I had some spare time this morning so I decided to go down to Wakra to see the new Heritage Village. I recall a newspaper article saying it was having a soft opening. That's putting it mildly, I'd say 90+% is still under construction.
The Village has a decent-sized parking lot but I wonder if it'll be enough if the place becomes really popular. Booths are in place so eventually they will charge for parking.
Near the parking lot a building containing numerous fishmongers was open.
Trying to get down to the Corniche was a bit of a challenge as there was still a lot of construction. Like Souq Waqif the place is a bit of a labyrinth so you have to walk a bit to get down to the water. My advice for now is to park in the southern sections of the parking lot as that will be closer to the entrance to the Corniche.
As for the Corniche it was really nice. Long, spacious, a little bit of beach, and lined with what will be shops and cafés. Only a few shops were open right now but I can see how it will be really nice once it's all open. I wish the Doha Corniche was like this.
So, overall impressions:
1) it’s bigger than I expected, roughly the same size as Souq Waqif;
2) the buildings are similar to Souq Waqif, done in a traditional Qatari style;
3) it will be many months before the area is complete; but
4) the Corniche looks really nice and there's already a couple of cafés and shops open there
Once it's done I think it will become the main place in Wakra to go to in the evenings. I can see the potential and it should be a great place. It's also nice to see Wakra have something that tourists will like.
If the traffic is not bad then feel free to check it out but don’t expect a lot to be open for another couple of months.
2 comments:
wohoo - didnt know this existed , will surely check on this ..have you checked the alwakrah yard , may be you could check and write a post could help people a lot :)
No I haven't been to the farmers market yet, nor the other ones in Doha. Wakra is a bit of a pain for me to get out to, I only went because I had nothing happening that morning and I figured the traffic would be okay.
Maybe I will check out one of the markets sometime in January.
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