Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar’s two latest travel transit locations, the Grand Cruise Terminal and Hamad International Airport’s ORCHARD, have been listed among the Best New Ways to Travel this year by travel website and magazine, Condé Nast Traveler.
On the 27th edition of its Hot List, the magazine highlighted both places as some of the most notable transportation projects this year.
The magazine said Qatar’s art-filled Hamad International Airport is regularly voted among the world’s best by air travelers, and now passengers arriving by sea will be greeted in similar style at the just-launched Doha Grand Cruise Terminal.
Opened just before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the new Grand Cruise Terminal sprawls along the water’s edge near the city center and it can host two mega-ships simultaneously, with a capacity to welcome 12,000 passengers per day.
In a nod to traditional Arabian architecture, the magazine said, the building’s sand-colored façade features rows of repeated arches, creating dramatic contrasts of light and shadow. There’s an art gallery, a large open-air rooftop terrace, and, perhaps most thrillingly, an escalator for arriving passengers that passes through a vast aquarium before emerging into the bright Doha sunshine.
Farther afield, airports are creating large green spaces, only indoors—like the Orchard, a 60,000-square-foot atrium garden with 300 trees and 25,000 plants at the newly expanded Hamad International Airport in Qatar.