn’t long; I would do it all over again if I had to lay-over in Doha. There was more to see than we could in just two and a half days.
Here’s a link to my Qatar slide-show video.
Here’s a link to all my 65-Day Southeast Asia Odyssey articles.
Last, but not least, here’s a link to all of my 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey slide-show videos.
