I understand that in Marrakesh unmarried couples are not allowed to stay together unless they are foreign nationals. This is all well and good since both of us are US citizens. The issue is I have heard they can sometimes apply this to all Muslims and that local informants will call authorities on anyone they think is Muslim.

The issue is that even though I am not Muslim, I am Indian and I do often get confused for someone from an Arabic country. Girlfriend is also Indian and she may also get confused for a Muslim girl, though more unlikely than me. We are only in morocco for 3 days and I don't want to run into any issues that will eat into our limited time like explaining ourselves to authorities for hours even if we don't get arrested etc. .

We spent one week in this amazing Country (absolutely worth to visit!). Just 1 day in Muscat (nice city) and the rest of the time mountains (Jabal Shams), desert (Wahiba Sands and Sugar Dunes) and sea (Daymaniat Islands and Ras Al Jinz).
My suggestion is to have a good driver (the best drivers are bedouin). If the guide is not Omani, don't waste your money hiring a guide. Many tour operators propose foreign guides, but most of the times they do not speak arabic, they don't know the local habits and culture (which is one of the most interesting aspect of a trip in Oman) and they just give you poor information (it happened to us with Old Muscat Tourism and also to some of our friends with other tour operators). An Omani driver can share with you much more knowledge than any foreign guide.

Hello. Will be flying to Morocco via Seattle in Early October for 10-12 days. Hoping to get some advice on the best way to get there (i.e. fly into a european city and take a budget flight to Morocco) or fly in and out of the same city in Morocco. Looking to minimize costs, travel times, and train/bus/car times once there. Open to any ideas on the best route to see seaside/city/desert tour of the best of Morocco. Thanks!

A month ago my husband and I spent 3 and a half days in Qatar coming from Oman.
We flew from Salalah to Doha on Qatar Airways (€125). Salam Air via Muscat was cheaper but I didn’t want to risk any delays. The flight was half empty and the service excellent.
Exchange offices at the airport charge commission. US$ bills can't be exchanged .
Buses #109 (every 30´) and #747 (every 20´) go to Al Ghanim bus station while #777 (every 20´) goes to Corniche and The Pearl.
At the airport bus stop (and also at Al Ghanim bus station) you can buy either a two trip Smartcard (QR10) valid for 24h or an unlimited Smartcard (QR20) also valid for 24h. If you don’t plan to make long trips (eg to Al Zubara (20 rials), Al Khor (7 rials)) for which you definitely need the unlimited 24h Smartcard, you could travel with a Smartcard that costs QR30, has QR20 credit on it and can be recharged. You validate the card entering the bus and also when you get off. This way each journey is substracted from the credit you have. I think this card is more useful for a longer stay and around town.

Day 1
We arrived in Doha very early in the afternoon and waited a long time to go through immigration. I thought I was being smart when I moved to a very short queue for the crew. It turned out each one who was on wheelchair (just old people who knew how to skip the line) and their family went ahead of us. And many other people who had some kind of excuse. Do I need to say that if we had stayed in the first line we would have gone through much earlier? Staying too long in line is common as only few of the many desks are manned. We stayed at Al Najada Hotel Doha by Tivoli. It is not a boutique hotel inside the souq but a big new hotel (opened last August) just outside of it. I had booked it online through a third party more than a month in advance and got a special rate for early birds (€60). I can’t recommend it highly enough. Big room, lots of amenities, even a nespresso machine (doesn't it matter that I don't care for coffee). We didn’t use the gym or the swimming pool (regulated temperature). But breakfast was outstanding and varied. Among the cold items you could find smoked salmon and palmito! Did I mention it’s only 3 min away from the bus station? Please don’t tell me you don’t care because you’ll hire a car.
We spent the rest of the day in the souq and explored every nook and cranny of it. As it was a Friday afternoon it was too busy, which was great for people watching. After 8 pm there was a band at the Al Terrace restaurant of Al Mirqab Boutique Hotel and a pianist at the Patisserie of Al Bidda Boutique Hotel.
There were many casual restaurants for kebabs with lots of patrons. You shouldn’t miss the kunafeh at the Aker sweets, near the police station (QR15 for a small plate but very filling). You can sit in or take out.

Day 2
We started with the amazing MIA where we spent at least 3 hours. Yeah, we are museum freaks. On the ground floor there was an exhibition “Syria matters”.
Only if you had reservation you could go to IDAM restaurant. I checked later that the lunch menu costs QR200 and includes 3 starters, a main dish and two desserts.
Going around the museum you can see Richard Serra’s “7” and the skyscrapers of West Bay. At night you can enjoy them even better as the lit skyscrapers are changing colors.
The Qatar National Museum is scheduled to open on March 28. We sneaked in the grounds while the workers were taking a nap nearby. We loved the architecture and took some nice pictures before we got kicked out.
Bus #76 goes from the bus station to West Bay. From there take bus #777 to The Pearl. We wanted to go to Katara but we thought we could do it on the way back. The bus driver told us he doesn’t stop at Katara and dropped us off at the Laguna Mall. Go straight, he told us. We went straight among construction work towards the Diplomatic Club. From where there was no access to Katara. We begged some workers leaving the site to take us to the main road but it turned out you can’t cross the Lusail Expy to go to Katara. So if you want to visit Katara by bus go there first and then take the same bus to The Pearl. We were dropped off at West Bay and walked around. The only mall we visited was Gate Mall only to get shelter from the rain.
Dhows to MIA charged between QR60 and QR100. We walked in the Corniche before taking the bus back to souq.

Day 3
From Al Ghanim bus station bus #104 (hourly on the half hour) and bus #104A (on the hour) go to Dukhan. An hour later they stop near the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani museum. If you start early and go first to Dukhan try to get bus #104 on the return trip as it takes 1.15 hours to reach the bus stop for the museum while bus #104A takes a different route and 1.45 hours.
After Al Shahaniyah with the camel race track you can only see desert.
In Dukhan, the place where oil was first discovered and all people work for the Qatar Oil, we got a ride to/from the beach as we didn’t have time to walk 5 km.
We didn’t want to listen to people who said the East-West / West-East installation of four steel plates by Richard Serra was far. We got off the bus at the Cuban Hospital where we had seen the road sign. Luckily a local leaving the hospital took us there otherwise we wouldn’t have made it as it was around 17 km away most of them off road. The guy was so happy he gave us a ride that he called his mother and asked me to talk to her.
Arriving after all this trouble at the site and seeing one of those plates full of graffiti from nearby and the others from afar (we wouldn’t dare ask him to take us there) was at least underwhelming. We stopped near Bir Zekreet beach for our driver to pray in the mosque.
Too many camels on the route the bus #104A takes. It’s 15-20´ walk from the bus stop to Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani museum. Entrance is QR45; residents pay QR30. We had only 2 hours to see the museum which was very little despite the museum staff saying otherwise. At the end we were seeing the car collection (and not only) almost running. Nearby is an Oryx Farm and the new Riding School building.
Our plan was to go to the bus stop, take the bus to Al Rayyan and from there another bus (which one?) to Education City, to visit the Arabian Museum of Contemporary Art.
We were told that a minivan carrying the museum staff goes there as soon as they are ready (sometimes visitors leave later than closing time). So check it out if you are planning on going there.
We got a ride with a museum staff who took us to Mathaf. The complimentary bus from MIA doesn’t run any more. We were unlucky as three exhibitions closed the day before our visit and we only saw the permanent collection.
Since there is construction work around it’s not easy to get a bus to/from Mathaf. When we finished we got another ride with a museum staff who took us to West Bay. On the way we got a glimpse of Damien Hirst’s 14 sculptures (“The Miraculous Journey”) outside Sidra Medicine Hospital.
Then bus #777 to The Pearl to see it by night.

I am travelling again to India, always travelling the west and mid India. I feel I need to visit Kalkotta and the north. Travelling in jan/feb.
Would appreciate comments on where to go and how north. I visited Ladakh last year. An amazing trip.
I am backpacking alone as always, but can’t trek as am 77. All advice/comments greatly appreciated.