Banana Island Fall Break Getaway

As mentioned in the Fall 2019 post, we went out to Banana Island for a fall break staycation. Richard ended up heading stateside for some training, so it was just the kids and I. We had originally planned to head out of the country, but sometimes being a hub city has its drawbacks. While waiting to see if Richard got into his class before booking anything, airfare just got too cost prohibitive to go anywhere. It was frustrating to see flights from NYC to Cyprus via Doha for ~$450/pp and the price of flights from Doha to Cyprus for ~$700/pp. For three people....and over two grand on just air fare tickets....just getting somewhere has blown a huge chunk of the trip budget. I remember we'd had fun on our day trip to Banana Island the previous year, so on a whim I checked for deals. I lucked out and they were running specials! We had a couple days left to decide and we booked our staycation.

It's crazy how just a 30 minute boat ride makes you feel like you in a different place! We opted for a two night stay and timed it so the kids and I would be home the afternoon after the early morning Richard left for DC, so we avoided paying for Ms. IsaLei's boarding! The bathroom was super fancy...the teen reenacted some sort of creepy alien rebirth hatching scene in the bathtub.

We had some beach time the first afternoon, some of us got our vitamin sea and others did some drawings....

The next morning, Clarissa and I had a lovely breakfast (while the teen slept in)...someone decided to have fun with their hot chocolate and selfies while I was at the buffet...lol.

Of course, we picked up some just dropped frangipanis on our way back to our room.

The teen was fighting a cold and couldn't go diving, so only I was able to do a shore dive. It was my first dive in Qatar. It ended up being just being me and the dive master. We saw 'Hammour' the local name for a grouper (the googles says brown spotted reef cod (Epinephelus chlorostigma), also known as brown spotted grouper).

One of the coolest things we saw were some nudibranches! Chromodoris obsoleta to be exact.

Apparently, Chromodoris obsoleta likes to cluster together here in Qatar, which is rare for nudibranchs.

There were tons of Arabian angelfish (Pomacanthus asfur) that were quite friendly.

I used the GoPro on photo/video mode. As you can see it was not as clear as the Fijian waters we once snorkeled in....sigh. So the video isn't too great, but there were lots of close-ups.

We even happened upon some juvenile Arabian angelfish (which looks much different).

After the dive, I got the kids for some more beach time. We found some shells and part of a sea star washed up on the shore. We also found a big smack of jellyfish, which ended the swimming in the water fun.

Clarissa did not enjoy the stings but the lifeguard stand had some antidote. We also happened upon an beachside ice cream stand! I think that helped the most with the stings.

We got cleaned up and headed out for a yummy dinner, then we went bowling! I think it was the highlight of the getaway for Clarissa!

The lane was super high tech and started out with the kids having bumpers and mom not having bumpers (and I think there was other riggings because I was seriously losing until the kids went up and asked for me to get bumpers too). I normally don't do so horribly either!

Much rejoicing when someone got a spare!!

After our bowling, we played a bit of foosball, before calling it a night.

The next morning was another lovely sunny morning. We had breakfast, a bit of beach time, packed up, and took the ferry back to the Doha.

It wasn't the 'explore a new country' fall break trip we wanted, but it was a nice 'get out of the hustle and bustle of Doha' break we needed.

Monday's Moment: Message in the Sand

Beatuiful Day Trip to Banana Island

On Christmas Eve Eve, Richard took a vacation day and we took a trip out to Banana Island. Since Mason got to get away, we thought this would be a nice break for the rest of us from the hustle and bustle of city life. Banana Island Resort offers day trip packages (though someone is hinting for a Mother's Day weekend in the future). It's a small resort island about a 30 minute boat ride from Souq Waqif area, we caught an early boat out and a later boat back for a full day of fun. So while waiting to board we could admire the spiral mosque in the morning sun (or as some expats call it, the seashell mosque).

The weather was a bit chilly but we could admire the tropical island beauty, 

run freely, 

and hunt for shells. 

I found a couple awesome treasures!

It may have been a tad windy that day. Don't mind my hair.

We had a late breakfast at one of their restaurants, just outside the restaurant there was a Reflexology Wading pool. What's that you ask? It is an Ancient Egyptian method to restore good health and balance to the body. Essentially you walk through water that has rocks/pebbles strategically placed to provide you a foot massage of sorts while wading.

The rock placement was quite methodical as well, they were placed in patterns of different sea animals, such as a sea horse, dolphin, and sand dollar/sea star (some sort of echinoderm). You quickly learned which rocks felt good and which hit pain sensors!

After lunch and wading, it had finally warmed up enough to allow swimsuit donning, sand castle building, and playing in the kids pool water slides! 

While some worked on channeling their inner mermaid,

others used the downtime to catch up on some reading!

It was also now low tide, so we could take advantage of the water swing (the seat was underwater at high tide when we had arrived).

There were a handful of people on the boat we took over, we saw a huge school group arrive while we were on the beach, and we saw people here and there, but it was relatively quiet and secluded (guessing middle of winter isn't there high season). It started to make us miss Fiji.

As the afternoon breeze started to pick up, we all started to get chilled (you know if Mr. Turn-the-AC-Down is cold, then it's cold). Luckily they had warm showers for those of us in swimsuits to get warmed up. We head to the American Diner for a late lunch and then to the bowling alley!! We had a super fun game of bowling.

We walked along the path on the seaward side of the island. Near the main building, there we got this nice scenic shot!

We were headed back to the front not to go to the playground again, but to decorate a Gingerbread House. There is a little coffee shop, that decorated the entrance like a giant gingerbread house. 

Once inside you could got a more manageably sized house of your own. 

Clarissa was super excited and took the task quite seriously (sampling all construction material of course).

I snuck out to catch the end of our island adventure day's sunset.

We then caught the ferry back to city. The Banana Island dock was nicely lit up. One of the most ingenious things they did was make a valet parking ticket with three parts. One went with our car/keys, when boarding the return ferry they tore off the second part (which they used to radio back with the number), so as soon as we got off the boat our car was already pulled up in front and ready to give the last ticket to the valet attendant and drive off!

It was a fun day, it would be much more enjoyable if it was bit warmer. We did get some information about doing shore dives, so given it is the only place of its kind in Doha....we will likely be back (ahem, cough, Mother's Day weekend, hint, hint).