Lebanon travel guide

The most impressive ruin in Lebanon. Besides being located in the middle of "modern" Baalbek town, the site can offer several magnificent Roman's temples. The one for Jupiter is the grandest, unequalled in the world, with columns soaring 23m into the air, where six still stands today. The foundation consists of some of biggest building block, some weighing about 800 tonnes. It is thought that it have taken more than 120 years to complete the temple complex, though different Roman Emperors still added to the complex centuries after. Another temple is the one of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Smaller than Jupiter's, but still bigger than Parthenon in Athens, it's one of the best preserved in the world with beautiful decorations, where you can still make out the fine details - along with semi-ancient graffiti.

Do as the Lebanese; take a walk on the seaside promenade. With splendid view of the Mediterranean Sea, it's a great place for an evening stroll when the light turns soft and the air is... well, cooler. Families, young couples and friends hang out along waterfront having ice creams, learning to cycle or simple just picnicking on the pavement. At the small cafes in the west end you can have a puff on a narghile (water-pipe) while watching the pole-sitting fishermen. The afternoon can easily be spend here with people watching and chatting with locals.

This ancient town claims to be the oldest inhabited city in the world. About 7000 years ago, long before the Greek and the Romans, this town started out as small fishing settlement and turned into a powerful city-state with flourishing trade. To this day it still has its small port, apparently also the oldest in the world. The ruin of the old town does not look like much, which is one of the charming characters of this tranquil site. A "newer" crusade castle (12th century), half a roman amphitheater and a few columns are the main leftovers, but it is the maze of crumbling walls covered in vegetation that makes Byblos special. In spring time the whole place burst into colours with wildflowers.

It's hard to imagine, but with a few hours driving you can go from splashing around in the Mediterranean Sea to be standing in snow in the Mt. Lebanon Range and breathing cool air. They even have a ski resort here if you fancy some skiing on the slopes of Lebanon's highest mountain, Qornet as-Sawda (3090m). It's a breath taken drive from the coast, that takes you along winding roads with magnificent view over deep valleys where clouds come rolling in (including gorgeous Qadisha valley). It also here the last remaining groves of their beloved Cedar trees grow, but you might wonder why souvenirs are still made out of them.
Note that the mountain range can not be crossed a good part of the year due to snow.

Another appealing seaside town with an ancient history as a flourishing trading port. Today Sidon is the third largest city in Lebanon, but the reason to come here is the old quarter near the harbour. A confusing maze of twisting lanes and narrow passages with low hanging dodgy wirings. This is the real deal, not an open-air museum, which is very much alive with people, houses, souqs, mosques and even an old khan (rest place for caravans). Some parts are getting immaculate renovated, almost too sterile, but we are sure that the place won't loose all of its charismatic chaos.

The Holiday Inn hotel had hardly opened it doors in Beirut, when the civil war broke out in 1975. The fighting was taken to the streets, where it went from alley to alley and house to house. The city got divided by the Green Line with Christian forces occupying the East side and Muslims on the West side. By being one of the tallest buildings in town the Holiday Inn was sought after by snipers - and people shooting after snipers. Though the war ended in 1990 and most parts of Beirut has been through a facelift, the bullet riddled Holiday Inn building still stands empty and untouched as a ghostly memory of the war.