This new airport was recently launched in July 2014. I was eager to explore the airport as I knew it was very big and thus expected many shops.
Turns out, the airport was big but the shopping & dining experience was quite miserable. The airport has only 1 terminal, and there is a big teddy bear in the centre atrium. Shops & dining options surround the centre and that's it! Nothing else.
Given that we had 7 hours to spare, we had to hunt for 'sleeping areas'. Dubai Airport had a lot of full length seats along the gates as it was used to hosting Emirates' transit passengers. I expected the same in Doha since it was Qatar Airways's transit hub. Those seats were only available in 3 designated "quiet rooms". 1 is for family (male & female), 1 for male, and 1 for female only. Family quiet room is opposite C4 whereas the Men's and Women's Quiet Rooms are in Gate B area.
We managed to take a 2 and a half-hour nap in the family quiet room and woke up at 3:30am Doha time because it was already 8:30am in Singapore time.
It's now the last 45 mins of our 7-hour transit. Throughout the 7-hour we have browsed all the shops, browsed through some magazines in WHSmith, we ate 'breakfast' (Singapore time) at the food court, napped for 3 hour plus (including a quick nap outside the gate), watched 1 episode of Running Man on the iPad, and played Candy Crush.
After this experience, it is unlikely that I will endure another 7 hour transit here in Doha.
On to Greece!
Excellent service from start to finish. I heard great reviews about Qatar Airways before, but I felt it with above and beyond what I was expecting. It’ll be my first choice airline to fly with going forward.
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