Perfect score for this cool hotel in a hot destination

Check-in

I’m a little dazed from half a day in the clouds travelling from Australia when I arrive in Qatar. The capital, Doha, is curiously deserted. Once my desert fog lifts, I realise I’ve arrived here early on a Friday, the day of prayer, and the people of this Muslim metropolis are confined to quarters. This being a lightning stopover en route to Europe, I’m glad to gain some enforced rest afforded by this time of the Islamic week. I’m staying at the superbly comfortable and strikingly designed Mandarin Oriental Doha and I have until at 2pm, when Doha rouses back to life, to work off some jet lag.

The look

The Mandarin Oriental Doha hotel overlooks the spectacular Barahat Msheireb covered town square.

The 24-storey Mandarin Oriental Doha – the brand’s second Middle East outing, opening shortly after Dubai in February 2019 – is set in the Msheireb Downtown “lifestyle and cultural” precinct, a lavish urban renewal project. This spotless, some may argue somewhat severe, ultra-modern district has been so meticulously planned, replete with human scale building heights and pedestrian-friendly avenues, that it makes Canberra seem totally organic. The aesthetics of the hotel, with its 117 rooms, 41 suites and 91 serviced apartments, seamlessly combines contemporary western design with Qatar’s own traditional heritage values.

The room

One of the spacious and luxurious guest rooms at the Mandarin Oriental Doha, Qatar hotel.

My elegant and extravagantly appointed (think every conceivable mod-con, and then some, including a sumptuous marble bathroom) Club Deluxe Studio king bed suite, weighs in at a whopping 72 square metres with the hotel’s least expensive, though still rather pricey boltholes, at a still generous 45 square metres. My upper level suite, with its cooling palette of creams, greys and soft blues, is teamed with an uninterrupted view of Msheireb Downtown’s spectacular Barahat Msheireb covered town square with its climate-controlled roof.

Food + drink

A dish at Liang, the upscale Cantonese restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Doha, Qatar, hotel.

Barahat Msheireb is ringed by nearly a dozen shaded restaurants and boutiques as well as the Mandarin Oriental and the precinct’s Cultural Forum complex. Among the hotel’s nine dining establishments, both inside and outside, is the showpiece Liang. It’s one of the few upscale Cantonese restaurants in a city where Chinese cuisine surprisingly remains something of a rarity. Located off the town square, Liang’s skilful and beautifully presented Chinese dishes veer from the traditional to the contemporary. For Middle Eastern fare, in the cooler hours of dusk, take the free driverless Msheireb Downtown air-conditioned tram to the nearby Souq Waqif, built on the site of Doha’s century old trading market.

Out + about

The display of sweets at the Qinwan date cafe in Doha.

My stay includes a visit to a nearby date restaurant. No, not that kind of date restaurant – this is the Middle East, after all – but one themed on the fruit cultivated from the eponymous palm. A visit to Qinwan date cafe, a short walk from the hotel, is among a number of curated experiences offered by the hotel. Here, in the company of everyday Qataris, you can sample Qinwan’s range of exquisite sweet creations including chocolate-dipped dates, date-flavoured biscuits and date-inspired ice-creamery, all served with Arabic coffee poured from exotically shaped, thinly spouted pots. Further afield, other cool, in every sense of the word, indoor options include visits to one or more of Doha’s prestigious cultural institutions including the Museum of Islamic Art and the National Museum of Qatar.

The verdict

While Doha’s admittedly searing summer tends to deter travellers who favour the forgiving December to February period, there’s more than enough to do in the cool of the city’s myriad indoors, including at this magnificent Mandarin Oriental outpost, to justify a memorable one or two night stopover splurge.

Essentials

Rooms from $540 a night. Mandarin Oriental Doha, Barahat Msheireb St, Doha, Qatar. Ph: [phone]. See mandarinoriental.com viking.com.au

Our rating out of five

★★★★★

Highlight

The sophisticated design of the Msheireb Downtown district, as well as the Mandarin Oriental, inspires.

Lowlight

Despite the heat, albeit of the dry desert variety, a two-night stay, rather than a whirlwind one, would have been preferable.

The writer was a guest of Mandarin Oriental Doha and travelled courtesy of Viking Cruises.