DOHA
I went to Doha expecting Dubai’s quieter sibling. I came home convinced I’d discovered something a level above — and I say that as someone who loves Dubai and will defend it to anyone. And believe me, I did not expect to say that.
Doha is simply beautiful. Calm, considered, incredibly safe, and effortlessly impressive in a way that never feels loud or showy. It doesn’t need to announce itself … it just gets on with being spectacular.
When we arrived, the city was dressed for Christmas — lights, trees, the full warmth of the festivities — with New Year celebrations just around the corner.
Seeing a Muslim country openly and generously celebrate Christmas, making space for a Christian festival and for people from all over the world to enjoy it, felt like hospitality in its oldest, truest sense:
“You are here, this matters to you, so we have made space for it.”
Doha spoils you for choice when it comes to hotels, so instead of making the impossible decision of choosing just one, we did what any slightly indecisive traveller would do…
… we stayed in five?!!
Yes. Five hotels in 9 days!!
It sounds extravagant — and even writing that sentence makes me laugh — but the sheer number of beautiful five-star properties on offer is almost overwhelming.
And perhaps the biggest surprise of all? Hopping between luxury hotels in Doha can cost less than an ordinary UK staycation.
Yes, really. Read that again!
Each hotel had its own distinct personality, impeccable service, and astounding views. They weren’t just places to sleep; they were experiences in themselves.
It completely reframed what luxury costs, and I’m still not sure I’ve recovered.
With love
Mel x
The hotel that thinks it’s a painting
We began at the Mondrian Doha, and the name is the giveaway.
The whole place carries the DNA of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian — clean geometry and bold, deliberate order — but what designer Marcel Wanders has created is closer to a fairytale than a hotel.
A falcon-inspired tower, an ivory lobby wrapped around a magnificent tree, and theatrical touches in every direction.
It feels more like you have stepped into someone’s imagination than checked into a hotel.
Then there’s the pool.
Now, Oliver is a serious connoisseur of hotel pools. After years of travelling together, I have learnt that if he declares a pool spectacular, it is worth paying attention. And this one? He was right.
The Mondrian’s pool is regularly ranked among the most beautiful in the world, and for once, the internet isn’t exaggerating.
A black-and-white chequerboard dream, sitting on the topmost level with sweeping views that open up the moment you step outside. Absolutely striking!! The combination of the design, the sky, and those endless Doha views was something else. We just stopped and stared.
A quarter of a million people, and a sky on fire
We welcomed the New Year on Lusail Boulevard, the long, gleaming 1.3-kilometre stretch just north of the city, and I was completely unprepared for the scale.
More than a quarter of a million people gathered for the largest fireworks display Qatar has ever staged and a record-breaking drone show.
Families camped out for hours; children up far too late, fighting sleep on their parents’ shoulders; friends laughing together in anticipation; strangers sharing the excitement of a brand-new year arriving and an entire city counting down together until the sky finally exploded into colour!
Clean, exact, and confident
Out in the city, precision is everywhere.
Everything feels spotless, intentional, and remarkably safe, while the architecture constantly finds ways to inspire you.
Gewan Island, the newest jewel beside The Pearl, feels almost absurdly futuristic.
Its Crystal Walkway — the world’s longest air-conditioned promenade, with a Guinness record to its name — carries you through immersive worlds of desert, forest, ice, and sea as thousands of crystals shimmer overhead.
Then there’s Qanat Quartier, Qatar’s “little Venice”. Normally, these comparisons disappoint. How many places have been called “the Venice of somewhere”?
But this one actually delivers.
Candy-coloured buildings, winding canals, and a faithful replica of the Rialto Bridge.
We really did feel like we’d slipped into Venice. It’s utterly, completely to die for.
The place that surprised me most …
… the colourful Mina District at Old Doha Port.
Pastel buildings, cobbled streets, murals by artists from around the world, wooden promenades, and traditional dhows bobbing gently in the harbour, with the Museum of Islamic Art watching across the bay.
Chabrat Al Mina — the fish market with its stained glass, mosaic walls, beautiful architecture, and the day's catch displayed with almost museum-like precision. Just marvellous.
I didn't expect to be moved by a fish market... and yet I was.
Now, I never imagined I'd be writing about a fish market with this much enthusiasm, but hand on heart, it is the most beautiful seafood market I've ever stepped into.
Inside the crescent
Just when I thought it couldn't get better, we checked into the Fairmont Doha, inside the magnificent crescent of Katara Towers — that horseshoe-shaped landmark on the Lusail skyline, inspired by the crossed scimitar swords on Qatar's national seal.
Fairmont occupies one side of the building, while Raffles Doha sits on the other — one of the city's most exclusive addresses.
The views were extraordinary.
The room was one of the finest we've ever stayed in, and the room service — I'm not exaggerating — was the best we've ever had brought to our door. I'd highly recommend the chicken biryani (11/10).
We wandered next door into Raffles, the sort of place people describe as "six- or even seven-star", often mentioned in the same breath as the Burj Al Arab.
You step inside, look up, and the ceiling refuses to behave like a ceiling. Colour pours into colour, patterns bloom and dissolve overhead like a living kaleidoscope. A white grand piano sits beneath it as though it belongs to the architecture itself.
Everyone does the same thing — they stop, tilt their head back, and reach for their phone.
Later in the day, we indulged in drinks thirty-three floors above the city, Doha stretched beneath us in all its scale. Magnificent hardly covers it.
A mirage beside the sea
I didn’t think a building could top that ‘til we reached The Chedi Katara, and the comparison I'd been searching for finally clicked into place.
I’m yet to visit the Taj Mahal — but standing in front of this white Mughal-inspired palace, domes and carved stone glowing against the Arabian Sea, I felt like I’d finally got close. It looks more like a mirage than a hotel. I kept stopping to photograph it. The hotel is small, lavish, and simply the next level of opulence.
Nearby, Galeries Lafayette sits inside Katara Plaza as though Paris insisted on being represented in this astonishing city. We were transported to and from Katara village along the Katara Hills in a golf cart courtesy of the hotel (and you know how we love a golf cart!).
Then came one of my favourite meals of the entire trip.
At Kamachi, a local Qatari spot near Katara cinema with the mosque in view, we ate the finest bread I’ve ever tasted — second only to my mum’s homemade roti, and there is simply no higher compliment in my family. Thin, warm, and almost crepe-like, we ordered more almost immediately, then more again.
The curries were exceptional, the chai was among the best I’ve ever tasted (and it came in at less than a pound!!), huge portions and service that couldn’t do enough for you.
The bill felt like a clerical error — like someone had forgotten to add everything up properly.
The part that tasted like home
Half an hour south lies Al Wakrah, one of Qatar's oldest cities, and it turned out to be my favourite part of the entire trip.
We stayed at the restored Souq Al Wakra Hotel, where England based themselves during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and completely lost ourselves among narrow lanes scented with oud, cardamom, and charcoal grills.
I celebrated my birthday with extraordinary Azerbaijani food and enjoyed cake at Pampas, a beautiful café in a lush garden beside the shore, with camels strolling past and horse-drawn carriages rolling by and happily surrendered myself entirely to Doha's brilliant authentic Indian restaurants (of which there are gloriously many)!
With the beach running alongside it all, I felt dropped straight back into Durban — eight thousand kilometres from home.
Oliver and I discovered the most extraordinary seafood restaurant, run by chefs from Kerala — exactly where my own South Indian roots trace back to.
The prawns were almost indecent in size and the spices tasted like home. We HAD TO order more.
We went back the following evening...and ordered exactly the same thing again.
The oldest, most lived-in and for me, the part that tasted like home.
Where Doha feels most itself
We ended where the city feels most itself — Souq Waqif and the Dhow Harbour along the Corniche, where traditional wooden boats sit against one of the world's most modern skylines.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 signs were still proudly standing around the city, and the souq itself was alive with spice, scent, sound, and heat constantly pulling you into something else (because something is always catching your eye)!!
Somehow, after all the marble, glass, and sky-high luxury, this is where Doha felt most authentic and alive!
A final farewell at Kempinski Marsa Malaz
Before heading back home, we spent our final night at the Kempinski Marsa Malaz on The Pearl – an island of palatial grandeur!
It felt like stepping into a Mediterranean palace dropped into the Arabian Gulf — marble floors, grand chandeliers, sweeping staircases, and elegant balconies opening onto the marina.
Oliver indulged in decadent pastries and desserts from Fauchon Paris and I was simply obsessed with their incredible rooftop bar and views. It was the perfect ending.
What Doha gave me
I arrived thinking I understood this part of the world. I left having felt about ten different things, most of them some version of *grateful* — and hopeful that there exists a country in the world that is this clean, kind, and generous all at once, and holding the door open for everyone.
I was mostly grateful and humbled for discovering a country that rewrote so many assumptions I didn't even realise I had.
Doha gave us the whole spectrum.
What a place ... Oh what a trip!! I'd go back tomorrow.
P.S. One practical tip: use Uber. I have never, anywhere in the world, experienced anything quite like it. The fastest, best and safest rides we've ever taken - spotless cars, courteous drivers, barely any waiting time (often less than a minute... yes, really!) AND prices that make exploring the country wonderfully easy.
