Beirut in 3 days: the most contradictory city in the Middle East — the nightlife capital of the Arab world with Civil War buildings still standing riddled with bullets, the finest food culture in the Levant (the mezze spread, the kafta, the kibbeh nayyeh) and a day trip to the city that gave the Bible its name.
Founded 1866: the 49-acre garden campus above the sea, the AUB Archaeological Museum (oldest in the Middle East) and the Faculty Beach at the base of the cliff.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe communal sharing tradition: hummus, baba ghanoug, labneh with za'atar, fattoush, the raw minced lamb tartare with bulgur — and the hot kafta on skewers to follow. Eaten with Lebanese flatbread and arak.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe 4.8km seafront promenade where all of Beirut meets: fishermen, families, expats and joggers. The two massive rock pillars rising from the Mediterranean, most dramatic from the clifftop café at golden hour.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe bar street of the Arab world: French Mandate houses with iron-balcony terraces, rebuilt after the 2020 explosion (800m from the epicenter). The Lebanese arak carafe with ice and mezze: the most Beiruti experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Lebanese morning: the wood-oven flatbread with thyme-sumac-sesame, the strained yogurt with olive oil, the stewed fava beans with garlic and lemon, the sesame bread ring from the street vendor. The most beautiful breakfast in the Arab world.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Phoenician sarcophagi of Sidon's kings (4th century BC, Greek-carved relief), the Bronze Age gold, and the story of the artifacts sealed in concrete behind the Civil War's Green Line and reopened in 1991.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSolidere's reconstruction: Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and medieval ruins in the same downtown block, and the 26-story Holiday Inn war ruin (fought over by 4 factions, never repaired) dominating the skyline as an intentional monument.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe world's oldest continuously inhabited city: the Temple of Baalat Gebal (2800 BC, the oldest existing temple in its original location), the Crusader Castle built from Phoenician column fragments, and the ancient harbor still used by fishermen.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe spiced whole sea bass (with chilli, coriander, walnuts and tahini) and the raw qonfod el-bahar (sea urchin harvested from the Byblos rocks) at a harbor table: the freshest fish on the Levantine coast.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe minced lamb with 7-spice on a flat skewer, grilled over charcoal, with the toum (the entire garlic clove blended with oil and lemon to a white foam — the most intensely garlicky sauce in Mediterranean cooking) and flatbread.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuide