Private Tour in Northern Qatar

It was a very interesting tour, our guide Sohaib described a lot - about history, geology, industry. We tasted really good tea and had a great time at the northern tour.

Great excursion. Well worth doing. Friendly guide Ali kept us well informed about picking us up. Enjoyed tea, fish market was interesting. Reserve was nice to walk along. Saw birds and crab. Enjoyed the fort. Liked getting free time to look round and Ali taking photos of us. Village pleasant to look round and beach was nice. Enjoyed listening to music in car. Great value too.

This tour is NOTHING at all what the Viator website says. We were picked up 45 minutes late. When trying to contact Viator for help their only advice was to cancel the tour. When we refused to cancel the 24 hour help line people stopped communicating with us. As for the tour we were not even taken to Al Khor at all. When asked about it, the guide said he drove past it. Taken to Purple Island where there was absolutely nothing to see. We did see one heron but nothing else. Then onto the fort which was VERY unimpressive and hard to believe that it's a UNESCO site since we've been to many over the years. As for Al Jumail, the guide wasn't going to take us and we insisted. When we arrived it was all shambles, old fallen down, no one around the entire place, not even workers. Absolutely no culture, not a single boat, no village...nothing. This wasn't a tour. It was a complete sham and Viator should be ashamed of what con artist they are for selling this as a tour. We have another Viator tour scheduled for tomorrow and hopefully it will be 100% better and with a guide who truly speaks English and not just a few words of English. We can not stress this enough...DO NOT waste your money on this tour. For someone who has traveled to 55 counties, this was literally the worst I've ever experienced.

Zohaib was very polite and fantastic guide and explained us every to A to Z. The history of the fort was really interesting. Recommended for everybody.

This tour had so much potential … but I don’t feel as though it was quite the experience I was seeking :( I was expecting a 9am pick-up — by the time I was retiring to bed the night before the tour, the guide messaged me to say he’d pick me up at 7am. Quite a difference! But no biggie, I’m a morning person! Alas, my guide (Zohaib) was a smoker and a knuckle-cracker — two things that really irk me (others might be okay with this!). But he was chatty and asked good questions … at first. Then there was an awful lot of silence for most of the long drive and I had to do all the talking… He was also texting whilst driving and speeding (for example, 120 in a 50 zone) and as such I didn’t feel 100% safe in the car. His average speed was around 160 … and whilst that does appear to be how the locals drive in general, it didn’t make me feel any safer. He commented at one point, “that’s what we do in Arab countries”. Our first stop (8am) was at Bin Ghannam Island, where I had 20 minutes (not the 45 minutes advertised) to wander on my own. I would have preferred the guide come with me. At 9am we had our next stop (45 minutes) and again the guide didn’t come intonthe complex with me — in fact, for the entire tour he basically told me I had x amount of time to explore on my own … I had to keep asking him, so can you please tell me more about this place? It was a struggle bus to try and get information out of him. He seemed more interested in playing on his phone than helping me learn more about his country. …so really he was a driver, not a guide at all. I saw another foreigner on a separate private tour and their guide appeared to be far more involved. I asked for more information about visiting the archaeological site in the north, but Zohaib was very strict that “this is a 4-hour tour and it can’t be customized”. Whilst super peaceful at our final stop (Al Jumail), it definitely felt as though they were building a resort there, and I had stumbled into not an ancient world, but rather a construction site for the rich and wealthy. I asked for water (it was indicated to be included in the tour), but Zohaib said, “I only brought 2 … and I just finished them both.” WTH? He did offer to buy me some, but the next possible place selling water was a solid 30 mins away…. Disappointing all round.

Nice tour of North West Qatar. Zohaib was very helpful to my 95 year old mother, helping her in and out of the car and finding curbs to park next to so she could get in and out easier. We had great conversation about different aspects of Qatari history and life. Very nice tour

From start to finish this experience was terrific. We didn’t have to pay an extra charge to be collected from our hotel, Zohaib was there and took us north in his very comfortable Lexus. He was informative, knew the history well. When we visited the various sites, we could connect what we saw with what we knew already, and what Zohaib taught us. The sites were incredible. The onafur elissan sculpture looked like nothing much from afar… but wow! What a great installation! It was so very hot and the archeological sites themselves were closed for the summer months but the UNESCO recognised Fort’s reconstruction was helpful to understand the history being revealed through the archeological work. The reconstruction of the Fort is indicative of what the Qatari Government is doing to give us a glimpse into the country’s past. The government is working to preserve its history, even its colonial history. Highly recommend this tour. Thank you Zohaib.

The manager and driver, Zohaib, who were available at the time of booking, were both kind and courteous. It was a private tour with a Land Cruiser, so we could see it at our own pace. The fact that it's a private tour is a huge advantage, despite the fact that it costs the same as other shared tours. Managers and drivers can be contacted via WhatsApp for peace of mind. I liked this zohaib so much that I signed up for a night safari the next day.

Zohaib was a very knowledgeable escort, who has good knowledge of his country — its history and the present. Through our discussion together, I was able to absorb a lot of information not only about Qatar but also the region.

It was a very good tour, we’ve learn a lot about Qatar’s history! We took many pictures of the different places we’ve visited.