Qatar

Doha

From October 6 to October 8 2025

Initial thoughts: The airport is massive and felt empty.  So many different types of people: dressed in full outfits, tourists/westerners, workers. A true mix of everything. It took us almost 40 minutes to get out of the airport from our date. Passport security was quick and easy. Qatari locals dress in their traditional gear bc they are proud to be Qatari. 

Day 1

We landed from our DFW to Doha flight on Qatar Airlines around 6pm at night. A Qatar sports team was at the airport getting their group picture taken with locals. We checked into our hotel at the Four Seasons and then went out for a walk (it was so hot and humid outside even though it was almost 7pm at night). While on our walk we decided to eat dinner at Cipriani to get a last taste of home before a long trip (60 days) in the middle east. Castelvetrano olives, a margherita pizza, and two pastas later - we were surprised with a slice of cake before we called it a night.

We may have slept 3 hours this night due to jetlag.

Day 2

We took this day to tour around Doha with a local guide named Habib, a Qatari local dressed in his formal Qatari linens. Originally from Pakistan, Habib has Qatari citizenship and let us know that it’s more likely for Qatar to win the World Cup than for an outsider to become a Qatari citizen.

Our first stop was near the main government building (he was hesitant to compare it the White House). Every day, twice a day, a group of 50 or so men bring out the camels for an hour long procession (think of it like the soldiers in front of Buckingham Palace) from 9am-10am, and 4pm-5pm. We caught them just before they were going after their morning duty.

From there we went to the souk and the first stop completely blindsided both of us: the Falcon Market. Inside these stores were falcons that you could purchase for any reason: as a pet, for hunting, for show, as a hobby, etc. There must have been 50 falcons in the 1 store we went into. The most beautiful of them all was a white falcon, apparently from Germany. Just across the street from the Falcon Market was the Falcon Hospital. There must have been about 20 people inside, all with their falcons, waiting to see the falcon veterinarian. The whole entire ecosystem had us floored.

The next stop of the day was the Qatari Museum - just for pictures. Allegedly they were in between exhibitions, and not much of the museum was open to see. We then went to the Chabrat Al Mina fish market, “the most beautiful fish market in the Middle East” - per our guide, Habib. They had taken some influence from Gaudi when they were constructing it.

Next we went to the Islamic Museum, that was a monster of a building, 3-4 floors, and told a full history of the Islamic religion and expansion and contraction into other areas of the world. The most fun part was going through the wing of “Al Aldalus” (Andalusia) and read about Granada and Cordoba - places we have been and know.

We took a picture with the Fifa World Cup Statue, took pictures of the dhow boats, took pictures of the Doha Skyline, took pictures in an almost replica of Venice, Italy part of Doha, got dressed in full hijab for the first time (and sat through a learning video about Islam), lunch, dinner, bed. Hailey got 10 hours of sleep (not an exaggeration).

Day 3

Gym, spa in the morning, a delicious Qatari breakfast, and a 1pm Qatar Air flight to Abu Dhabi on our way to Bahrain.