Lebanon fits in a week.
Roman temples in the Bekaa, the Jeita caverns, cedars above Bcharre and a harbour in use for seven thousand years: what each day out is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
Start here if you have one week.
These are the days that carry a Lebanese itinerary: the Bekaa temples with a cellar tasting at Ksara, the Jeita caverns and Byblos harbour on one northern loop, the cedar road above Bcharre. Prices, run times and the catch on each.
First Paragliding Club in Lebanon – Since 1992
Tandem paragliding from Ghosta to Jounieh Bay above Harissa, with amazing coastal views, selfie time in the air, and expert pilots since 1992.
From $90 per person
Read our review →
★ 4.5Fills earlyAnjar, Baalbek & Ksara Day Trip – With Lunch (4G on Board)From $95181 reviews
★ 5.0The reliable oneJeita Grotto – Harissa – Byblos TripFrom $37169 reviews
★ 4.5Everyone books itByblos, Jeita Grotto & Harissa Day Trip -With Lunch (4G on Board)From $98145 reviews
★ 4.5Repays the driveCity Sightseeing Beirut Hop-On Hop-Off Bus TourFrom $2387 reviews
★ 5.0Good landing dayAirport Arrival Transfer to Your Beirut HotelFrom $1087 reviews
★ 4.5Ten seats or fewerBaalbek – Anjar – Ksara Trip From BeirutFrom $3480 reviews
Rome built its largest temple here.
The road climbs out of Beirut, crosses Mount Lebanon and drops into the Bekaa, and you end the morning under six standing columns that once held the biggest temple Rome ever raised. Most operators add the Umayyad market town at Anjar and a tasting in the Ksara cellars before the drive back.
North, east or south?
Almost everything sold in Lebanon is a fixed loop out of Beirut and back the same evening, and the loops run three ways. Pick the direction that suits your day; every option behind it is priced and reviewed.
North along the coast
Caves, shrine and old harbour
from $60 · 361 reviews
An hour up the coast road and you are inside the Jeita caverns, where phones stay in the locker and a boat takes you across the lower lake. Then the Harissa ridge with the whole bay underneath, and Byblos, whose harbour has been working for seven thousand years. Short drives, three unrelated stops, back in Beirut for dinner.
See the northern loops →
East into the Bekaa
The temple and wine day
from $65 · 511 reviews
The long one. Over the mountain and down into the valley for the Baalbek acropolis, the Umayyad ruins at Anjar after lunch, and a walk through the Ksara cellars the Romans cut into the hillside. Expect nine hours door to door and the best photographs of the trip.
See the Bekaa days →
South down the shore
The Phoenician coast
from $65 · 45 reviews
Sidon and its sea castle first, then the cliffs at Maghdouche looking out over the water, then Tyre, where a Roman hippodrome runs down to a beach you can swim off. Fewer coaches than the northern road, more shoreline, and lunch is usually fish.
See the southern runs →
Beirut turns to the sea at night.
The Corniche fills once the heat drops, the Raouche rocks go black against the water, and nobody sits down to dinner before nine. The city rewards a guide who can name the buildings and knows which stairways still go through.
Lunch runs to seven dishes.
Mezze arrives first and keeps arriving, then whatever came off the grill, then fruit nobody has room for. Half of these are home kitchens in Beirut where you cook what you eat; the rest pour Bekaa wine that has been made the same way since the Phoenicians.
The country is mostly vertical.
Three thousand metres of mountain sit within an hour of the beach, which is why Lebanon does gorges and thermals better than its size suggests. Baatara falls through a hole in the rock. Chouwen is a green pool at the bottom of a walk. Jounieh Bay is the launch site.
The cedars outlived the empires.
Above Bcharre the road runs out at a grove of trees that were already old when Phoenician traders were selling Lebanese timber to Egypt. Below them the Qadisha gorge holds monasteries cut straight into the cliff, some still lit by candle. Snow closes the top road from January, so this is a late-spring to autumn day.
Pick a direction, not a city.
Lebanon runs about 200 km end to end, so it divides by road rather than by region. Caves and the old harbour to the north. Temples over the ridge. Tyre and Sidon down the shore. Cedars up top, and Beirut in the middle of all of it.
Choose how the day is built.
Some people want a driver and the whole country in eight hours. Some want three hours in a Beirut kitchen and nothing else. Both are on this site, priced.
Back in Beirut by lunch.
Not every day needs eight hours in a van. A flight over Jounieh Bay takes a morning, a home kitchen takes three hours, and the boat around the Raouche rocks takes twenty minutes.
Three days covers the country.
Lebanon is small enough that three days from one Beirut hotel gets you the Roman east, the Phoenician south and the cedar north. This is the order that works, and it puts the longest drive in the middle.
Day 1
North to Byblos
Jeita first while the queue is short, the Harissa cable car up for the whole bay, then a slow hour in Byblos harbour. Two hours of driving spread across the day.
Plan day one →
Day 2
East to Baalbek
The long one. Over Mount Lebanon into the valley for the temples, Anjar after lunch, then the Ksara cellars on the way back down. Leave early and sleep on the return leg.
Plan day two →
Day 3
South to Tyre
Sidon’s sea castle in the morning, the cliffs at Maghdouche, then the Tyre hippodrome with the beach beside it. Back for a late dinner, which is the only kind Beirut serves.
Plan day three →
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