We couldn’t find any good, definitive information about this before we went, so I’m here to tell you how it works — from personal experience! You know it can’t be all bad, since I’m not writing this from a Qatari prison. The Middle East is, of course, very strict on alcohol laws. So you won’t find trendy craft breweries in the souq, and can’t order a bottle of Burgundy with your dinner, even at western hotels. BUT if you’re just visiting for a short period, you can kiiiiiinda bring alcohol into Qatar. Or, rather, through it.
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SO, can you bring alcohol into Qatar?
Not really “into.” But if you’re visiting for less than 14 days and are travelling with some fancy booze you want to keep, you don’t have to throw it away.
You can declare it, leave it with customs, and pick it up again when you leave. A hassle? Sure. But worth it if you bought that single malt Scotch before you realized you wouldn’t be able to bring it with you.
I mean, you’re probably at the airport right now panic-Googling this.
Read more: How to Book the Qatar Stopover Program
Steps to follow to bring alcohol "into" Qatar
Here’s my little step by step guide after my first hand experience:
Our experience bringing alcohol into Qatar
We had three small bottles of Italian limoncello and Romanian cherry wine that we wanted to bring as gifts to our next destination. As part of the Qatar Airways stopover program, we booked 3 days in Doha on our way to Cape Town. It was on a bit of a whim, and we hadn’t thought everything through. Including whether we could share a hotel room as an unmarried couple, but that’s a story for another time. So we found ourselves with these little alcoholic gifts and did a bit of research which suggested we could declare them without getting in trouble.
It seemed pretty low risk, and good for the plot.
We packed our 3 small bottles (under 1L) all together in one of our checked bags. And because we weren’t totally sure when/where we’d have to declare, we were on high alert and ready to confess as soon as the time was right.
Only after going through immigration, juuuuust before leaving the airport, we found a customs guy and told him we had something to declare. TBPH, I think we probably could have just kept walking if we were like, alcoholics and ready to risk it all to sip a bit of limoncello in a country with an alcohol ban… but I *obviously* do not recommend that at all. I guess I just mean no one was there scanning or inspecting bags.
The guy we spoke to didn’t say much but brought us to a nearby office. He asked how long we’d be staying in Qatar (3 days) and asked for one of our passports.
He brought us to a little office a minute away, asked for one of our passports, and wanted to know how long we were staying in the country. Without asking for any proof (we were very ready to provide proof of various things), he filled out a form which didn’t actually seem to include much.
It had Chesney’s first name, nationality, and the date, but nothing like his actual passport number. He attached it to our bag of bottles and he gave us a copy to present when we were ready to pick them up again.
Everything was in Arabic and I probably shouldn’t have run it through Google translate because now I’ve hurt my own feelings?
Is this a roast?
And that was that! We left the airport, enjoyed our 3 days exploring Qatar, and claimed our bottles again on our way out.
Read more: My Detailed 3 to 4-Day Doha Itinerary
The customs pick-up office is near the kinda spooky yet iconic teddy bear statue in the departures area of the Hamad Int’l Airport. So we couldn’t pick up our stuff until after we’d checked in and gone through security. Our flight was early int he morning and the office was closed so we had to get some help from the info centre people to call the customs office, but it only took about 20 minutes.
The strange little room had no windows and absolutely reeked of smoke. It was just kind of eerily barren with a few lonely plastic bags spread across the floor-to-ceiling shelved walls. I guess they all contained miscellaneous bottles of random alcohol, like ours, which we then had to pack in our carry on, so make sure you leave space in your bag!
We weren’t treated like alcoholics or criminals, it cost us nothing, and the whole process was super efficient.
I wouldn’t bother doing this if you have a cheap leftover bottle you didn’t get to. But if you’re travelling with a gift or something more expensive then it’s totally worth it!
Read more: What to Do With 1 or 2 Days in Doha, Qatar