Thailand Transit Guide: Your Doha Layover Adventure
Hey everyone! 👋 It's me again. The other day, I wrote a post asking about Qatar Airways flights and transiting in Doha. Now that I'm back, I'm writing a summary article for you all. 🤩🤩 (Warning: long article with lots of information!)
1. Short Transit (< 4 hours)
Depending on your flight schedule, there won't be many activities for layovers under 4 hours. You can mainly wander around shopping or taking pictures in the Duty Free Plaza South area (where you'll spot the golden bear symbol), or visit the Orchard area in the North (with a beautiful indoor glass garden).
A quick tip: The distance between these two areas is quite far. Walking or using the travelators can take over 7 minutes, and getting to your next flight's gate could take ~7-15 minutes. So, pay attention to make sure you don't miss your flight!
2. Transit of 4 Hours or More
For these flights, you'll have more options for activities (packages/tours), specifically:
- Min 4 hours: Participate in activities such as (a) exploring Hamad International Airport (~Qar36/p), (b) sports activities like golf, gym, etc., with costs from Qar 120~400/p
- 8 hours or more: You'll have the additional option of discovering Qatar with a city tour lasting about 3 hours (last time I booked it for 99qar/p, but I don't know why I see the price 198qar/p now 🤡) and a desert tour lasting 4 hours. Basically, Qatar is a veryyyy small country, consisting of 95% mainland and 5% desert.
If you go on a city tour, you'll see almost the entire country in those 3 hours 🤣. However, based on personal experience, if you want to explore the city, you should go during the day because it's brighter and easier to see the sights. I went in the evening, so I didn't see much because I mainly looked at the scenery through the car window, and they only stop for a total of 3 points. First is an area like a square with a panorama view of skyscrapers for about 5 minutes. Second is a place I don't remember the name of, but the view is also ordinary, nothing special, also only 5 minutes. Third is a place where they keep animals right in front of the royal castle, but to be honest, you can only see the castle, but it's hard to take pictures because it's obstructed by the camel farm, horses, and falcons. From the animal area, you'll be taken to Qatar's traditional market area, like a night market, also bustling and fun, but it will be very rushed because you'll only have about 20 minutes before getting back on the car and going back to the airport. It depends on each person's feeling about whether or not to go, but with the money spent and the views and stops like that, I don't think it's worth the money. This tour has a trip every 2 hours from 8 am to 9:30 pm.
Regarding desert tours, it will be more special to have a trip every 60 minutes from 6 am to 2 pm, and the price is also much more expensive. Last time I saw it was about 500Qar/p, but now I see 934 🥲. Haven't had a chance to try it yet, so I can't add more reviews.
Note that if you buy a tour, you need to go to the information desk (Duty Free Plaza South, near the golden bear) to present yourself 2 hours in advance to complete the procedures. Whether your transit is short or long, whether you stay in the airport or go outside the airport in the form of the above tours, you don't need to prepare anything. Just come and present yourself, and they will guide and assist you with the necessary procedures, so you can rest assured.
I was going to include a tour link for Qatar, but it seems to violate the group rules; please search for "Transit Tour Qatar" yourself and go to their official website to find it!
3. Currency
At the airport, they accept popular foreign currencies in cash and card form, but if you pay in foreign currency cash, such as USD or Euro, they will give you change in their currency.
When you go out to the market, you can also swipe your card, and they also let you pay in foreign currency (cash), but I'm not sure what kind of currency they give you for change 🤡.
4. Where to Rest?
Hamad Airport has plenty of options besides waiting chairs for your flight. However, if you're transiting overnight or for too long and want to lie down to rest, you'll have quite a few options.
- Paid: There will be hotel rooms, sleep pods, etc. Hourly rental, usually quite expensive. Last time I looked it was like $4-50/2 hours for a sleep pod 🤡. Hotels can be more expensive; you can go to the airline's website to find out more details. Quality doesn't need discussion.
- Free: The best option for you is the Quiet Room, including separate rooms for men, women, and families, and almost every floor has them. The distance between the men's and women's rooms will be verrrrryyyy far, so if you go in a group of 2 or more, you should lie down in the family room together; no need to worry about being separated by gender. In addition, you can also go to the Garden area; I see the artificial grass or long benches here are all used by people as places to sleep. The disadvantage is that this area is quite noisy and not as private as the Quiet Room.
Because it's free, you should know that sleeping at the airport without renting a hotel will be very uncomfortable if you are not used to sleeping outside or in a noisy place. Because even if it's a quiet room, it's more private than sleeping in the middle of the airport, but it's not comfortable at all (hard chairs, noise from announcement speakers, people shouting and talking, etc.).
NOTE: At night at the airport, it's VERY COLD, so bring a thick coat, or blanket, etc., to ensure that you always keep your body warm.
That's it for the long review. To be honest, I don't check my inbox or comments much, but I will try my best to reply as much as possible if anyone has any questions. I wish you all a pleasant trip!
```