Doha is small. The desert behind it is not.
Which safari actually reaches the inland sea. What a dhow costs at sunset. Whether a six-hour layover is enough for the city. Reviews of every tour you can book in Qatar.
A camel line at dusk, the city in a morning, a dhow on the bay, a fort in the north.
The four bookings a first Qatar trip hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The half day in the dunesDesert safari, Dune bashing, sandboarding, camel, ATV OptionDune bashing by 4x4, a camel line at the camp and a sandboard down the big face. The trip almost everybody takes, and the one the rest of the visit gets planned around.
02The city in one morningGuided City Tour with Airport and Hotel PickupCorniche, Souq Waqif, Katara and the Pearl, collected from your hotel or the terminal. The fastest way to work out how Doha is laid out.
03The evening on the waterSunset Serenade Skyline Dhow Cruise with Buffet DinnerA wooden dhow out into the bay as the towers come on, with dinner served on deck. The cheapest good hour in the city.
04The day out of DohaNorth Qatar Half-Day Tour: Al Zubarah, Purple Island & MangrovesAl Zubarah fort, the mangrove channels at Purple Island and the abandoned village at Jumail. Half a day north and the country stops looking like a capital.
Every Qatari desert day ends at the same water. They differ on how you get there.
The tarmac runs out an hour south of Doha and the dune belt starts where it stops. Three kinds of afternoon out there, what it costs to join each one, and what you actually do when you arrive.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Half Day Desert Safari | Camel Riding | ATV | Sand Surfing
The days out more travellers take than anything else in Qatar.
Every Qatari tour we have reviewed →One product carries this country and the rest of the list explains why. Here is the order, with what each one costs.
1
Safari, ATV, Camels, Sandboarding and Inland Sea Tour
Review of Doha’s $32 desert safari with dune bashing, camels, sandboarding, Khor Al Adaid, guides, tips, and honest value advice.
From · $32
Read our review →
2
ATV, Quad/Buggy Dune Bashing, Camel Ride, Sandboarding
from $32
3
Desert safari, Dune bashing, sandboarding, camel, ATV Option
from $46
4
Qatar Gold Dune Safari, Dune Bashing,Camel Ride,Sand Boarding,Inland Sea Desert
from $44
5
Guided City Tour with Airport and Hotel Pickup
from $39
6
Half Day Desert Safari | Camel Riding | ATV | Sand Surfing
from $58
7
City Tour To All Main Attractions Including Transfers
from $30
8
Guided City Tour with Airport and Hotel Pickup
from $55
Doha reads as glass towers until you walk into Souq Waqif.
The Corniche curve, the pigeon towers at Katara, a museum built to look like a desert rose, and a restored souq that still sells falcons to people who fly them. Almost all of it sits within twenty minutes of the water.
- 1Guided City Tour with Airport and Hotel Pickupfrom $39
- 2Doha City Tour | Souq Waqif | Courniche | The Pearl | Katara etcfrom $58
- 3National Museum of Qatar: Admission Ticketfrom $13
An afternoon here costs less than the flight suggests.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. The best evening in Doha is also close to the cheapest thing on this page.
Dhow cruises, museum entry, souq walks and the shared desert safaris that leave in a full car.
The standard half day: safari with camp and sandboard, the guided city run, the drive north to Al Zubarah.
Private 4x4s with your own driver, full-day north and west circuits, and the overnight desert camps.
- 1Private Half Day Desert Safarifrom $192
- 2Desert Safari & Keshta | (Private)from $178
- 3Desert Safari Adventure 4 hours from Doha with Pickupfrom $128
Three things the rest of the Gulf does not have.
Dunes and skylines are all over the Gulf. An inland sea you can swim in, four steel plates a kilometre apart in the limestone, and the town the pearling trade walked away from are not.
The Inland Sea
At the southern border the dune belt runs straight into a shallow arm of the Gulf, so the water sits inside the desert rather than beside it. There is no road to the edge. The last stretch is soft sand taken at a lowered tyre pressure, which is why every visit is somebody else’s 4x4. It is a protected reserve, the far shore is Saudi Arabia, and the crossing is called off whenever the tide and the sand disagree.
- 1Safari, ATV, Camels, Sandboarding and Inland Sea Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,291 reviews
- 2Qatar Gold Dune Safari, Dune Bashing,Camel Ride,Sand Boarding,Inland Sea Desert★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,807 reviews
- 3Inland Sea Tour, 4×4 Desert Safari/All Activities★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,875 reviews
East-West/West-East
Four steel plates stand in a line across a kilometre of limestone desert near Zekreet, each tall enough to read from the next one. Richard Serra set them into the gypsum flats in 2014 and left them to weather. There is no gate, no ticket and usually nobody else there. The drive out passes the mushroom-shaped rocks the wind cut from the same plateau.
- 1Qatar West Coast tour to Richard Serra Sculpture and Mushroom Rock Formation★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 153 reviews
- 2Richard Serra Sculpture, Zekreet and West Coast Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 71 reviews
- 3Explore Zekreet: Richard Serra Art & Mushroom Rock Wonders★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 55 reviews
Al Zubarah
Before oil there were pearls, and Al Zubarah was the town that ran the trade until it was abandoned in the nineteenth century. What is left is a square fort on the north-west coast and a buried town beside it, the most complete pearling settlement surviving in the Gulf and the only UNESCO World Heritage site in the country.
- 1North of Qatar Guided Tour with Transfers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 539 reviews
- 2North Qatar Half-Day Tour: Al Zubarah, Purple Island & Mangroves★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 337 reviews
- 3North Qatar Tour | Zubara Fort | Purple Island | Mangros Colony★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 323 reviews
Six hours between flights is enough to reach the Corniche.
Hamad International is fifteen minutes from the Corniche, and a good share of the tours on this site will collect you at the terminal and have you back for the connection. These four are built around that.
- 01Doha layover, Stopover,Transit (4 Hours Private guided city tour)Private and timed against your connection rather than a fixed departure slot.
- 02Night Desert Safari | Transit Safari | Camel ride | Dune BashingStarts and finishes at the terminal, so the bags never leave the airport.
- 03City Tour with Airport or Hotel Pick-up/Drop-offTerminal pickup is the default on the standard city run, not a paid extra.
- 04Sunset Experience, Traditional Dhow Cruise with DinnerAn hour on the bay in the evening. The shortest thing here worth clearing immigration for.
For five months of the year Qatar is too hot to stand in at noon.
Summer runs past 45 degrees and the desert trips retreat to dawn or after dark. The middle of the day belongs to the galleries, the souq arcades and the water, and a dhow at sunset is better in July than it is in January.
Qatar is ninety minutes end to end, and almost nobody leaves Doha.
North of the capital the peninsula holds a walled fort, a village left to the sand and mangrove channels shallow enough to paddle. West of that the desert turns to limestone and sculpture. Six places worth the drive.
By place, capital and peninsula
Doha, the dune belt, the inland sea and the road north: the week most first visits end up doing.
Souq Waqif
Katara
The dune beltThe newest Qatar tour reviews.
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Dhow Cruise with Pickup, Drop-Off, Tea & Refreshments
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