XmaX

I have a short layover at DOH, and I would like to see the city for a few hours. There are a few buses which operate between the city and the airport. It appears that I would need a Karwa Smartcard, which can be purchased from the Mowasalat Information Desk at DOH.

Does anyone know if credit cards are accepted there? It would seem silly to withdraw money from an ATM just to pay 10 QR for a bus (unless ATMs dispense notes as low as 10 QR, but I somehow doubt that).

IAN-UK

No idea, though paying by card is pretty much standard for purchases in Qatar.

Unless you're intent on faffing about, and eating up your short layover in waits for public transport, why in heaven's name don't you use Uber or Careem?

Free wifi is available in the airport and you can be picked up within minutes from whichever kerbside arrival exit you specify on the app. The fare to the Museum of Islamic Art is likely to be around QAR30, certainly under QAR40, and if youv'e set up your account correctly the fare will go to your credit card. The museum is free.

Souq Waqif is more or less across from the museum: it's a bit Disney, but fun for a coffee and buying falcon accessories...

Both are at the airport end of the Corniche.

The Pearl's another bit of kitsch some enjoy seeing (marina, high-end cafes and restaurants), but about twice as far from the airport and not really worth the hassle unless you want to marvel at Venetian canals a la Vegas.

:D!

I have just spent 3 hours in Doha and took the 777 bus to from the airport to the Pearl and back.

I enjoyed my self-guided "private" tour (I was the only person on the bus in both directions) which enabled me to see a lot of the city at a cost of 10 riyals, rather than however much it would have cost for a taxi. Since the bus never stopped, it would have taken just as long as a taxi which would not have been immune from afternoon peak traffic. OK, maybe the taxi would have sped on the expressway bit to the airport but that's just a few minutes.

I didn't have enough time to do anything else except take the bus and walk for 20 minutes around the Pearl (and actually it was rather too hot for that), but I suppose will go to the museum / souq next time, also by bus.

I did see this thread before my trip, but unfortunately the lady at the Mowsalat desk got really flustered* and I completely forgot to check whether card payments are accepted.

I'm not sure why it would be silly to withdraw 100 riyals to pay for a 10 riyal item, unless you absolutely never intend to visit Qatar again or you have some insider information that the Saudi/UAE blockade of Qatar and the resulting pressure on the offshore value of the QAR has prompted the Qatar Central Bank to abolish the use of cash.

*FWIW, I paid with a QR100 note and when the lady saw it, she became very flustered and muttered something (in English) which I couldn't catch, involving her computer not working - yet a social media website was loaded on it. She then wrote down the serial number of my ticket on her bookmark. It certainly wasn't the fact that she had to give me QR90 in change that made her flustered, because her cash box had about ten 50 riyal notes and twenty 10 riyal notes in it.

IAN-UK

I still haven't worked out if any of the banks offer free ATM access to any of my cards. But I think maybe the threat of fees is one of the reasons people don't like to get small amounts from machines. Left over cash isn't such a great concern for me: I hang on to it until I'm in a friendly cash environment, like Bangkok, here the exchange window will hoover up just about anything at reasonable, commission-free rates.

Did you park any hand luggage at the airport? I can't see anyone lugging even a small bag around in hat heat.

No idea what frequency the bus operates, but i hope you didn't have spend too much time hanging around. I love the idea of you being the only passenger, but i think there's a message in there somewhere ....

:D!

Fair enough on card fees, I had just assumed I would be able to use my Halifax Clarity to get cash in Middle East at the Mastercard rate - do you think there would be additional ATM operator charges?

As for Bangkok, you can currently get QAR cheaper than the pegged rate.... (US$1 to 3.70 QR). You could make a very large profit if you had a way to exchange it in Qatar without commisson Probably also why the UK bureaux de change no longer take them

No, I didn't but my hand luggage is actually very small and light. And yes it was very hot, but only humidity bothers me and the Middle East is dry.

The buses ran nearly exactly to their timetable and I planned my wandering to fit that, the 777 is every 20 minutes and I think so is the 747.

IAN-UK

We have the same credit card. Charges from the overseas bank sometimes appear, though these might be rolled into the transaction. For Bangkok, Bank of China in Bangkok is clean for MC.

QAR are probably suffering from political concerns. The exchange shops don't want to get stuck with them.

I was in Doha all last week. Passed a number of buses, and all seemed empty or near-empty. I'm back next week and I'll try them, just to satisfy my inner public transport geekiness. Though with Uber so handy and so well priced it will take a bit of an effort...

XmaX

Just for completion, after taking the trip I can finally answer my own question - yes, the bus ticket counter in arrivals accepts cards.

The bus is okay, 717 goes near the Souq Waqif/Museum of Islamic Art without too many stops so I imagine it takes comparable time to Uber. It's a bit more tricky on the way back - the bus stops are quite 'bare' and have no information printed whatsoever - including which buses operate from a given stop. I ended up standing on a bus stop for 20 minutes hoping it's the right one (it was).