literally, it was “Let’s Go Qatar Trip” triggered when a friend told us about his Safari experience in Qatar in comparison to Dubai’s and how the scenery is amazing over there due the fact dune bashing area overlooks Qatar’s sea broader with Saudi. Turned out he’s right camping area over there is unique where one could take fishing rod and tent to same place, sand was like silky and flaky, weather was nice with clean naturally filtered air.
Our weekend plan was to go safari and visit old souq on Friday, go fishing on Saturday morning, then back home on evening. But we did not go fishing due group conflict of interest so we ended up checking malls and pearl project.
This was first Qatar trip for almost all us so our expectation of Qatar was something like Dubai! We were expecting modernization and construction process day ‘n night but it turned out it was not like what we had imagined. Yes, there are some running projects but i would say not significant comparing to the country future plans i,e the world cup .. i would give it couple of years though.
We reached Qatar at midnight then headed to cars rentals but they were ran out cars so we took a taxi to our hotel, The Torch Doha. The hotel is considered one the great experiences in Qatar, it has this unique luxurious design, right next to the Villagio Mall, in middle of Aspire city, and affordable price. The only drawback that Aspire city is an event base location, it’s very quiet when nothing on their calendars. This Hotel is recommended 
After Friday prayer, our driver arranged through Qatar adventure picked us up from The Torch then headed to the safari area. As mentioned above, place was nice and recommended camping area or picnic area. Later at night, we went to old Souq Waqif for dinner. This is similar to our Mubarikiya but it felt nicer! in addition to traditional stores, part of the place was renovated with coffeehouses and restaurants; it’s a walking only area where cars are not allowed which i liked about it.
Since we canceled our fishing trip, we decided to hit the malls until our flight time at evening. After hotel checkout, we headed to The Pearl Qatar , artificial island with similar concept of The Palm Dubai, in addition to residential area it has Marina, fine dining, and luxury shops. We could not stay there long due to heat then we left to The City Center shopping complex for air cooled place and hoping to get free Wifi ‘coz by that time we had nothing to do but to wait our flight.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed about internet availability indoor and restaurants specially when we found that even our beloved cousin AlShaya did not offer it at Starbucks. Then someone suggested to leave for the airport to be close to our flight that we would not miss it & for internet .. it sounded great idea.
To recommend Qatar for a friend, i would not advise to stay more than one day unless you have a better plan or attending an event. They have promising plans so i would not compare it with Dubai at this stage. Overall, it was nice trip with good fellas that sure would result in many “Let’s Go … “ squeals
) he gave us his number to call him anytime if we needed anything and she explained the features of the room.
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