Beyond the city. Into the wild.
لماذا ساندستورم
We are a small team of guides and drivers based in Doha, running the routes we would take our own visitors on.
Our story
Built by guides, not by a call centre.
SandStorm started because visitors kept being sold the same rushed afternoon: a convoy into the dunes, forty minutes at a camp, back before dark. It works as a product. It is not a good day out.
We run one vehicle at a time, we set the pace to the people in it, and we build the route around the light rather than the schedule. That means fewer bookings per day than the operators we compete with, and it is the whole point.
Everything we run is licensed, insured and driven by someone who has done the route enough times to know which dune is worth stopping on.
What we care about
Local before polished
Our guides are from here or have lived here long enough to have opinions. You get the version of Qatar they would show a friend, not a script.
Honest about limits
If a tour will not work for someone in your group — mobility, heat, age — we say so before you book rather than after you arrive.
Small groups, real attention
Nothing we run carries more than a vehicle-load. The guide knows everyone’s name by the first stop.
Reachable
A real person answers WhatsApp, including on the day of your tour and after it. Delayed flight at 2am is exactly when this matters.
من ستقابل
- LA
Layla Al-Ansari
Founder & head guide
Grew up between Al Khor and Doha and has been guiding since 2014. Knows which dune to stop on for the light and which fish market is worth the detour.
Arabic, English, French
- TW
Tom Whitfield
Operations lead
Runs the vehicles, the schedule and the part where your flight is delayed and the day has to be rebuilt. Twelve years in Gulf tour operations.
English, Arabic
- RK
Rajesh Kumar
Senior desert guide
Has driven the route to Khor Al Adaid more times than anyone else at SandStorm. First-aid instructor and the person we send when a group is nervous.
English, Hindi, Malayalam, Arabic
- NH
Noor Haddad
Guest experience
Answers the WhatsApp messages, handles the dietary requirements and the accessibility questions, and remembers the names of returning guests.
Arabic, English
محتوى تجريبي
Licensing & trust
Qatar Tourism licence no. — registered as SandStorm Tour Guides W.L.L.. All guides hold current Qatar Tourism licences and first-aid certification; all vehicles are commercially insured and serviced on a fixed schedule.