West Qatar Day Trip: Zekreet, Richard Serra's East-West/West-East, Film City & Sheikh Faisal Museum

Quick answer: A west Qatar day is either Discover Qatar’s private “Discover the Zekreet Peninsula” tour or a self-drive. Checked on 11 November 2026, that tour runs 13:00 to 19:00, about 6 hours, on Tuesday, plus Thursday from April. It collects you from major Doha hotels, stops at Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum after about 30 minutes, then drives about an hour to Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East in the Brouq nature reserve for sunset snacks. Museum entry, a sunset tea box, an air-conditioned vehicle, and a licensed English-speaking guide are included. Minimum two guests; one guest pays a single supplement. The booking module showed a total of QAR 644 beside the age form. Pay the live total. Qatar Museums does not publish a ticket or set hours for the sculpture. Zekreet Fort is temporarily closed.

Official Tour or Your Own Car

Discover Qatar’s overview is a private afternoon, not a daily shared bus. The published days are Tuesday, and Thursday as well from April. If your date is another day, the official tour is the wrong product unless the page has changed. Recheck it before you pay. General queries go to dqinfo@qatarairways.com.qa or +974 4144 5150.

What the overview says you get:

• Pickup and drop-off at major hotels inside Doha city limits.
• About 30 minutes by highway to Sheikh Faisal Museum, then about an hour from the museum to the sculpture.
• Entrance to the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum.
• Sunset at East-West/West-East with snacks, and a sunset tea box per person.
• An air-conditioned vehicle and a licensed English-speaking guide.

Travel insurance, and anything not in that list, is excluded. The booking form asks for every passenger’s age and labels a child band as 6–11. That is not, by itself, a full child-price rule. Read the conditions on the day. On 11 November 2026 the module displayed a total of QAR 644 before those ages were filled in. The page does not label that figure as per person. Enter the party and pay the checkout total. One traveller pays a single supplement because the minimum is two.

Dress on that page: cover knees, midriff, and shoulders, and wear comfortable shoes. The sculpture is outdoors. The museum is not a beach.

A self-drive uses the same places without the guide, the tea box, or the included museum ticket. Visit Qatar’s driving note for this coast, on the Brouq events page, is: Dukhan Highway to exit 72, onto Zekreet road, stay on Zekreet Road around the village, pass East-West/West-East on your left, turn left onto a compacted desert road, and continue past Film City toward Our Habitas Ras Abrouq. That page calls the resort about one hour from Doha and says the drive is by car. The last stretch is still a desert road. If it is soft or wet, turn around. Do not treat “by car” as a promise about every track after rain.

Sheikh Faisal Museum

Visit Qatar places the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum at Al Samriya Farm, 22 km west of Doha, just beyond Mall of Qatar. It is only reachable by car. The phone on that page is +974 4486 1444. The museum was established in 1998 and holds more than 15,000 items, including Islamic art, Qatari heritage, coins, a Syrian house rebuilt on site, more than 700 carpets, and more than 600 antique vehicles. The estate around it includes a date farm, a riding school, and an oryx reserve. Those are part of the estate description, not a promise that each one is on the public ticket.

Visit Qatar lists these hours all year. Confirm them if you are driving yourself, because a closed museum wastes the first hour of the day.

Day	Hours
Sunday	9:00am–4:00pm
Monday to Thursday	9:00am–4:30pm
Friday	2:00pm–7:00pm
Saturday	10:00am–6:00pm

The Visit Qatar page does not publish a ticket price. Discover Qatar’s Zekreet tour includes entrance, so guests on that tour are not buying a separate ticket at the door. Self-drive visitors should ask the desk or call the museum. Friday’s 2:00pm opening matches an afternoon tour better than a morning arrival. Sunday’s 4:00pm close matters if you are not on the tour and you reach Al Samriya late.

The official tour’s museum stop is the first hour out of Doha, inside a 13:00 pickup. On a Tuesday, or a Thursday from April, that arrives during the Monday-to-Thursday hours. The published tour days are not Friday, so the Friday 2:00pm opening is a self-drive constraint, not the tour’s clock. If you are driving yourself on Friday, do not arrive at the museum in the morning.

Richard Serra, East-West/West-East

Qatar Museums describes East-West/West-East as a sculpture in the Brouq nature reserve: four steel plates, each over 14 metres high, set over more than a kilometre. Serra aligned them to the shape of the land. The public-art page does not publish a ticket, a gate time, or a shuttle. The Zekreet Fort page calls the work a site worth visiting near the fort.

On the Discover Qatar tour you see it at sunset, with snacks, after the museum. On a self-drive you are using Visit Qatar’s route and parking yourself. There is no shade in that description. Take water. The plates are the artwork; do not climb them. Allow enough time to walk far enough to see more than one plate. The line is over a kilometre, so a five-minute photo stop is the short version.

Film City, and the Fort That Is Closed

Film City appears on Visit Qatar’s driving note as a place you pass on the compacted desert road after the sculpture, on the way toward Our Habitas Ras Abrouq. The same page mentioned events at Film City during a past Brouq season. Neither that page nor the Discover Qatar tour overview publishes ordinary opening hours for the sets. Treat Film City as a landmark on the road. Do not assume you can walk onto a set. If a gate is shut, that is the answer for the day.

Zekreet Fort and the nearby mosque are a Qatar Museums site, and the page says they are temporarily closed until further notice. The printed hours underneath that notice are Saturday to Thursday 9:00am to 5:00pm and Friday 12:30pm to 5:00pm. Follow the closure, not the clock, until the notice changes. The fort is not a reliable indoor stop on this day. The Serra work is the visit the fort page itself points to.

Do Not Plan the Day Around a Festival

Visit Qatar’s Brouq events page still shows 26 November 2025 to 10 February 2026, in Zekreet, with prices starting from QAR 30, and the line “Stay tuned for dates for the next edition.” As of 11 November 2026 that window has finished. No later edition is dated on that page. Do not build this day around a festival, a glamping ticket, or a concert until Visit Qatar publishes new dates. The sculpture, the museum, and the road are the plan without it.

How Long the Day Takes

The official tour is a fixed 6 hours, 13:00 to 19:00, with the drive times above. You are back in the evening. It is a poor fit if you need to be at the airport in the afternoon, and it does not run every day.

A self-drive is as long as you make it. Sheikh Faisal is 22 km west of Doha, so it can be a morning museum even when you are not going to Zekreet. The sculpture is the longer leg: the resort beyond it is described as about an hour from Doha, and the tour allows about an hour from the museum to the plates. Add time for the desert road and for walking the line. A full self-drive day is museum, then sculpture, then back before dark if you do not know the track. Friday museum entry starts at 2:00pm, so a Friday self-drive is an afternoon by the clock.

This is not a metro trip. Pair it with a city day from best things to do in Doha, or with the other long drive, the north Qatar day trip. They are different highways. Do not try to add Al Zubarah to this afternoon.

What to Confirm Before You Go

• The tour date. Tuesday, plus Thursday from April, unless the Discover Qatar page has changed.
• The live total after you enter ages, and the single supplement if you are one guest.
• Museum hours if you are driving yourself. Friday opens at 2:00pm. Sunday closes at 4:00pm. No fare is published on the Visit Qatar page.
• The desert road. Exit 72 and Zekreet Road are the published route. Turn back if the compacted section is soft.
• Zekreet Fort is still closed until Qatar Museums says otherwise.
• Film City is a landmark, not a ticketed visitor centre with published hours.
• No festival date. Use the Visit Qatar Brouq page, not a secondary listing.

Compare a West Day

The official product is the Discover Qatar page linked in the sources. Third-party west-coast tours, when they exist, have to name Zekreet or the sculpture. The Viator button below opens Doha tours on the partner link already used on this site. It is an affiliate link. Open a card only if the stops match this day. A GetYourGuide module further down searches for a Zekreet day. Hotel pickup on the official tour is part of that tour, not a separate hotel booking on this page.

FAQ: West Qatar Day Trip

How do I see Richard Serra’s East-West/West-East?

On Discover Qatar’s Zekreet Peninsula tour, Tuesday at 13:00 to 19:00, plus Thursday from April, or by car: Dukhan Highway, exit 72, Zekreet Road, then the sculpture on your left before the desert road. Qatar Museums does not publish a ticket or set hours for the work.

What is included in the official Zekreet tour?

Hotel pickup inside Doha, Sheikh Faisal Museum entrance, a sunset tea box, snacks at the sculpture, an air-conditioned vehicle, and a licensed English-speaking guide. It is private, with a minimum of two guests. Confirm the live total.

When is Sheikh Faisal Museum open?

Visit Qatar lists Sunday 9:00am to 4:00pm, Monday to Thursday 9:00am to 4:30pm, Friday 2:00pm to 7:00pm, and Saturday 10:00am to 6:00pm, all year. It is only reachable by car, 22 km west of Doha. The page does not publish a ticket price.

Can I visit Film City?

Visit Qatar places it on the desert road past the sculpture. No ordinary public hours are published on that driving note or on the Discover Qatar tour page. Do not assume the sets are open.

Is Zekreet Fort open?

No. Qatar Museums says Zekreet Fort and Mosque are temporarily closed until further notice. Use the Serra sculpture, which that page recommends nearby, and recheck the fort notice if you were counting on going inside.

Is a festival running at Zekreet?

Visit Qatar’s Brouq page lists 26 November 2025 to 10 February 2026 and says to stay tuned for the next edition. That window is over. Do not plan on a festival until that page publishes new dates.

Sources to Check Before You Go

• Discover Qatar, Zekreet Peninsula tour: https://www.discoverqatar.qa/discover-the-zekreet-peninsula/overview
• East-West/West-East, Qatar Museums: https://qm.org.qa/en/visit/public-art/richard-serra-east-west-west-east/
• Zekreet Fort closure, Qatar Museums: https://qm.org.qa/en/visit/heritage-sites/zekreet/
• Sheikh Faisal Museum hours, Visit Qatar: https://visitqatar.com/intl-en/things-to-do/art-culture/museums/sheikh-faisal-bin-qassim-al-thani
• Driving note and Brouq dates, Visit Qatar: https://visitqatar.com/intl-en/events-calendar/brouq