Majlis and Dinner Experience - Great experience to learn the intricacies of Qatar and its culture. Very informed hosts. Learnt about attire, habitat, forms of income, food, coffee and the majlis environment. Definitely recommend for newcomers and older inhabitants of Qatar.

Must-do first experience in Doha! - We actually had three separate sessions with Embrace Doha (one tour, one experience and one workshop) based on a recommendation from an ex-pat’s personal experience with the company. We booked our activities following several email exchanges to explain our interests. We received prompt responses with recommendations to fine-tune our choices and select convenient times to complement other plans. We started our first day with a Souq Waqif tour which included stops in numerous shops to learn about the falcons, perfumes, spices, foods, clothing and local products (pearls, baskets and more). The Souq can be overwhelming but Saima gave us a wonderful overview, including bargaining guidance, which gave us confidence to return and explore on our own. Her best advice - it is ok to get lost in the Souq! The next day we traveled to the cultural center for the cultural experience including the coffee ceremony was an absolutely amazing.orientation to the Qatari culture. We started with a coffee ceremony and learned about the importance of this tradition to welcome a guest to a Qatari home. We enjoyed absolutely delicious coffee and dates during this part of the experience. We then had the opportunity to dress in traditional Qatari attire and learned how to identity traditional Qatari clothing and the different ways of greeting someone and the meaning of each subtle difference. Perhaps the highlight of the session was enjoying a traditional Qatari meal with the numerous dishes explained to us in detail followed by wonderful conversations with Shaima, Maryam and the rest of the team. Their perspective and their patience answering our many questions was incredibly helpful and made our visits to both the National Museum of Qatar and MIA more meaningful. The entire team is so passionate about sharing Qatari culture. While we arrived as strangers, we left feeling as though we had made lifelong friends. The cultural center also has a lovely shop with high-quality items including baskets, pillow covers , notebooks, bags and many other items mainly from small or women-owned businesses which you can visit even if you are not taking a class. As a side note, if you are interested in dune bashing we booked our tour in the afternoon following this session and were picked up from the cultural center which was very convenient. Finally, at the suggestion by the Embrace Doha team, we returned later in the week to the cultural center for a bakhoor (or bukhoor) mixing workshop with Maryam which was so much fun! We started mixing the same base then selected our own fragrances from a large selection including oud, sandalwood and saffron to create unique fragrances for our bakhoor. We ended up with three very different fragrances ranging from fresh/clean, French perfume and traditional Arabic scent. Maryam gave us the perfect balance between guidance and free rein to create a unique souvenir during the workshop. We highly recommend any of these sessions and booking as early as possible during your visit as the perfect orientation to the Qatari culture.

Appreciation of Qatari culture - We learned quite a lot about Qatari culture. Gathering and enjoying coffee is an important ritual. We learned about the drink, the signals of the cup.