Synopsis
Qatar Travel Guide
A clear, practical guide to a compact country that rewards curiosity. Written by a long-time Gulf resident, this book gives you routes, timings and cultural context - so a 2026 visit can be planned.
Plan with confidence
Itineraries that fit real trips: 24-hour stopover, 48-hour city break, and 4–7 day routes linking Doha with the west coast and desert.
Arrivals made easy: Hamad International > city; Doha Metro (Red/Green/Gold), taxis and ride-hailing; car-rental advice for day trips.
Places that matter: Souq Waqif and the Corniche; Museum of Islamic Art and the National Museum; Msheireb Downtown, West Bay and Lusail; Katara and The Pearl; Zekreet’s wind-carved mesas and the Inland Sea at Khor Al Adaid; Al Zubarah (UNESCO) and ghost villages; kayaking the Al Thakhira mangroves (Avicennia marina).
Culture & conduct: photography and dress guidance, coffee etiquette, Friday rhythm, practical safety and costs.
On-the-ground detail: neighbourhood notes, day-trip timings, booking pointers, and honest expectations.
Who it’s for
Independent travellers, stopover planners and small groups who want Qatar’s essentials - museums, markets, - from the steel of West Bay to the silence of the Inland Sea - to slot neatly into limited time.
Edition details
356 pages, maps, location-specific B&W photographs.
About the Author
Tony Walsh spent over thirty years living and working in the Arabian Peninsula, becoming one of the few travel writers to have written about the region after having lived there. From 1986 to 2016, he lived & worked in Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, travelling extensively to Yemen, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. He speaks, reads, and writes Arabic, and his books are the result of extended residences rather than short stays.Before turning to writing, Tony built and ran businesses in both Britain and Arabia. In the United Kingdom, he was General Manager with a private retail company, Gordon Scott, whose flagship store was on London's New Bond Street, a couple of shops down from Sotheby's. In Arabia he managed BHS franchise department stores in Saudi Arabia, created his own concept stores in Oman and operated the Disney retail franchise there. He has handled everything from full shop fits, staff management to stock buying and logistics, importing goods directly from manufacturers in full-container loads and by air freight-experience that grounded him in the everyday realities of Gulf commerce and city life.That commercial career evolved naturally into tourism. Tony founded an inbound tour company specialising in up-market cultural journeys in Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Yemen, and he has led many bespoke itineraries for discerning travellers and corporate groups. He has also served as a lecturer on board small expedition ships in Arabian waters, delivering on-board talks during voyages of up to two weeks between ports such as Doha and Salalah, often calling at harbours the big cruise liners ignore. When tourism collapsed after 11 September 2001, he drew on the same regional knowledge to deliver a series of construction contracts for the United States Air Force at its bases on Masirah Island and Seeb North (Muscat), before returning to high-end inbound tourism as the sector recovered.Tony's expertise has been recognised within the region itself. Oman's Ministry of Tourism commissioned him to write eleven regional booklets, produced separately in both English and Arabic, and fully funded his coffee-table book on Oman's UNESCO World Heritage Sites, illustrated with his own photography. He has written for in-flight magazines and regional newspapers, as well as producing specialist material for international readers interested in Oman and Arabia.Since 2016 Tony has focused on distilling three decades of first-hand experience into books, advisory work and occasional specialist tours. His writing aims to explain Oman and the wider Arab world as they are-complex, compelling and changing-combining historical context, political background and close observation of daily life. Above all, he writes as someone who has lived the region rather than simply passed through it.
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