Lebanon

Lebanon is a small country with an unreasonable amount of history packed into it. In an afternoon you can drive from a Mediterranean harbour that Phoenician sailors used, up a mountain road lined with pine and cedar, and down into a valley where Roman builders raised some of the largest temples of the ancient world. The distances are short, the food is generous, and the conversation at any table moves easily between five centuries and last night’s football. This guide is about the country as a traveller meets it, and about how to plan a trip that gives it room.

Beirut

Most journeys begin in Beirut, a seafront capital of cafés, galleries, old Ottoman houses and newer towers, with neighbourhoods like Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael known for their bars and restaurants. The city has been rebuilt and reimagined several times, and it shows. I would give it two days: a morning for the National Museum, an afternoon for walking the corniche, and evenings for slow dinners of mezze, grilled fish and arak.

From Beirut, the coast road runs north to Jounieh, with its bay and cable car, and on to Byblos, one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. Its port, crusader castle and Roman columns share a compact old town beside the sea, and it is a pleasant place to eat lunch with the harbour in view. Batroun, further north, is a seaside town of limestone houses, lemonade stalls and small beaches, and Enfeh has the salt pans and rocky coves that locals use for weekend swims.

Mountains and cedars

Mount Lebanon rises close behind the coast. The Shouf Biosphere Reserve protects the country’s largest remaining stands of cedar, with walking trails through the forest. Nearby, Beiteddine is an early nineteenth-century palace with courtyards and mosaics, and Deir el Qamar, once a seat of the Emirs of Mount Lebanon, has a stone-paved square and old merchant houses. Faraya is the winter ski village in the mountains behind Beirut, and in spring you can sometimes be on snow in the morning and at the sea by afternoon, though conditions vary from year to year.

To the north, the Qadisha Valley is a deep gorge dotted with hermitages and chapels cut into the rock, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Above it, Bcharre is the village of Kahlil Gibran, with a museum devoted to the poet and painter, and the Cedars of God grove sits just up the road. Tannourine is another cedar reserve, with a short trail and a waterfall in spring.

Roman and ancient Lebanon

Baalbek is the headline, with the Temple of Bacchus almost complete and the vast platform of the Temple of Jupiter built from some of the largest cut stones in any ancient building. Anjar preserves an Umayyad-era city laid out on a neat grid, with arcaded streets and brick-and-stone walls on a quiet plain. Both lie in the Bekaa; see our Bekaa Valley page for the wine country and smaller sites there.

On the south coast, Sidon has a sea castle on a causeway and a covered souk, and Tyre has a Roman hippodrome, a long colonnaded road and a UNESCO-listed archaeological site beside the sea. In the north, Tripoli has one of the best-preserved Mamluk old cities in the region, with soap khans, hammams and a famous sweets district.

Caves, wine and food

The Jeita Grotto is a pair of limestone caves, one reached by boat and the other on foot, with formations lit along walkways and a river running underneath. In the Bekaa, Zahle is a hillside town known for riverside restaurants and arak, and the valley’s vineyards produce most of the country’s wine.

Food is the real organising principle of any Lebanese day. Breakfast might be manakish, a flatbread baked with za’atar or cheese. Lunch is a long spread of hummus, tabbouleh, fattoush, grilled halloumi and kibbeh, followed by grilled meat or fish. Evenings end with fruit, sweets and coffee. Do not order a main course until you have understood how much mezze will arrive first. I would plan at least one meal in a mountain village restaurant, where the dishes are simpler and the view is better than at any hotel in town.

Planning

Lebanon’s security situation can change quickly, and some border areas are not safe to visit. Check your government’s current travel advice before booking and again before you leave, buy insurance that covers the region, and keep your plans flexible. Public transport is limited, so most visitors hire a driver or a car. Distances look short on the map, but mountain roads and city traffic mean Beirut to Baalbek or Beirut to the cedars takes longer than you expect.

When to go: April to June and September to November bring the best balance of warm days and clear light, and are the right time for walking in the mountains and visiting archaeological sites. July and August are hot on the coast but pleasant in the hills. December to March brings snow in the mountains and rain on the coast.

What most guides miss: They tell you to see Beirut and Baalbek and call it done. Lebanon works better when you slow down: a village guesthouse in the Shouf or the Qadisha Valley, a morning at a local bakery, a day of walking between small churches and orchards. The country is small enough that you can stay in one base for several days and still reach most of what matters. Talk to the people you meet, ask what they would eat or see in their own region, and let a conversation decide the next stop.

Photography: Pexels contributors.