Days 1-3: Beirut & Northern Coast
Day 1: Arrive Beirut. Pigeon Rocks sunset, Corniche walk. Welcome dinner with full Lebanese mezze. Overnight Beirut.
Day 2: National Museum, Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque, Downtown Solidere, Hamra street art. Afternoon: Jeita Grotto by boat, Harissa cable car. Overnight Beirut.
Day 3: Drive north: Byblos Crusader Castle, Phoenician port, fish lunch at the harbor. Continue to Batroun — Phoenician sea wall, lemonade at Hilmi’s, and the Roman-era Makaad el Mir amphitheater carved into seaside rocks. Overnight Batroun/Byblos area.
Days 4-5: Tripoli & Qadisha Immersion
Day 4: Morning in Tripoli — Lebanon’s second city with the finest medieval souks in the region: soap-makers, coppersmiths, tailors, each in their own alley. The Crusader Castle of St. Gilles towers above. Visit the Great Mosque and sample Tripoli’s legendary sweets (halawet el-jibn — cheese rolls in rosewater syrup). Afternoon: drive to the Qadisha Valley. Hike to Qannubin Monastery. Overnight Bsharri.
Day 5: Cedars of God reserve (trees up to 3,000 years old). Full-day hiking in the Qadisha: Mar Lishaa, St. Marina chapel in a cliff face, centuries-old hermit caves. Overnight Bsharri.
Days 6-7: Bekaa Valley & Baalbek
Day 6: Baalbek temple complex — full day. Jupiter, Bacchus, Venus temples. The trilithon mystery. Afternoon: Chateau Ksara and Chateau Musar (optional) for Bekaa wine. Overnight Zahle — the “Bride of the Bekaa” with its riverside restaurants.
Day 7: Anjar Umayyad ruins. Niha Roman temple (rarely visited). Drive to the Shouf Mountains. Afternoon: Beit ed-Dine Palace and Deir al-Qamar village. Overnight Deir al-Qamar or mountain guesthouse.
Days 8-9: Shouf Cedar Reserve & Lebanese Mountain Life
Day 8: Hike in the Shouf Cedar Reserve — Lebanon’s largest, with 620 hectares of cedar, oak, and juniper forest. The Barouk forest has trees estimated at 2,000 years old. Picnic lunch. Afternoon: visit a family-run olive oil press or goat cheese producer. Lebanese cooking class with a mountain family — learn to make kibbeh, stuffed grape leaves, and the perfect tabbouleh. Overnight Shouf.
Day 9: Morning visit to Moussa Castle — a hand-built mock castle created over 60 years by one man, Moussa Abdel Karim al-Maamari. Continue south to Jezzine — famous for its waterfall and handcrafted knives (the jezzine style with inlaid handles). Visit the dramatic Crusader Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif), perched on a cliff 300m above the Litani River. Overnight Tyre area.
Days 10-11: Tyre, Sidon & Coastal South
Day 10: Full day in Tyre: the monumental Roman hippodrome, the vast necropolis, the seaside Al-Mina site with its Phoenician harbor and Roman mosaics. Fresh fish lunch at the Christian quarter harbor. Afternoon free to swim at Tyre’s public beach — one of Lebanon’s cleanest. Overnight Tyre.
Day 11: Morning in Sidon: Sea Castle, the soap museum in an 18th-century palace, the souks, and Debbane Palace. Continue north for a final afternoon in Beirut — perhaps the Sursock Museum for modern Lebanese art, or the Mim Mineral Museum. Farewell dinner. Overnight Beirut.
Day 12: Departure
Morning at leisure. Transfer to Beirut Airport.
