Lebanon is three hours end to end. Every ruin is a day trip.
Which Baalbek day actually stops at Anjar. What the Jeita and Harissa run costs with lunch. Whether the Cedars are worth the drive in March. Reviews of every tour you can book in Lebanon.
Baalbek, the grotto, the sea castle, the high valley.
Four days out that carry more travellers than anything else in the country. Prices, running times, and the verdict from the people who booked them.
01The Bekaa dayGuided Small-Group Tour to Baalbek, Anjar and Ksara with LunchSix standing columns at Baalbek, the Umayyad city at Anjar, and a cellar at Ksara on the way home.
02The mountain dayGuided Small-Group Tour to Jeita, Harissa, Byblos with LunchBoat through the lower gallery at Jeita, the shrine above Jounieh, then the harbour at Byblos.
03The southern daySmall-Group Adventure Tour to Sidon Tyre & Maghdouche-Day TripThe Crusader sea castle at Sidon and the Roman road at Tyre, both on the coast highway.
04The half hour outParagliding Trip Over Lebanon – Jounieh BayOff the ridge above Jounieh Bay with an instructor, coast and cedar slope underneath.
Bekaa, mountain or coast road south. Pick your day.
Nearly everything here leaves Beirut after breakfast and is back for dinner. Three directions, what it costs to take each one, and what you actually see.
The most-booked days out in Lebanon.
The whole Lebanon catalogue →The days out that more travellers take than any others here, and what puts each one where it is.
1
Guided Small-Group Tour to Baalbek, Anjar and Ksara with Lunch
Review of a small-group Beirut tour to Baalbek, Anjar, and Chateau Ksara, with expert guides, Lebanese lunch, transfers, and practical tips.
From · $65
Read our review →
2
Guided Small-Group Tour to Jeita, Harissa, Byblos with Lunch
from $60
3
Paragliding Trip Over Lebanon – Jounieh Bay
from $100
4
Jeita Grotto,Harissa&Byblos Full-Day PRIVATE-CAR Trip from Beirut
from $75
5
Anjar, Baalbek & Ksara Day Trip – With Lunch (4G on Board)
from $95
6
Jeita Grotto – Harissa – Byblos Trip
from $37
7
Byblos, Jeita Grotto & Harissa Day Trip -With Lunch (4G on Board)
from $98
8
City Sightseeing Beirut Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour
from $23
Six places, and what the day looks like in each.
A capital that eats late, a grotto you go through by boat, the biggest Roman temples standing anywhere, a harbour town older than most alphabets, two Phoenician ports on the coast road south, and a valley of cliff monasteries under the last cedars.
The whole country is uphill from the coast.
Beirut sits on a shelf and everything behind it climbs. Half an hour inland the road is in pine, an hour in it is at two thousand metres, and the valley on the far side keeps its monasteries cut into the cliff. The high roads carry snow into spring, which is the one thing worth checking before you book.
Beirut is a base, and it is worth two days of its own.
Everything in Beirut →
The sea rocks at Raouché, the corniche at dusk, and a downtown that has been rebuilt more than once. Most people use the city as a hotel and a departure point. Give it a morning on foot and an evening at a table and it stops being either.
The city in half a day
Downtown, the corniche and the sea rocks, usually with a stop at the National Museum. The open-top bus covers the same ground for less if you would rather set your own pace.
Mezze, and how to order it
Kibbeh, fattoush, a dozen small plates and arak cut with water. A guided table teaches you the order things arrive in, which is most of the skill.
A driver for the whole day
Two people splitting a car often beat two seats on a minibus, and you set the stops. The usual run is Byblos and Harissa, or the Chouf and Beiteddine.
The coast road north runs out of Beirut and does not stop being interesting.
Forty minutes up the shore is a town that has been lived in for about seven thousand years, with a Crusader castle over the harbour and a Roman colonnade behind it. Keep going and you reach Batroun’s sea wall and the Mamluk souks of Tripoli, which are the best-preserved in the country and almost empty of visitors.
Every day out on the north coast →
What a day out of Beirut actually costs.
The whole catalogue sorted into three price bands. A shared minibus to the Bekaa with lunch still lands under the cost of dinner at home.
Shared minibus seats, city walks, the grotto-and-harbour run without lunch.
The full-day standards: Baalbek with lunch, the southern ports, the Cedars, a flight over the bay.
A car and driver to yourself, private guides and the multi-day loops.
Lebanon keeps three things nobody else has.
Ruins and cave systems exist all round the Mediterranean. Six Roman columns still standing at twenty-two metres, a river you ride through a lit cavern, and a cellar the Romans cut do not.
The columns at Baalbek
Six columns of the Temple of Jupiter are still upright, about twenty-two metres of them, carrying a fragment of entablature and nothing else. The temple they belonged to was the largest the Romans built anywhere, and the Temple of Bacchus beside it survived almost whole. Most trips pair it with Anjar, the one Umayyad city in the country, and a cellar at Ksara on the way back.
- 1Guided Small-Group Tour to Baalbek, Anjar and Ksara with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 511 reviews
- 2Anjar, Baalbek & Ksara Day Trip – With Lunch (4G on Board)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 181 reviews
- 3Baalbek – Anjar – Ksara Trip From Beirut★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 80 reviews
The Jeita galleries
An underground river runs the lower gallery and you go through it by boat; the upper gallery is walked, on a gantry, past formations lit from below. Cameras are not allowed inside either one, which readers either love or complain about. It closes for maintenance periods and after heavy rain the lower gallery can shut on its own.
- 1Guided Small-Group Tour to Jeita, Harissa, Byblos with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 361 reviews
- 2Jeita Grotto,Harissa&Byblos Full-Day PRIVATE-CAR Trip from Beirut★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 222 reviews
- 3Jeita Grotto – Harissa – Byblos Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 169 reviews
The Roman caves at Ksara
The cellars are tunnels the Romans cut and the Jesuits found again in 1857, running two kilometres under the vineyard at a steady temperature nobody has to pay for. The tasting at the end is the short part. Most Baalbek day trips stop here, which is why the wine day and the ruins day are usually the same day.
- 1Guided Private Full Day Tour to Baalbek, Anjar and Chateau Ksara★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 60 reviews
- 2Lebanon tour Baalbek ruins & Ksara w/pick-up, lunch,guide+entries★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 35 reviews
- 3Baalbek Temples & Ksara Caves w/pick-up,guide, entries+lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 34 reviews
Mezze that arrives in waves, a cellar under a vineyard, a kitchen for the afternoon.
Lunch is not an interval here, it is usually the reason the day runs long. Book the cellar on the way back from the ruins, the class that ends as the meal, and the table that explains what arak is for.
Four Lebanese bookings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Almost everything here can be arranged the night before, over a table in Mar Mikhael. These four run on weather, on seasons, and on rooms that hold a dozen people.
- 01Guided Small-Group Tour to Baalbek, Anjar and Ksara with LunchMore travellers book the Bekaa day than anything else in Lebanon, and a small-group minibus has a fixed number of seats.
- 02Paragliding Trip Over Lebanon – Jounieh BayFlights only go up when the wind on the ridge allows it, so operators move bookings rather than run them. Leave slack in the week.
- 03Bcharre – Qadisha Valley & Cedars Forest From BeirutThe valley road climbs past two thousand metres and carries snow well into spring. Out of season the day either changes shape or does not run.
- 04Authentic Lebanese Cooking Lesson and Meal with Tania’s Family in BeirutThese are home kitchens with a table’s worth of places, not a school. A sitting is a handful of people and it books out.
When the mountain roads shut, the country moves indoors.
December to March the high passes carry snow and the coast gets its rain in bursts. It is not a lost trip, it is a different one: Mamluk souks with a roof on them, cellars cut into rock, a kitchen for the afternoon and a city that was always going to be better after dark.
Beirut, the grotto, the Bekaa, the coast south, the high valley.
Beirut
Jeita & Harissa
Byblos
Baalbek & Anjar
Sidon & Tyre
Qadisha & the CedarsBy place — coast, mountain and the Bekaa
By what you want to see — temples, caves, cellars, coast
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