Visiting Doha on a Budget
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With its futuristic architecture and pristine city streets, Doha isn’t the first destination that comes to mind when one thinks of the phrase ‘budget travel’. Its residents can so often be seen sporting expensive accessories as they ride through the air-conditioned streets in their chauffeured golf carts. If there’s any phrase that Doha does bring to mind, it’s more likely to be ‘sumptuous luxury’.
Luckily, looks can be deceiving and with a few simple tricks, it’s quite easy to visit Doha as a budget traveller and not feel like you’re missing out. In this article we’re going to show you how to do just that. We spent two days and three nights in Doha, ate three meals a day with snacks in between, and packed our days with activities. Our total spend was £290.12. Bear in mind that the prices mentioned throughout this article are for two travellers – if you’re travelling solo, you can halve the transport, food and activity costs.
Accommodation
Our biggest tip for visiting Doha on a budget is to not go on holiday to Doha! Tack it onto the beginning or end of another holiday and fly with Qatar Airways to take advantage of Discover Doha’s fantastic stopover packages. If your transit time is between 12 and 96 hours, you can book between one and four nights at a Doha hotel at heavily subsidised rates. They offer four tiers from Standard through to Luxury, all comprising of four- to five-star hotels and ranging from 14 USD to 83 USD a night. We opted for the Standard tier and paid £50 per night at the Four Points by Sheraton Doha in the centre of town, which usually goes for around £107 a night.
Total spend on accommodation: £150
Transport
Much of Doha’s population can often be spotted zipping about the city in luxury cars, taxis and golf carts but, with its fantastic (and cheap!) metro system, there’s really no need. You can pick the metro up from the airport and it takes you everywhere you could possibly want to go within the city proper. Single fairs are just 2 Qatari Ryals (0.22p), with their Metro Travel Card Pass – which itself costs just 10 QR - and multiple journeys cap at 6 QR a day.
You could just buy a day ticket each day if you plan to do more than three journeys, but the card makes a nice memento, and can always be used again in future or passed on to family or friends who are visiting the country. Did we mention that the metro is fantastic? Really comfortable, very convenient, and not at all crowded. Just remember to use the family carriages if you are a woman, couple or family!
Total spend on transport: £10.94
Food and drinks
You can spend as much or as little as you like on food in Doha. With an economy that caters to a (largely South Asian) migrant labour workforce, if you eat where the locals eat, you’ll find tasty, authentic regional food at low prices. Many of the metro stations also cater to busy workers and house convenience stores and eateries at affordable rates. We paid £2.50 for two falafel wraps and two cups of chai at a metro station, ate way too many samosas at 1 QR (11p!) each, had two huge bowls of Egyptian koshary for £6.50, and went wild and ordered four (enormous) dishes at a Lebanese restaurant for just £15.19.
The other thing to consider is water. The tap water in Doha is mostly saline water, so we’d advise drinking bottled water. Our hotel plied us with free bottled water every day and with free water refill points all over the city, we never had to fork out for a top-up. And, if you get bored of water, a cup of sweet karak chai will set you back just £1.25! We are fairly convinced Doha runs on Indian tea...
Total spend on food and drinks: £55.91
Data
You’ll probably be considering whether you need to purchase a SIM card when you touch down in Doha airport, and you absolutely do not. There is free WiFi in the airport and, if you’re travelling via the metro, every station also has free WiFi as do public spaces such as museums, hotels, and restaurants – even Souq Waqif has WiFi! We use Surfshark VPN when connecting to public networks to ensure we’re always safe when browsing online. So as long as you download your Google Maps route each time you leave a metro station, you shouldn’t have any need for a costly data package.
Total spend on data: N/A
Activities
This is really where you can spend as little or as much as you like, but bear in mind that there are loads of free attractions to take advantage of in Doha. Wandering around Souq Waqif and losing yourself in the twisting alleys of market stalls and taking your obligatory selfie with the golden thumb won’t cost you a thing (although we do advise stopping for a fruit smoothie!). Many of the attractions in the Katara Culture Village are free, including the stamp museum, the dhow museum and a guided tour of the beautiful Katara Mosque.
Chances are you’ll want to visit either the Museum of Islamic Art or the National Museum of Qatar (both are worth it just for the unique architecture!). You can pick up a combined ticket that gets you entrance to both, as well as the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic & Sports Museum for less than it would cost to visit any two of the museums separately. Museum tickets aside, our only other activity spend was a visit to the fantastic Esqalar Sports Climbing Wall at £15.79 each. Don’t forget that a walk along the corniche to admire the twinkling skyline reflecting off of the bay won’t cost you a thing!
Total spend on activities: £73.27
Exploring the Katara Amphitheatre
Average Daily Costs for Visiting Doha on a Budget
The following is a breakdown of the average cost for two people per day in Doha, based on our own spending. It is, of course, possible to spend slightly less or way, way more, but we think that this is a good balance between travelling on a budget and enjoying your time in the country.
Accommodation: £50 (or less depending on your choice of hotel/layover package)
Transport: £5.47
Food: £27.96
Data: Free
Activities: £36.63
TOTAL: £120.06
Read our blog post 48 Hours in Qatar to find out what we got up to in Doha and for some top tips on visiting the city!