Moving to Qatar

First you should decide how much are you willing to spend for rent and travelling. then you can think of options near or far from your office

LOL @Qatar Logistics to get ripped off.

You may please contact Mr. Bijith in our office ( QatarLogistics wll) tel: 30211052 / 44550991

happygolucky, gene_lv, juic3R, acchabaccha, Paj and erwin9776: thank you all so much for your considered responses. You have given me ideas about alternate locations I should be looking at, and I will be researching all those areas in more detail. I will be provided with around a month's stay by my company, so it should give me some time to have a look around in person. I will definitely share my experiences with the forum as I settle in. Thanks again...

Dilettante, if your office will be at West Bay, and you are looking for an area to live with reasonable monthly rent. Dont go for the places such downtown area of Doha such as, Bin Mahmoud, Al Sadd, Al Nasser. I would suggest you to find houses in area such as Madinat Khalifa South, Madinat Khalifa North, Garafa Area. Madinat Khalifa Areas are places nearest to West Bay areas where roads are having alternative to go when roads are being congested. Start getting familiar with Markiya and Al Jammiya roads that surely brings you to west bay areas with less traffic signals. And better to look for a lift with a monthly charges (probably 800-1200 per month/ 6 days a week/ pick an drop) that will assist you in bringing you to your workplace.

dilettante, the place i mentioned is a good place to leave & nearer to west bay n cheaper... a lot of my western colleague previously stayed in west bay apartments but some of them are now leaving that place due to high cost in rent... as for taxi, acchabaccha & juic3R are correct you can hire a private taxi going to your office n home at a reasonable price, we call them car lift, i use it b4 for a month...

If you want to avoid driving, there are plenty of taxi services available and you could make a contract with one. It will take you to your office and bring you back. For accommodation, you could may need to do some running around after you land here.

Hi Dilettante, My advice, after having recently gone through the process is to come over, stay in a hotel for the first month and see the places for yourself. The most available options for a reasonable price range is shared accommodation in west bay, which you will find relatively easily. Expatblog and Justlanded both have good systems for notifying you of new posts by people etc. and this would be my first port of call to actually save money and stay in a decent area close to work.

Alternatively, find an apartment further afield, but still good areas, such as suggested above and in areas like Al Soudan, around Aspire, there's quite a few of them. Just a warning though...you will find it very difficult to find a western standard 1 bedroom apartment for less than 8k (And that's if you're lucky!). The apartments I looked at were rubbish and in remote areas where I would have eventually gone insane, so seriously consider shared for the standard you will be used to.

Walking to work can be done, but yes, in the heat of summer, not advised. You can find a private taxi (like the one I use and many others I know) who will pick you up for a reasonable price to and from work every day.

Good luck mate!

Check with Prosafe Qatar

It would be very tough to walk in the scorching sun after a few months.

Thank you Thelonius, Paj for your feedback. Much appreciated.

@ Thelonius: My company provides a decent housing allowance but do not want the hassle of managing housing for staff in a geography where they have limited presence.

@Paj: Checking out those areas, and indeed they seem significantly cheaper. Trying to work out the numbers and get a sense of whether getting a taxi everyday is worth the effort, or just being able to walk to work is worth the extra rental cost.

try bin mahmood or bin omran which have easy access going to west bay... rents are 50% cheaper compare to west bay...