Having visited a couple of parts of Doha close to our hotel on our first day in Qatar, we were aware there was a lot more to see a bit further afield, but weren’t sure of the best places in Doha to visit and in what order, given our limited time in the city.
But then, whilst taking a taxi back to our hotel, our taxi driver said he would give us a 4-hour city tour of Doha, taking in all the popular tourist sights, for a fixed cost (which was about £120 GBP).
It seems a lot of the taxi drivers (who are self-employed individuals) are happy to do this and it was a relatively low cost, convenient way for us to see pretty much all of Doha, without the stress of trying to figure out transport ourselves.
And of course the driver knows the city like the back of his hand, including all the best photo spots and the best order in which to see things.
He left us his WhatsApp number so we messaged him the next day to arrange for him to pick us up from our hotel about 9am.
We only had four hours (we had another excursion booked later in the day) so it was a pretty whirlwind tour, but it seemed just about enough time – even though with hindsight there were a couple of things we might’ve left out, in order to have a bit longer at some of the other places.
Our first stop was Doha’s old port, which consists of some very interesting, brightly coloured buildings – including the ‘box park’, which is a container park village, a large fish market and a range of artistic murals painted on the sides of beautiful pastel-shaded buildings.
I don’t know if it’s because we were here during Ramadan, or that it was the very end of their busier tourist season (which is October to April), but it was very quiet, empty streets and many buildings and businesses closed.
This seemed to be the case around much of Doha actually. Our driver did say Ramadan and the ending of the tourist season were factors, but he also seemed to suggest that much of Doha consists of very elaborate, insanely expensive buildings which are uninhabited for most of the year – being used by their extremely rich owners only occasionally for parties or brief stays in the city.
It gave much of the place a bit of a ‘ghost town’ feel – although certainly it did become more lively at night-time after Ramadan fasting ended.
From the Old Port, we headed to a viewpoint on the ‘Corniche’ over the Doha skyline and then around to the Museum of Islamic Art.
We didn’t have time, or need to, go into the museum – but we were allowed to walk around the grounds of the building outside to take photos of its impressive architecture and views over Qatar.
Qatar is most famous recently of course for hosting the 2022 football World Cup and there’s a large monument to this overlooking the bay and the Qatar skyline.
We stopped briefly here before heading further around the bay to what’s known as the ‘Katara Cultural Quarter’, checking out the outside of more of their impressive buildings and wandering the empty streets.
Then we drove around to ‘The Pearl’ which is a seafront area inhabited by the super-rich, with a marina, ultra-luxury 5-star hotels – but not much for the likes of us to do other than snap a few photos.
The next stop was the ‘Canat Quartier’ which is a residential area of The Pearl that’s built in the style of Venice, Italy, with mini canals and Venice-style bridges, which again we stopped at only briefly to take a look down a few streets – and some photos of the ‘Katara Towers’, the landmark U-shaped hotel building which is best viewed from the roadside at the Canat Quartier.
Back in the car, we headed round to the part of Doha known as Lusail, which is where the Katara Towers building is located – and then eventually onto the Vilaggio Mall – an absolutely massive designer shopping mall with elaborately decorated ceilings and another Venice theme, with indoor canals and gondola rides running through it.
Having set out at 9am, we arrived back at the hotel about 1.30pm, feeling that the private taxi tour was definitely the quickest, most-convenient way to see all the main sights of the city.
Had we not done it, I don’t think we’d have been able to navigate everywhere ourselves and would definitely missed some important sights out.
We were in Qatar on a 3-day stopover on the way to a longer holiday in Thailand.
We were glad we spent that time here – it’s a very interesting place to visit and it was much better than just doing a transfer in the airport and headed straight off to Thailand.
The time we spent on our desert safari was absolutely brilliant – but overall I don’t feel Doha would be a great destination for a longer holiday in its own right.
Maybe it’s just because of the time we visited, which we knew would be a bit different, being in the middle of Ramadan, but to me the place felt a bit flat and empty without much of an atmosphere.
I wondered if maybe they’re trying to create a rival to neighbouring Dubai, with their extravagant buildings and buzzing tourist attractions – but haven’t really managed to do that yet and still have a long way to go before it becomes anything like that country.
It’s definitely an interesting place to visit and well worth stopping off here for a few days if you’re en-route elsewhere and want to break up a long haul flight.
But for anything more than 3-days or so, I’m not totally convinced Qatar is the place to be and if you headed here as a holiday destination in its own right, you might end up being a bit disappointed compared with its more glamorous and spectacular neighbour of Dubai.