After 10 days on the road in Africa, I’ve made it back to NYC! The travel show in Cape Town was amazing and I met up with quite a few interesting lodging and camp owners from across Africa (& also from the Indian Ocean islands). For the trip home, however, I took a bit of detour that turned out to be very interesting.
I flew from Cape Town on Qatar Airways on an inexpensive business-class ticket (relatively speaking). When I booked the ticket, I learned that since my layover in the capitol of Doha was longer than 8 hours, but less than 24, the airline would give me a free hotel night (which they also offer if you’re traveling in economy)!
For my 24 hours in Doha, I was able to visit the Museum of Islamic Art, which is one of the most interesting museums in the world. Honestly, Islamic art was never really much on my radar, but building and its collection blew me away. The other interesting site in Doha that I really enjoyed was the Souq Waqif bazaar. I had dinner there Saturday night (hummus, of course), and while the bazaar was tame compared to other bazaars in the Middle East, it was great shopping and seemingly authentic.
My 24 hours in Doha turned out to be a great way to break up the trip, and I also accrued a lot of AAdvantage miles along the way. The service on Qatar Airways was world class, and the stopover was the perfect escape. Oh, and they offering 2-for-1 Business Class until May 17th!
So the next time you fly to Africa or other points east, you ought to consider the Qatari stopover!