Banana Island is a luxury 5-star hotel and beach resort on a purpose-built island that sits about a 20-minute boat ride from the coast of Qatar.
We were staying in a city-centre hotel in Qatar, so thought it’d be good to spend one day away from the city at a quieter, more relaxing beach venue – as we had tours of the city and the desert the following days that’d be a bit more intense.
Banana Island offers a day pass to guests who aren’t staying at the resort permanently – called the ‘Hello Beautiful Weather Day Pass’.
The Banana Island day pass gets you a boat transfer from the Al Shyoukh Port terminal in Doha over to the island, access to the entire private beach on the island (including loungers, towels, canopies, etc), QAR200 (about £40) per person voucher to spend in any of the resort’s restaurants, QAR50 voucher to spend on their watersports activities – and a boat trip back again at the end of the day.
For our family of four, the total cost was about £300, which was pretty good value for money because the inclusion of the food voucher got us a very decent amount of food that kept all four of us full for the whole day.
We got a taxi from our hotel down to the port (taxis around Doha are plentiful and very reasonably priced), arriving at the Banana Island reception centre, which is right at the entrance of the port.
Here’s where you check in and wait for the boat to depart at 9am (there is only one day-pass boat there and only one back again at the end of the day).
Warning – they will want to see your passports (or another official form of ID) so remember to either bring these with you, or a scanned / photograph copy is also fine.
The boat ride over to the island is comfortable on a large, modern catamaran with good views of the Doha skyline on the way.
On arrival we were given a brief explanation of the layout of the island and resort, including where all the different activities and restaurants were – and were then left to our own devices to explore the resort.
We mainly just wanted to relax on the beach, which was extremely quiet with large, comfortable loungers very well spaced out under canopies to shade you from the hot desert sun.
We relaxed on loungers, walked up and down the sandy beach and swam in the clear blue sea, which was very enjoyable after the previous long day of travelling.
I felt there was a slightly strange feel to the place – very different from anywhere we’ve visited before – and I think mainly it’s to do with having a very man-made feel to it, rather than being a truly natural beach like we might otherwise be used to.
It’s certainly a very luxurious, pristine clean resort with all the facilities you could possibly need. I guess it just felt a bit artificial.
The time we were here it was very quiet (the end of March / beginning of April), which was great as there were zero crowds or queues or noise, it was very peaceful and relaxing and a great way of spending a day in Doha, it’s just a different kind of experience than you might have at a more natural venue.
There’s a great choice of restaurants with different food types from all over the world. Having had an experience the night before in a traditional Arab restaurant that none of us enjoyed, we decided to play it safe and went to the American diner for burgers.
The £40 per person food voucher was more than adequate to give us a very filling lunch with starters, drinks, main courses, desserts – and some money left over to return later in the day for another round of drinks.
We were visiting Banana Island during Ramadan, when many restaurants are closed completely during the day as the Muslim population fast between sunrise and sunset, so we were unsure if we’d be able to eat in the Banana Island resort restaurants during Ramadan.
However they were all open and operating normally – the only slight difference was that they didn’t want you to eat on the outside tables and instead had to eat inside, which was fine by us.
In the afternoon we used our watersports vouchers (again included in the price) to do a four-person banana boat ride, which was a lot of fun, being towed along behind a jet-ski for half an hour on a big inflatable. We did have to pay a bit extra as it was more than the value of the vouchers, but not much more – and it was well worth it.
At 5pm we headed back to the pontoon where the boat back to Doha was waiting for us.
We arrived back at the port at sunset, so walked along to the Qatar Skyline Viewpoint, which is in the port and gives you a perfect view of the city skyline across the bay.
Banana Island is probably the best way to get a quiet, relaxing day at the beach in Doha, away from the noise and commotion of the city.
It’s a pristine clean, sandy beach with clear, warm blue water and plenty of facilities and activities to enjoy.
You are taken away from the action of the city for the day – with no way of returning until the boat back at 5pm, which is ideal if you’re certain you want a day of relaxation on the beach – but remember there’s no option to change your mind and head back to the city once you’re there.