A layover is usually an unpleasant experience. Slowing down your trip, wasting time at the airport, waiting, waiting, more waiting. Doha, however, is the perfect place for a layover. Qatar Airways may even provide you a full package with hotel, food and transport – at their expense.
Qatar Airways is known as one of the best airlines in the world. Hamad International Airport is known as one of the best airports in the world. Both being located in Doha is a pretty good vantage point for the perfect layover. What makes them so good? The airport was built in 2014, so everything is more or less brand new. They offer free WiFi, quiet rooms for tired people wanting to sleep or pray, and if you have enough money you can have airport staff meet you at the gate, guide you through the airport and park you at their lounge while they process immigration papers for you so that you do not have to worry about anything yourself.
If you are flying to Doha, chances are that you will arrive with Qatar Airways. They are awesome! Good service, friendly staff, blah blah blah, the usual stuff. However, if you have a layover of 8-24 hours with no faster connections available they might offer you a transit visa, hotel, all meals included and transportation to and from the airport – for free! There are of course some asterisks attached to this, but chances are – even in economy class – that they will actually give you this. However, you need to book the service at least 3 days in advance, so make sure you do.
If you do not qualify for this you can either pay to get the same service ($125 for economy and $150 for business), which is a fair price considering what you get, or you can enjoy another complimentary service from Qatar Airways, a guided city tour. They will give you a transit visa, a guide and a 2 hour 45 minute bus ride If you have a layover of 5-12 hours. Again for free, no strings attached. The service is on a first come first served basis with a capacity of 33 people (running 4 times a day). When we checked there were free seats. However, as we had a 15 hour layover we wished to spend more than 3 hours in the city and opted to go on our own.
Going on your own is simple and efficient, which is probably the main reason why we like Doha as a layover destination. Immigration may take some time if there are many people arriving at once, but if you are one of the 33 countries qualifying for visa on arrival it’s just to get in line. No arrival forms to fill out, no hassle. Show your passport, answer some basic questions and pay the visa fee of 100 QAR ($27). How do you pay? With credit card! Finally someone realised that those card readers can be used in other places than ATMs! After immigration you can either pay loads of money for a taxi or take the local bus. For $3 you get a return ticket and it takes around 20 minutes to the city center. Buses leave every 20 minutes. Once at the bus station, most sights worth visiting are within walking distance. As an added bonus, many of the main sights are free to enter. The Museum of Islamic Art is really interesting and as of the time we are writing this you can see some of the Terracotta Warriors here, the only place in the world outside their original tomb in China where this is possible.
The city turns beautiful at night and if you want to take a picture, but have no power on your phone, fear no more; The boardwalk in Doha has multiple charging stations for free where you just plug your phone in and let it charge. Yes, seriously, they have WiFi and power cables sticking out of their green park. There are also many souks where you can look at and buy interesting things, such as falcons!
When you start to feel tired, get on the bus and half an hour later you find yourself back at the airport. Get some free water from the water fountains, plug your laptop into the provided power outlets and wait for you next flight, likely an Airbus A380, Boeing 777 or Dreamliner.
