Do you have a long layover in Qatar? I did. Qatar is a great country for a long layover. When arriving in Qatar you have a few choices when it comes to how to spend your layover. You can organize a guided tour through the airport, get your guide, etc, or you can do what I did, explore the city (Doha) independently.

I had roughly 8 hours of a layover. Knowing I needed to be back before my next flight that gave me roughly 5 hours to see Qatar and get back to the airport.

First thing I did was order an Uber to the city. I had read about a market in the middle of the city called Souq Waqif. I programmed that as my first destination. The market was beautiful, and clean. The venders were friendly and not pushy at all like some other markets around the world. The food in the market was also very good. I found a very busy restaurant selling grilled meat (Shish Kabob, Shish Tauok, etc)

While in the uber the driver suggested a couple other things we could do. One of those things being The Corniche. The Corniche is essentially a waterfront boardwalk. After finishing with the Market I walked to The Corniche. There you see a handful of vendors offering boat rides around the harbour. It was night and the view on the water looked beautiful, so I decided to take a cruise. It wasn’t too busy, so I had the boat to myself. The Doha skyline was amazing from the water.

There are so many more things you can do in Qatar, I only scratched the surface, but it was well worth leaving the airport.

Oh and not to mention Qatar was my 50th country which was one of my major bucket list items!