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2022 - Qatar

How to Park a Car or Take Public Transportation Across Abu Samra Border for Qatar 2022

white suv on desert
Photo by Sergo Karakozov on Pexels.com

Best Source + This Article’s Puprose

The information has been very tough to find regarding ground transportation across the Saudi Arabia and Qatar border, Abu Samra. This article isn’t to detail everything you’ve seen already (We recommend visit ILoveQatar.net’s article on that.)

This article is to try and provide a bit of clarity and a few, more specific options to look into further.

So before you pack or cross-reference that last minute checklist, continue your investigation.

A good first point of reference is Qatar 2022’s summary of crossing Port of Abu Samra which will copy and paste images from in the below content.

And if you are specifically looking for traveling through Saudi Arabia and parking on that side of the border, you’ll get a lot of value in our article on that topic.

Note: Any decisions you make are your own as this is not a recommendation and should be treated only as a vehicle of extended research.

Taking a Public Ground Transportation into Qatar

With reports from some fans that the match day flight shuttles are cost prohibitive and with additional accommodations available, including a 3rd Cruise Ship Hotel, fans may be updating their entire plans last minute and looking for journey via bus.

In general, see the statement from Qatar 2022 in the image below on bus procedures.

Source: https://www.qatar2022.qa/en/coming-to-qatar/port-of-entry

Bus From United Arab Emirates

One of the most common questions during the month of November has been “do you have any idea if there’s an official bus service from UAE?“

Fortunately, the World Cup community is one that enjoys helping one another out and that led to identifying one service provider.

If you have booked via another vendor (or one in Saudi Arabia), contact us and we’ll update the public in this article.

We reached out to the service provider directly via our instagram account. They responded with a collection of voice messages. See our notes from the messages below:

Provider Details

  • Name = Oly Tours
  • Basic Info
    • Spanish based tour group (some members can speak English) that typically puts together packages for touring Abu Dhabi and Dubai
    • Organizing buses to Qatar for the World Cup from UAE

Service

  • Cost = $155 USD one way per person
  • 2 meeting points in Dubai, 1 in Abu Dhabi
  • Departs from meeting points at 5am local time
  • Trip Time is 10-12 hours

More Information

  • Join WhatsApp Group
    • Every day, every 12 hours, members of this organization send details about the transportation service
    • It is the exact same information every 12 hours so don’t be alarmed if you see nothing once you join, the message gets resent
  • If you want to ask Oly Tours Questions:
    • Send messages to WhatsApp +971 58 550 2361 for questions where they will respond with inquiries

Payment Details

  • MUST PAY BY 11 NOV
  • Link for payment (though, please discuss with them first)
  • It is important that when making a payment, it is the TOTAL payment (# of rides + passengers)
  • Once payment is made, their team will confirm via the email address used to pay.
    • This email includes forms, dates of service, dates of payment

Public Transport within Saudi Arabia

UPDATE – we have an an entire article on this topic you should read in addition to below content.

The popular Argentine-based fan community traveling to Qatar (visit them on Instagram @barwargento) has crowd sourced suggestions on utilizing Saudi Arabia Railway to a nearby city and then utilizing Careem or Uber to do so.

The idea can be broken down as:

  • Visit Saudi Arabia Railway at https://sar.com.sa/ .
    • Book a train from Riyadh or Dammam to Hufuf
    • From Riyadh, the site showed the price as 75 SAR and roughly 2.5 hrs
  • From Hufuf, @barwargento suggested using Careem or Uber to drop you off at the border
    • The estimated ride shows 221 SAR – which could easily vary depending on availability and demand and should not be referenced as a guarantee.

In fact – here’s an article “Careem to run taxi service from Saudi to Qatar for FIFA World Cup 2022”.

Will this 100% be effective and allowed to cross by foot? Personally, cannot say but it is an option that many will attempt.

Here’s a screenshot of Careem as well:

Here’s our visual summary in a reel from that information:

Crossing the Border via Car

Match Day Visit Parking / Rental (or Personal) Car

The information is out there on how to park but it isn’t very clear. Here’s a snapshot of the Qatar 2022 portal.

Apply For Parking – 24 Hour Visit

It’s potentially been in front of our faces and not very obvious. We found the parking company, Mawaqif Qatar, that facilitates the payment, reached out via email and they responded with a bit more detail.

Here’s the response:

Please be advised that under the category of Match Day Pass the Abu Samra parking is only applicable to a person without a accommodation booking.  

The first 24 hours free of charge and the overstay fee for the second 24 hours is QR 1000, Car will be towed if is exceeds 48 hours with a towing fee of QR 1000. 

Based on the detail we were sent above, it seems the process is:

  • Apply for Match Day Hayya
    • During this process, we’re assuming you’ll see a link for Abu Samra parking
    • We cannot mimic the process to test as the option isn’t available
  • At some point, either during this flow or receiving a payment link to your Hayya email, you’ll pay in advance
  • Once you’ve paid, you’ll Receive a QR Code via email to be scanned at the lot

UPDATE – We received a 5 Step Instruction on exactly how this works from Hayya Team and am embedding the steps posted on our instagram account for you to scroll through.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck_abl5O1d5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

So what do you do if you are doing both a Match Day entrance and a later stay within Qatar? (oddly, it seems this never occurred to the organizers or we’re interpreting this poorly 🤷‍♂️).

According to the “Visit on Matchday” image below from Qatar 2022 site, it appears there will be an “alternative car park” for those that don’t book a reservation spot in advance.

Per usual, there’s a gap in communication here so we have no idea on where that is exactly or how much it will cost or if there’s a time limit.

Here’s a how to video on apply for Match Day Hayya.

Source: https://www.qatar2022.qa/en/coming-to-qatar/port-of-entry

Driving In w/ Rental or Personal Vehicle

This option is a little more direct, though, please read the details as you’ll need insurance, stay at least 5 nights, have a minimum & maximum number of passengers and to pay an entry permit fee.

We are again guessing that the application to do so will appear once you start filling out your Hayya Application and select the port of entry as Abu Samra. Again, not something we can mimic and confirm but trying to interpret this communication.

Source: https://www.qatar2022.qa/en/coming-to-qatar/port-of-entry
Source: https://www.qatar2022.qa/en/coming-to-qatar/port-of-entry

Other Sources

Here’s a list of other sources to use as well:

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