Oryx Rotana Doha, Qatar Review - Qatar Airways + QATAR Free Stopover

Qatar Airways from Adelaide to Helsinki Plus Free Stopover

With our Qatar Airways flight from Adelaide to Helsinki via Doha there was the option of adding in a free stopover at the time of booking and staying in a hotel in Doha.  Traveling with the kids means that frequent breaks are a must - there is just no 'pushing through'.  So I added in the stop over and free stay at the Oryx Rotana hotel, which I am so glad we did.

Doha Airport

After clearing customs in Doha airport (which was a mind-numbingly awful, long queue) we proceeded out to the airport entrance, and there were representatives from many of the hotels there, including the Oryx Rotana.  The shuttle bus for the Oryx Rotana leaves every 30 minutes, on the hour and half hour, day and night.

Oryx Rotana Hotel

The bus ride itself was only 15 minutes and was a great chance to see a bit of Doha.  The check in process was smooth, although there were no connected rooms still available.  I had tried to email the hotel to confirm our booking the week beforehand with no success, perhaps calling might be a better option in future.  We were allocated two rooms with a king sized bed in each, next to each other.

The kids had the best time exploring the hotel.  The outdoor pool was lovely and since it was Christmas time the hotel even had a store made entirely of gingerbread which completely blew the kids minds!!

Oryx Rotana Hotel Room Review

The rooms were quite roomy and comfortable.  Some of the pillows were a tad musty and needed to be aired, but otherwise it was a wonderfully comfortable, quiet room with excellent curtains and plenty of room.  The bathroom was particularly luxurious with a bench seat in the shower and rain shower head.

Fine Dining at  Oryx Rotana | many food selection

The hotel has a LOT of dining options.  I ordered a local mezze platter for the kids as room service for them to experience the local cuisine, which ended up being a very reasonable $29 AUD.

 

Choices buffet and Jazz club at Oryx Rotana

There were a lot of options for dinner in the hotel, even including a Jazz bar.  We ended up dinning at the Choices buffet for dinner, which worked out to being $130 AUD for two adults and two children (prices vary depending on the age of the children), and the dinner buffet was cheaper than the lunch one.

The buffet had a range of menu options including traditional meals from Qatar, Indian, and roasts.  There was even popcorn, which I have never seen at a hotel buffet before.

 There were simple desert options and soft drinks also included.

Adjoining the dining area there is some outside seating and a small outdoor toddlers play space.

For the return journey back to the airport our flight was leaving at 1:30 in the morning, so we planned on getting the 11pm shuttle to the airport.  With wrangling the two kids we managed to miss that one and got the 11:30pm shuttle instead.  The customs queues again were horrendous, and we got to the gate after it had started boarding but luckily before it closed.  So if planning on doing this stop over make sure you allow a good 2-3 hours to clear customs and security plus walk to the gate.  But despite loosing several hours in clearing customs both ways it was worth it for this.....