Outside of school, most staff socialise within the western
expatriate community, which most people find both active
and welcoming. Leisure opportunities include:
Sports Opportunities
Sports facilities are good, with many staff pursuing their
favourite sports or perhaps taking the opportunity to try
out something completely new. Some ideas are listed on the
right.
International Sports Events
Qatar has invested huge sums developing sporting infrastructure
and pursuading world-class international sports events to
come to Doha. The most ambitous was the Doha Asian Games
(December 2006), but this is only one of numerous examples
(see calendar at right).
Tickets to most of these events are either free or very
modestly priced. Being a small country, it is also possible
to become actively involved in the running of many of these
events through volunteer work.
Cultural Activities
There are limited professional cultural attractions that
would appeal to most westerners. There are a few local museums,
while a new museum of islamic arts is due for completion
in 2007 and promises to be a world-class attraction.
Dubai remains the regional centre for live performances
by international artists,and some staff do occasionally
travel down at weekends for specific events. However, tours
do occasionally pass through Doha and always prove popular
- recent examples include Cirque de Soleil, various operatic
companies, Cats etc.
There are also a number of 'home grown' cultural societies
that are run by the expatriate community - for example the
Natural History Group, Doha Players.
Leisure Facilities
A number of international hotels in Doha (RitzCarlton,
InterContinental, Sheraton, Marriott, Ramada etc.) offer
beach, swimming pool and other leisure facilities on an
annual membership basis.
Weekend visits to the beach, the sand dunes, cinemas and
fishing trips are also popular.
Evening Entertainment
Restaurants are plentiful and generally cheaper than the
U.K.. They cover the full range from 5 star hotels down
to cheap US-style fast food (MacDonalds, KFC, Subway, Pizza
Hut etc.)
The range of food matches the cosmopolitan nature of the
expatriate work force, so there are opportunities to try
Filipino, Korean, Indian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Nepalese,
Chinese and Iranian food (to name just a few) - as well
as traditional Gulf cuisine. With the exception of the 5
star hotels (see below), restaurants are not licenced. It
is possible to eat out, or have food delivered to your home,
at very reasonable prices.
Bars, licenced restaurants and nightclubs are restricted
to the 5 star hotels.
Travel
Many staff use periods of local leave to visit other parts
of the Gulf Region (Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Oman etc.)
or further afield to India and the Far East.
