Things to do in Doha

Doha wraps around a crescent bay. The Corniche runs seven kilometres along it, from West Bay to the port. Almost everything in view was built within one lifetime.

Things to do in Doha split cleanly in two. The museums and the old market sit on the water. The desert starts forty minutes out.

The museums on the bay

Doha commissions architects the way other cities buy paintings.

• Museum of Islamic Art. I. M. Pei's building on its own island, opened in 2008 and reopened in October 2022.
• National Museum of Qatar. Jean Nouvel's interlocking discs, modelled on a desert rose, opened in 2019.
• Msheireb Museums. Four restored family houses, opened in 2015. One deals with slavery, plainly.
• Katara. A cultural village built in 2010, with an amphitheatre on the beach.
• Souq Waqif. Rebuilt from 2006 in nineteenth-century style, on the site of the real market.

Where the day goes outside town

Two directions matter once the ring roads end. South is dunes, north-west is history.

• Khor Al Adaid. The inland sea on the Saudi border, where dunes drop into salt water. A nature reserve since 2007, reached by four-wheel drive only.
• Al Zubarah. A pearling town on the north coast, abandoned in the nineteenth century and World Heritage since 2013.
• Zekreet. Wind-cut limestone on the west coast, and Richard Serra's four steel plates alone in the gravel.
• Al Shahaniya. Camel racing forty kilometres west, October to February. Robot jockeys replaced child riders two decades ago.
• Sheikh Faisal Museum. One man's hoard of cars, carpets, weapons and rebuilt houses on the Dukhan road.

How the day is sold

Nearly everything runs private, priced by the car, not the seat. Half a day covers museums and souq. A full day adds the desert.

Layover and cruise-terminal tours are a category of their own here.

Practical

• Heat. July averages forty-two degrees by day and near thirty-two at night. From June to September the outdoor half of a tour is a dash between cars.
• Season. November to April is the whole visitor year, and the racing calendar sits in it.
• Metro. Three driverless lines opened in 2019, and the Red Line serves the airport.
• The week. Friday and Saturday are the weekend, and Friday stays quiet until the midday prayer.
• Alcohol. Licensed hotel bars and restaurants only.
• Dress. Shoulders and knees covered in public buildings and malls.
• Money. Cards work everywhere, but keep riyals for the souq and tipping.
• Falcons. The falcon hospital by the souq lets visitors in free, and it is stranger than the museums.