Doha, Qatar

Last weekend, Jared and I decided to go on a little getaway to Doha, Qatar. We thought it would be a great way to recover from playing host and we had two free nights at the Doha Ritz Carlton (Club Level, amazing). Flights on the budget airline Air Arabia were super cheap so we could see no reason not to take advantage. Why did we have two free nights at the Ritz? Well, my ever clever/resourceful boyfriend had been to a conference at the Ritz in Doha (for his firm) about a month ago and when he got there to check in, the Qatari government had commandeered a whole bunch of rooms at the hotel and he had to be moved to the Ritz's beach resort Sharq Cove (poor guy). So, after the conference, he complained that the move was inconvenient because the resort was 20 minutes away and he couldn't "go to his room and get work done in between lectures" as I am sure he would have undoubtedly done. Well, the fantastic Room Manager at the Doha Ritz offered him two free nights with hotel transport to "make up for his troubles." Sure, we'll come back and you can make it up to us...

So Thursday afternoon we took a taxi to Sharjah (the next Emirate over, flying budget has it's catches) and took the 45 minute flight to Doha. Now I had no idea where Doha was until we started planning this trip. Doha is the capital of Qatar, a peninsula country landlocked entirely by Saudi Arabia and located northwest up the southern coast of the Persian Gulf from the UAE (very near Bahrain). Doha is a very western and international city which I would compare to a slightly more conservative mini-Dubai. It's a smaller city, and we were really just looking forward to relaxing by the pool and beach and doing nothing.

We were greeted at the airport by a BMW 5 series waiting to pick us up (they really threw in all the perks. delightful!). Our wonderful driver David chatted with us throughout the drive and gave us a driving tour of the city enroute to the hotel. And when we arrived at the hotel we were immediately taken to the Club Lounge to check-in there (as opposed to the normal desk in the lobby) and they served us our choice of alcoholic beverages (wine and beer) to enjoy while we were waiting to be checked-in. As we kept saying all weekend long, the pampering of staying "Club Level" really makes you not ever want to travel again without it. Hmmm... After we finished our drinks, along with pastries and cheese and crackers from the 24 hour lounge buffet, we were shown to our beautiful room where our bag was waiting for us. There we found a personalized note from Ned (the Room Manager) wishing us a lovely stay, a fruit plate, chocolates, cookies, and bottles of European still and sparking water. Jared's 'troubles' had already been made up to me within the first five minutes..

Since we arrived at around 8:20pm, we had just missed the dinner buffet at the club lounge and so decided to check out one of the restaurants at the hotel for dinner (the only bad thing about the Ritz is that it is kind of far out of town and not within walking distance of anything, contrary to some of the other nicer hotels downtown... not that I can complain). We just wanted something casual and were directed to "The Admiral's Club" restaurant right on the Marina that is a part of the Ritz complex. Jared was won over when he saw wings on the menu, and I had a delicious grilled chicken club. After dinner we went back to the lounge for more free drinks (champagne for me this time around) and then called it an early night.

View of the amazing pool area from our balcony.

When we woke up Friday morning, we realized just how lovely our room was. We had a balcony overlooking the Marina and also the new land reclamation project The Qatar Pearl (a similar man-made island project to the Palms and World in Dubai).

The beginning of The Pearl

The main part of The Pearl, which our driver (the delightful David) drove us out to see on our way to the airport. Basically like a 100x nicer version of the Palm Jumeirah.

Jared on the balcony with the Doha city skyline behind him.

Doha skyline from our balcony.