The top 5 dive and snorkel sites in Qatar, ranked by diver reviews, with maps and photos. Read the Qatar guide
Natural coral reef. Bleached by the 1996 hot spell. Coral killed by the 1998 El Nino. Just re-populating. At the mouth of the Khor Al-Udaid,Bash the dunes with the sun on your left for the morning trip out and the evening trip back. Basically SW out and NE back.
Man made artificial reef New Club Reef is also known as New Club Reef.
Take the road towards Sealine Beach Resort. Turn left onto a small paved access road just after the trash skip on the left hand side of the road. Access to the dive site will be on the left hand where the road ends at the beach about 100m South from the rock jetty/fenceline.
The wreck was intentionally sunk and was originally planned to be much closer to the New Club Reef. But it drifted off while sinking and it actually disappeared completely. Apparently it was not found until about 9 months after it had been sunk. The wreck can be penetrated, but it is very little of interest to see and the openings are quite small. There is very few fishes around the wreck, so not much to see apart from the wreck itself. Around the first dune after the Sealine resort, passed New Club Reef, along the beach to approximately the first natural water drainage outlet. The barge is about 300 meters from the beach at a heading of about 120 degrees from the given coordinates. There is a rope running from the New Club Reef to the barge, so one way to make sure you find it is to go out at a heading of slightly less then 120 (e.g. 110) and then go south (turn right) when you hit the rope. If you go down at the drop off it is a swim of about 7 to 10 minutes to the rope. The Barge is also known as Pete's Paradise Barge.
3 natural coral reefs. Named for Olivier, the club member who found the reef. Zeitoune is Arabic for olive. Often rays on sandy crossing. The southernmost reef often has large hamour Fish at the bottom of the reef wall. As you swim the gap, the depth will decrease as you approach the reef. If it starts getting quite deep, it means you have passed it. Turn back to shallow area, then turn either North or South Head for Othmans Reef, then at the final dune, turn right along the beach. Cross the sabkha till you get to the first dune at the sea edge. Not accessible at some states of the tide. Zeitoune Bank is also known as Olivier Bank reef.
The top-rated beginner sites are Othmans Reef (3.5 from 2 reviews) and New Club Reef (2.0 from 1 review).
Othmans Reef and New Club Reef are the top-rated sites you can enter from shore.
Zentacle lists 11 dive shops in Qatar. The top-rated are Poseidon Dive Center (4.8 from 82 reviews) and Doha Divers (5.0 from 11 reviews).
