Landing in Doha after my 12-hour flight from Washington I was excited to check out the Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge. Before heading to the lounge I had to have my picture taken in front of the lamp bear, which was created by Swiss artist Urs Fischer. You really can’t miss the 23-foot tall teddy bear just after departures security and passport control. The bear is valued at almost $7 million dollars and is worth checking out.

The first thing that I noticed about the lounge was the size, it’s huge! When I entered at 10pm the lounge was empty, but began to fill up around midnight, which was strange to see. There’s lots of late night departures from Doha and it seemed everyone was well adjusted to heading to the airport in the wee hours of the morning.

The lounge features modern design elements and plenty of seating. All of the seating is spaced out nicely so even when the lounge is at capacity it doesn’t feel crowded.

The lounge takes up 2 floors and had a massive pond in the middle. I couldn’t help but wonder why they needed a pond the size of a large swimming pool

There’s a rather large dining area. A waiter approached me as soon as I sat down to take my order, but I declined as I had just had dinner with friends in Doha. There’s a staffed bar, which I didn’t get a photo of. The alcohol selection was surprisingly poor. For example they had Gordon’s gin, which retails for $20 a bottle.

They had several coffee stations around the lounge, which brewed nice espresso. I indulged in several espressos to stay up for my 2am flight to Male. There was also a variety of sodas and water; however, there wasn’t any diet soda available.

After finding a comfortable place to sit I spent several hours reading before my flight. A lounge attendant frequently came to check-in and ask if he could get anything for me. I requested a glass of champagne, which was he returned with quickly.

The lounge is excellent and it’s worth building a few hours into your itinerary to check it out.