I guess i'm the only one on the board here, but i live in doha. haven't yet updated my profile so ignore the berne location. not sure i would rate here as worth a stopover, on the order of dubai or even abu dhabi. we are the 'little dubai' and i mean that little. we have a decent collection of hotels, 4S, ritz, sheraton, marriott, IC, movenpick; with many more on the way in 2008 (2 more marriotts, hyatt, hilton, w, shangri la, etc). pretty large mall in City Center, but doesn't hold a candle to the emirates mall i hear. our souk is 'rebuilt' and looks like disneyland. we have a mall (villagio) that is an exact knock off of the venetian mall in vegas (down to the indoor gondola ride and the sky blue and clouds ceiling). we have fridays, applebees, chilis, pizza hut, DQ, all the american chains, except they don't serve liquor, only at the hotels. there are some pretty good ethnic restaurants also. much construction around town, so traffic is a mess, and dusty. and yes, the qataris drive like maniacs in their land cruisers and range rovers, and they leave the plastic on the seats and the bar code sticker on the window that comes when they buy the car, supposedely so they want everyone to notice that they have a new car (haven't figured out that one yet) Nice cool weather right now, but unbearable in summer, so everyone leaves jun/jul/aug. a few more years when the pearl opens (manmade island copied from the palm in dubai), when more hotels open, when the new arabic museum opens, when the roads are done, when the new downtown is built, etc, etc it might be worth a long weekend. i don't know the attraction right now as they try to entice the convention, meeting, and incentive crowd. and oh yea, they are bidding on the 2016 olympics, if you can believe that anyone wants to come to the gulf during august.

having said all that, i am not a Doha basher, I actually enjoy living here, the school for our child is great, and my housing is just fine. its just a lot of us spend a lot of time figuring out how to get out of here to visit other places. i'll be ready to move on in 2009.

if you've been to dubai, doha will be a big disappointment. if you come here and then go to dubai, you will then really understand a city in the midst of spectacular transformation.