Villagio Mall
Quite simply Villagio is the best Mall in Qatar, even though it is only half finished. Although not particularly special on the outside, when you walk inside and look up, the ceilings take your breath away. The ceilings represent the sky and if you didn’t know you were inside you could believe you were outside.
Between Sport City and Hyatt Plaza on Al Waab Street, Doha
Different areas of the mall represent different times of the day – so you can see sunset, night (complete with street lamps) and day.
But the icing on the cake for this mall is the canal that runs through the centre, complete with gondola. Bridges cross over the canal, and comfortable chairs line its sides for you to rest your feet. What's more, for a few riyals you can travel, Venetian style, up and down the canal. (See our movie: Gondolas in the Desert.)
Food and Entertainment
A 3-D cinema is on its way, but there is already an ice-skating rink in the vicinity of the food court. Apparently, there is also going to be roller-coaster, although we are not quite sure where they are going to put it. There's also a great range of cafes and restaurants, including a superb Thai restaurant (avoid the red chicken curry unless you have a tolerance for extremely spicy food) as well as all the usual fast food joints.
Villagio Shops
But onto the shopping. It's not quite complete, but there will be a total of 220 stores spread over 130,000 sq m of retail space (or 150,000, depending on where you get your information from), which just beats the 129,000 metres of retail space at City Centre Mall, currently the country’s largest