Finally it’s holiday time and I hope that I can find some more time to finish Lebanon blog and move to the next country. Since we got back from our last trip, my mom was staying with us for few weeks, then I went to a business trip to Germany, and since I’ve got back, we had all the chaos of finishing off work before the end of the year along side all the summer parties in New Zealand, and it made it really hard to focus on writing. And yes it’s Christmas time and it’s summer time in New Zealand. I have two weeks off and Amir has three, and we decided to stay home and recover and it’s the best time to update our blog, let’s kick off the holidays with Beirut blog! I decided to break down Beirut blog in few sub categories to make it more useful as a guide. Let’s start with accommodation.
Beirut as a base to visit Lebanon:
Lebanon is a relatively small country and it’s easy to make day trips to its different regions from Beirut. That’s why it’s the best option to stay in Beirut as your base and explore the rest of Lebanon from there especially if time is not on your side. We definitely will stay in the nice lush valleys of its central area and do some trekking and will enjoy the vineyards and the village life if we get a chance to visit Lebanon again but for our first visit and only a week of time out of our sleeves, I’m definitely happy that we chose Beirut as our base.
The other reason, that makes it more practical and cost effective to stay in Beirut is accommodation. Accommodation is definitely the biggest portion of the cost of tthe travelling in Lebanon. It’s expensive to stay in Beirut but comparing it to the cost of stay in a hotel for a night in Sour of Babylos, you will quickly come to the conclusion that Beirut is not that bad comparing to the rest of Lebanon.
The other good reason for picking Beirut as the base is the nightlife in Beirut comparing to the rest of Lebanon. You have plenty of options for bars and restaurants there.
Beirut Accommodation, Where to stay and how much it costs:
Well, as I mentioned earlier, accommodation is quite expensive in Beirut. Originally we wanted to stay in Airbnb to enjoy Beirut the most. The best location to stay, if you are looking for Airbnb, to my view, is Gemmayzeh, Achrafyeh, Mar Mikhael and Al-Hamra. It’s more toward high end area but it’s really live, day and night, with plenty of option to eat and drink and it gives you a great chance to experience the real life in Beirut. The problem with Airbnb is the extra costs in Lebanon! apartment prices per night are kind of affordable if you compare them with the hotel costs but the service costs are ridiculously expensive. That was the main reason that I was ready to drop the Airbnb option. the second reason was the fact that on the last minutes before our booking, three more friends decided to join us, all girls, and it made it unpractical to pay too much money for an apartment with one bathroom for four girls and Amir, that’s why I started to look at Hotel options.
Quick tip for the ones that are looking to stay in Beirut for a longer period of time: Just get accommodation for a very short period of time before getting to Beirut. Walking in Gemmayzeh and Achrafyeh, we’ve seen lots of notice on the walls on cafes/streets advertising for shared apartments in very cool streets and it sounded so tempting for few months stay.
For hotels, I looked for a long time to find the cost effective place to stay for five of us in one the neighborhoods that I mentioned earlier. We hate big soul less hotels. We pretty much never stays in any accommodation with more than 10 to 15 rooms. They are more intimate and are normally run by a family or group of friends. It makes the whole experience more pleasant and it helps local businesses, but we couldn’t find anything in our budget in Beirut. Finally the best deal that we got was a hotel in the Hamra area which cost us 1000 NZD to one double and one triple room for 5 nights. It was the best deal, that i found in Beirut. Hamra is a great location to stay, every thing is accessible by walk BUT the traffic is horrible in Beirut. Especially where were in Hamra, it was seriously annoying. We found our way on second or third day on how to skip it but you definitely need to allow for traffic, if you want to go around Beirut with car or ask for an Uber ride, when Uber says 3 minutes sometimes it takes 30 minutes!
Where to eat in Beirut:
After accommodation, the biggest cost will be Lebanese food!!! It is not too expensive but you definitely eat more because it is so delicious and you want to try it all. The problem is not only food, it’s coffee, it’s mouth watering baklava and the other goodness that are all “must try” in Lebanon including Beirut. We only tried few and I’m going to recommend the ones that we actually tried ourselves and we loved it.
For casual food, definitely go to Barbar. It’s not only one but it’s a seines of restaurant all across an intersection in Hamra area. It was only 5 minutes walk from our hotel and we usually used it to give taxi drivers the address of our hotel 🙂 because everyone know about Barbar Hamra branch. You can walk from Barbar restaurant to restaurant and pick different type of Lebanese food, from Falafel to Shawerma to Subway style Lebanese sandwiches to Kebabs and pick one of Barbar restaurants and sit and they will bring you all different orders from different restaurants, it is treat to have a fast food option with this quality next to your home! It has quite an interesting story. According to the owners, it used to be a small shop back in days and even during the civil wars they were serving people from both sides of the war!
The other one that we tried, was called Beyt Halab. Recommended by our Uber driver,Ahmet, it was located at the beach front boulevard and the food quality was good!!! We tried their chicken shawerma which is claimed to be the best in Beirut and meat balls in cherry sauce, with Tabouleh and mint lemon drinks and they were all amazing. Cost us 50 NZD for a full meal for two.
You have endless options when it comes to cafes in Beirut. From the modern cafes to the old ones. In terms of Coffee, you will never disappoint in Lebanon, even middle of nowhere on the side of the road, small stalls have a proper Espresso machine and will give you state of the art espresso that would possibly be one one of the best coffees that you have ever had in your life.
In terms of coffee blend, the best cafe that we tried in Beirut was Younes Cafe. They had different blends and they were all unique, rich and spectacular.
Beirut Nighlife:
Beirut nightlife is probably what Beirut is known for on a positive side apart from all the negative media attention. We are not really into nightlife in our late thirties. But we always appreciate a bar with a good vibe to have a night out with friends and Beirut has plenty of them. Walking down Mir Mikhael street, they are cool bars and pubs that you can spend your weekend nights with your friends and family. Our friends tried Skybar Beirut the night that we came back from Tripoli and apart from complains about the smoke, I only heard positive feedback. The only fancy bar that we tried was a beach front Iris bar and we had a good reason for that. Bahramji, one of our favorite Iranian electronic music composer who composes eastern music with electronic music was there to perform. We were lucky to be there on the same weekend that he was going to perform at Iris bar in Beirut. The bar itself, was nothing especial, apart from being next to Mediterranean coast with amazing view over Beirut but music made it unforgettable for us.
Beirut Walking tips:
We found it easy to walk around Beirut. Considering the traffic, probably it’s the best option to see the city. We love walking by the beach and see locals come out for a walk or run or simply just to enjoy the sunset over the pigeon’s rock.
The other walk that we enjoyed started by taking an Uber to the end of Mir Mikhael and walking back to Hamra. It took us almost a whole day Walking through different neighborhoods, you can actually see what Beirut has to offer and you can see the beautiful pieces next to the ugly ones, old heritage buildings next to new developments and see how different religions are there in harmony. We also loved how they kept scars of civil war in the city and developed new buildings next to them to make them remember bitter days and appreciate peace even more.
As you are walking by, Birut won’t stop surprising you , from the haute couture galleries to the high end fashion brands to military parade on the main street of Hamra with young female soldiers with very very long hair holding their flag!
From cool cafes on the side of Gemmayzeh main road to cute churches and amazing mosques that they kindly let you walk in and watch the peoples pray ( It’s not common to let people in the mosque during praying time especially women in men section). From the cool farmers market to great Graffiti arts on Mir Mikhael back alleys, you won’t feel bored in Beirut at all. In the next two blog, I’ll share our last two day in Lebanon with you. Till then enjoy few photos below from Beirut.
