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The Country Transformed by All That Money Can Buy

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t was pretty routine–I posted a selfie before taking off with a caption along the lines of, “So pumped for this trip. First up, Doha!” But 30 minutes into my flight when I connected to the WiFi, I had dozens of replies all asking me the same question: “Where are you going?”

Um, what! I just said!

And then I realized that for all these people, Doha only meant a place of transit, a stop before connecting to where you really wanted to go, not a destination in itself. Disheartening, perhaps, in most vacation scenarios, but it felt fortuitous to me and even exciting as the reason I was headed to Qatar was for our twice-a-month series on underrated destinations, It’s Still a Big World.

What I found in nearly a week was one of the more fascinating destinations in all my travels. A city and country quite literally building their way to a distinct identity. You will gasp, cringe, learn, and perhaps feel a bit of envy. There are world-class museums, top-notch hotels and restaurants, cutting-edge architecture, stadiums for the World Cup, and whole islands and neighborhoods that have sprung up overnight. To visit Qatar today is to truly see what money can buy.

A view of the West Bay skyline.

For now, to go to Qatar from the U.S. you need to be fully vaccinated plus have had a booster shot and have a negative PCR test no more than 48 hours before departure. You must also fill out a form on Ehteraz and download its app for contact tracing within the country.

The first step to visiting Qatar, of course, is getting there and that’s most likely on the country’s flagship carrier, Qatar Airways, which flies from a number of U.S. cities, including Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles. The flight from my home in D.C. is nearly 13 hours, so I was in business class which is not within everybody’s means but if you’re on the fence or have the points here’s what my experience was like.

I’ve flown business on a number of major carriers and I won’t call anybody out, but I’m nearly 6-foot-3 and a stomach sleeper, so often business class is wasted on me–but on Qatar, it was positively roomy. I actually fit comfortably lying down. There was much more lateral space in the suite, and you have sliding doors on the aisle opening that make it feel like an actual room. Second, the food was good. Not good for airplane food, just good. The duck confit with cabbage I had as my main course would have made me happy in a restaurant or 30,000 feet in the air. The bathrooms are also private plane-level nice. But the biggest difference for me was the service. Good service means all your needs are met and it’s done in a friendly and efficient way. Great service does all that but gives you the illusion that the people serving you truly want you to be happy–and that was my experience. Oh, and upon landing you have your own immigration queue.

My first stop on a whirlwind tour of this small peninsula was to the Qatar Foundation campus where one finds the headquarters of the nonprofit run by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the wife of the former Emir, the campuses of a number of American universities, and Rem Koolhaas’ Qatar National Library. The library is an upcoming selection for our World’s Most Beautiful Libraries series, so I won’t go into detail here, but I will say it’s worth seeing not only for the starchitect’s unique approach, but because its subterranean Heritage Library is on of the best little museums I’ve been to (lord, the maps!) and my first taste of the acquisitive nature of the royal family.

The National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel.

After a quick lunch at Chef’s Garden, a spot popular with the college students nearby, it was off to the National Museum of Qatar, which sits on the bay in a complex modeled after a desert rose that might be one of starchitect Jean Nouvel’s best works. This is the royal family’s way of telling their story and Qatari history and one of the important sights that make Doha a major cultural destination as a way to differentiate from nearby Dubai.

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