Who's going?! It would be great to have as many USMNT fans as possible in Qatar. Plenty of time to save!
Even if I could afford it (or get the time off work in the middle of the year), I am ethically opposed to giving any money to this world cup
I’m in 100%. Russia was top notch, so much fun, so festive and so fun. And being a neutral was weird but a bit of a relief...from a stress/anxiety perspective. Bring it on Qatar.
Quick trip, but wife and I saw France/Denmark in Moscow. Crap game but amazing Danish fans pregame outside of red square, and metro and stadium experience was great. 2 days in Moscow, 2 days in St. P, 2 days in Reykjavik on way home. Street scenes super late night in Moscow were so much fun, top memory for sure. Biking thru Gorky Park was cool and the Mariinsky and canals and food scene in St Petersburg, all great times. So glad we went and obviously too short of a stay.
Has Covid-19 changed anyone's situation? Reviving this thread after excitement from the past week. Who's still planning to go? Personally I always thought I was a no but I could be convinced otherwise. My FF miles really grew this past year, and saved a whole bunch in 2018 since we didn't qualify.
I'm holding out hope to be able to go. Lots of factors will come into this one compared to past WC especially due to lodging.
I've been to 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018... of coarse i'll be in Qatar! Covid hasn't changed any of my travel plans (other than the initial lockdowns last year). I personally can't wait until ticketing is announced. That's where the WC starts for me. Getting game tickets is as fun as some of the games. I went to 14 games in 2018; including both semis and the final. Can't wait!
Family and friends are planning to be there. Finding a place to stay may be the biggest obstacle for this WC.
I'll be there no matter what, and going to all the US games should the team qualify. The positives about this World Cup: 1. Compressed schedule. Don't need to stay as long as previous World Cups and can see more matches in a shorter amount of time. 2. All games in the same city. Intra-country travel logistics won't be a factor. You can attend any matches you want to. Especially nice for the Round of 16, where you only find out the pairings a few days before. 3. Easy availablity of tickets. My guess is at least 50% of these matches won't sell out. Any match not involving Brazil, Argentina, Qatar, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and a handful of others is likely to have tickets readily available. There's an extremely small local population, and there will be four matches per day all in the same city. Who's going to all those matches? It'd have to be traveling fans, but there won't be as many as other World Cups, due to all the negatives listed below. The negatives: 1. Limited accommodations. Qatar is only building half the hotels promised, but even so the hotels will be limited to corporate sponsors and the extremely wealthy. There's still talk of some desert "fan camps", but only for 10-20,000 people. A few cruise ships to cover another 10,000+. The Qatari government is now starting a program to pay residents to go on vacation and rent out their apartments for the month, which seems to be the most realistic option yet. But the scale of this program remains to be seen. Staying in neighboring countries and flying in for the day (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Turkey?) isn't feasible if you plan on going to more than a match or two. This is often a problem for Olympics hosts and tends to work out in the end. But I wouldn't say Doha is able to host an Olympics right now either. 2. Alcohol/party restrictions. Alcohol is only available at hotel/resort bars, where most normal people won't be staying. Will they allow non-guests to visit these bars? They plan to establish some Fan Zones which will serve alcohol, but those tend not to be great places to visit every day. This idea was tested with decent reviews for the Club World Cups they hosted. In any case, I can't see there being any sort of the street parties and public events that have made past World Cups memorable. Every single person attending this World Cup will be in the same city at the same time - where will these people hang out? 3. Expensive. Qatar is not the land of the $10 hostel, street food, and ladies selling $0.40 beers from their plastic coolers on the central square. Accommodation, transportation, food, alcohol all look to be more expensive than other locations.
3. Expensive. Qatar is not the land of the $10 hostel, street food, and ladies selling $0.40 beers from their plastic coolers on the central square. Accommodation, transportation, food, alcohol all look to be more expensive than other locations.[/QUOTE] On my flight back from Brazil in 2014 I said that if I ever drank a Brahma again it would be too soon. Your statement above leads me to believe that I misspoke. The scene in the main square in Manus after the Portugal match brings back found memories. Pretty much everything you mention above. Good times!
I think I had similar feelings about the Skol beer after a month in Brazil And yes indeed, Manaus is what I was picturing as I wrote that. Salvador too.
Has anyone actively pursued lodging yet or made somewhat of a plan for when the time comes? The headlines are intimidating! Hard to even guesstimate a budget for it at this point.
A little early for me. All the activity will start around late spring/summer. I'm staying the entire month.
From what I gather, FIFA has a hold on most/all of the hotels to first ensure that sponsors, teams, etc get the space. It is NOT anticipated that they will have anywhere near enough housing (shocked_face.gif) for the fans but basically they will be releasing lodging info at a later date. My guess is that it will be shortly after the draw on 4/1. Did some hunting though and here are a few things I'm seeing: Doha: Hotels: Currently none at all listed as available AirBnB: Looks like 9-10 are showing openings. All are 1 bed and maybe a couch if you are lucky. List prices are $1000 - $1500 per night Alternatives: I've been investigating fly in/out options and think Dubai "might" be best bet based upon initial price-outs. Current pricing for FlyDubai is ~$250 round trip per person but yeah, figure that will go up. Can get in there daily at around 9a and flies back out nightly around 8p so not great but not bad. Lodging in Dubai seems really good. Sample place includes 3 beds for ~$150 per night. On paper, if you have 2-3 people doing this, the Dubai idea may not be a bad one if pricing stays roughly the same. Yeah, you do lose some of the fun of actually being able to relax in the Doha and not being on a schedule. Incidentally as well, the final F1 race will be at Abu Dhabi the day before the beginning of the World Cup so that might be a very fun thing to do as well.
Supposedly Qatar is trying to centrally control all accommodation in the country, allowing booking only through their site (which is not yet online). This would include all hotels, apartments, villas, cruise ships, tents, etc. And supposedly they’ll be controlling the prices to allow some affordable options. If everything is $1000/night then no one will come.... This appears to be their test site. Not sure when it’ll go live for booking: https://book-ft.match-ag.com/book/en/ I have to think they’ll eventually also allow AirBnb, to streamline the process of people deciding later this year to rent out their homes.
Great update. Really appreciate it. Still, going to be a mad mad mad dash to get lodging when this is opened up. For sure, I am not booking anything before this opens but was just playing around with some options.
Im planning on staying in Dubai/Abu Dabi and driving in for the USA matches. Looks to be about a 6 hour drive
I haven’t looked into it recently, but I think tourists need a transit visa for the drive through Saudi Arabia. Something to consider.
The lodging issue comes up every 4 years and fans find a way. South Africa, and Brazil were a mess for hotels; Russia worse; but we figured it out. I'm a little concerned we don't have ticketing information yet. The ticketing guide should be out by now? (i'm asking/wondering) Hope they're not trying to limit stadium capacity; because that would destroy the tournament.
I found an article about how Accor hotels will be managing 60,000 airbnb-style places in Qatar for the WC. Seems like the strategy is not to build up hotel capacity just for the WC that will go unused afterwards, and instead build apartments that will later become regular housing. I still wonder about the atmosphere. It was great in Brazil and Russia where you could bar hop and stop in at various places to watch the game or just gather with fans. Will that be possible in Qatar? Are there streets in Doha like this, or we'll be stuck hopping from one chain restaurant to another in the local mall? According to this, there's literally only one liquor store in Qatar, and you need a special permit to be allowed to buy from there.