Qatar is more prepared than ever to receive foreign tourists, especially with the FIFA World Cup approaching and the ensuing boom in tourism infrastructure. Why not arrange your own trip or brief stay in Qatar? There are several day trips from Doha that will allow you to truly experience this underappreciated and much misunderstood region of Arabia.
With a land area of only 11,000 square kilometers, Qatar is a great place to arrange day trips. During your visit, start at a hotel in the heart of Doha and work your way about.
Travel Guide to Qatar
Qatar Desert Safari & Camp on the West Coast
Qatari scuba diving
Sandboarding and dune bashing in Qatar’s desert Al Zubarah Fortress in the country’s inland sea
Qatar’s West Coast
Take this journey from Doha to discover Qatar’s creative and cultural side. The first is the Zekreet Fort, which contains the archeological remnants of local towns from the 18th century. Next is Richard Serra’s renowned East-West/West-East art piece, which uses four enormous steel plates that are more than 14 meters high and more than a kilometer long to symbolize time and loneliness.
Desert Safari and Camp in Qatar
What could be more typical of a trip to Qatar than doing a desert safari as a day trip from Doha? Travel to the vast stretches of the Qatari desert in a classic white 4×4. Along the trip, you’ll also pass by well-known landmarks like Mesaieed and well-known sights like Khor Al Adeid, the well-known inland sea between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Additionally, you’ll stay at a camp with a Bedouin theme for a while and have some BBQ!
Qatari scuba diving
The scuba diving potential of the nation is largely underappreciated. Although the Persian Gulf, particularly the coast of Qatar, offers a number of alluring possibilities for novice and intermediate divers with depths ranging from 6 to 20 meters, it is clearly not Australia or the Caribbean. Not all of the reefs are artificial; some are particularly created to preserve and improve the local marine life, and they are home to batfish, sergeant majors, Arabian blue angel fish, snappers, small rays, and barracudas.
Dune bashing and sandboarding in Qatar’s desert
You may try dune bashing here. In essence, that is off-road driving, and it is not for the faint of heart. If you suffer from transportation sickness as I did, take some dramamine pills before you go. The program also includes sandboarding in one of the Middle East’s most unexplored and underappreciated deserts.
Qatar’s Inland Sea
The Inland water, also called Khor al Adaid in the local dialect, is a nature reserve that is situated between the coasts of Saudi Arabia and Qatar about 100 kilometers west of Doha. In fact, the image above shows Saudi Arabia plainly across the water. The Inland Sea is today one of the most visited places in Qatar and a popular seaside vacation, despite its history as contested territory, particularly during the 1800s when Persian pirates utilized it as a harbor. We have a tendency to think of Qatar as a desert, which is generally true, but that would be incredibly unjust to the beautiful beaches and shoreline that now comprise its largest nature reserve.
Fortress of Al Zubarah
Qatar’s mangroves? Sure, please. Take a kayak tour of the coastal city of Al Thahkira and its natural reserve on an exciting day excursion from Doha! You might be fortunate enough to see native birds like herons and egrets. After that, you will proceed to the Al Zubarah archeological site, which is designated by UNESCO. With economic connections throughout the Indian Ocean, Arabia, and Western Asia, the walled citadel thrived as the principal pearling and commerce hub of the Persian Gulf in the late 1700s.
