To East Africa via a stopover in Doha, Qatar

Published: September 10, 2023

capital cities | city guides | doha | nairobi

The beginning of August 2023 marked six full years of nomadic life for us. For the past more than three years, we’ve been traveling in our home continent Europe (except for a road trip in Turkey), so we decided to celebrate this anniversary by finally heading to new countries and more tropical environment. The theme for autumn 2023 is Africa, where our first destination is Kenya. So for the next months we will be combining work and traveling in East Africa! We traveled to Nairobi with Qatar Airways, making a stopover in Doha, that was boiling hot in August. In this post a short introduction of Doha and first feelings of Kenya!

Two days stopover in Doha

Qatar Airways is one of the world’s largest and most highly regarded airlines, with more than 140 operating locations around the world. The airline’s home base is Doha, the capital city of Qatar, where the company offers its passengers inexpensive, one to four nights stopovers. The stopover packages include accommodation in very nice, even luxurious partner hotels, at a remarkably affordable price (starting from USD 14 per person per night). Finnish airline Finnair has been operating in cooperation with Qatar Airways since the fall of 2022, and there are daily flights from Helsinki to Doha. While planning the route to Kenya, we quickly decided to fly with Qatar Airways and to make a two-night stopover in Doha. At the time of booking all this, we didn’t stop to think that the weather in Qatar is extremely hot and humid in August, meaning day time temperatures around or over 40 C. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the short trip to Doha, and most probably will utilize the stopover packages again some day!

Luxurious stopover accommodation in Hilton

Out of numerous options, we chose Embassy Suites Hilton Doha Old Town as our accommodation, mainly based on its location. We were especially interested to see the historical parts of the city including Souq Waqif, that is a short walk from the hotel. Embassy Suites Hilton Doha Old Town* turned out to be a quite cool and new hotel, and when we checked in, we even got an upgrade to a two-room suite! The hotel also has a really nice roof terrace with a swimming pool and superb views!

Walking tour around Souq Waqif

Our main destination in Doha was Souq Waqif, a market place founded more than a hundred years ago, and the heart of the old town. Souq Waqif used to be an international market, where Bedouins and locals traded goods. The boat connection to the souq was later cut off during the construction of the coastal road, but the area still functions as a market place. In addition to shopping and dining, the souq is a wonderful place for admiring the traditional construction style, as well as for simply marveling the huge selection of products on sale. The history of Souq Waqif includes a period of recession in the 90s, when trading moved to more modern premises, like shopping centers, and in 2003 almost the entire area was badly damaged in a fire. In 2006, the Qatari government decided on a reconstruction project that restored the traditional market area.

Souq Waqif consists of several different parts and includes for example an art center, horse stables, a cinema and numerous restaurants and cafes. Those in to shopping can find for example clothes, accessories, jewelry, handicrafts, spices or decorative items to take home with them. It’s also possible to buy pets like parrots and other small birds, or even hunting hawks. The department of animal stores is a quite sad place though, with pets locked in small, hot cages.

One of our favorite parts of the Souq was the Camel Pen, a camel farm with dozens of these handsome creatures. The camels seemed to be well taken care of, and were focused on eating, not caring about us tourists snapping photos of them. Besides the fact that the camels themselves are quite photogenic fellows, so is the location of them so close to the coastline that you can picture them with Doha skyline on the other side of the bay in the background.

At the end of our walking tour, we headed to Doha’s Corniche Promenade. This seven kilometers long coastal promenade follows the shore of Doha Bay from the skyscrapers of modern Doha to the old city. The Corniche is one of Doha’s most significant tourist destinations, and also a popular hangout area for locals. There are parks, restaurants and museums along the promenade, and the views are excellent. In Old Doha, there are numerous traditional boats by the promenade, and a boat tour undoubtedly is a great way to admire the colors of the sunset and Doha skyline.

Nomadic life in Nairobi, Kenya

From Doha, we continued our journey to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. With more than four and a half million inhabitants, Nairobi is a vibrant, busy and occasionally chaotic metropolis, that consists of several different districts. We chose Nairobi as our base in Kenya primarily for work-related reasons, but Nairobi is also really fascinating from a tourism point of view, and it’s easy to travel to other parts of Kenya from here. We settled down in the centrally located Kilimani district, in a 14th floor apartment* by the busy Ngong Road.

Kilimani area can be counted as an upscale district, but with a lot of local residents, not just expats. We really like the area, and won’t get tired of the view from our balcony! With one glance we can see the city center skyline, a big golf course and also the gigantic Kibera slum area looming behind it. Income and class differences are indeed visible, and the gap between the poorest and richest people is huge in Nairobi. Settling in Nairobi has been quite easy – the city is an international business hub with a very mixed population and expats from around the world. We’ve felt very welcome, and staying for a longer time is a great opportunity to explore the city more deeply.

Our every day life in Nairobi so far has included a lot of long days behind computers – a “normal day” of our nomadic life includes roughly 6 to 10 hours of working or blogging, and after work we go to the gym or run on treadmill or outside. We have a decent kitchen in the apartment, so most of the days we cook ourselves. The restaurant scene in Nairobi is incredibly good though, so we also go out for a dinner at times. There are also excellent pubs, and even local craft beer!

On the weekends, we try to break away from everyday life, making short trips to other parts of Kenya. There definitely are plenty of interesting destinations in the country, including several wonderful national parks with amazing wildlife!

More about our excursions and safari tours will follow in the next posts!

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