Plan For Our Last Day in Lebanon
It was our last night in Beirut. We were having a few drink back in our hotel room with our friends. In less than 24 hours, they were getting back to Tehran and we were heading to Amman, Jordan.
We were thinking on the cost effective options to get to the airport for all 5 of us and all our luggage and at the same time on what we could do, before going to the airport later in the afternoon and make the best of our last day.
We left Byblos for the last day to make sure that we have visited the areas on our priority list first, and then if we got enough time we could make a quick trip to Byblos. Our friends were more fan of staying at Beirut and chill out on a nice beach but at the same time we wanted to spend some quality time together before leaving Lebanon. Long story short, we decided to call our favorite driver Ahmet to see if he is available to take us to Byblos in the morning, bring us back to Beirut to pick up our luggage and then take us to the airport for 70 USD. We weren’t sure even if he says yes, our luggage will fit in. In half an hour he said yes and he assured us that he fits all of the luggage in his car so we locked the plan in for Byblos.
Visiting Byblos
Byblos is 40 km north of Beirut. We already passed it few days before, on our way to Tripoli. I wouldn’t recommend to combine Byblos and Tripoli visit in a day but it would be a good option to visit Byblos and Batroun in a day. We didn’t have time to do both, so we drove directly to Byblos. Ahmet dropped us at the town port around 11:00 and we decided to meet at the same spot around 14:30 to make it back to Beirut in time for our flight.
Byblos port was small and packed with cute boats that were mainly decorated and equipped for party charters and some small fishing boats.
From the car park, it is a short walk by the port to get to the entrance of the cobblestone streets of Byblos. Walking to the town, you can feel that it’s different from the rest of Lebanon. It is extremely clean, unlike rest of Lebanon that the rubbish and litter is a big problem, and it is well looked after, maybe because of the number of tourists visiting there.
Byblos was officially recognized as a UNESCO World heritage site at 1984, the same year as Baalbek roman ruins.
It’s one of the 20 oldest continuously inhabited, since it was built 5000 BC and its main attraction is a castle.
Byblos is also famous for it’s marine fossils, most of them from the marine species, already extincted. There are some small and big ones for sale in souvenir shops for couple of thousands of dollar per piece.
What I love the most about Byblos was the old buildings with stone walls, wooden french windows and all the climbing trees that shaded over cobble stone alleys. Both sides of the streets were packed with restaurants, bars and souvenir shops. Most of the bars weren’t open around lunch time which considering the heat, it makes sense. Like most of the cities in hot places, Byblos looks like it’s more live after the sunset.
We found a very nice bar to sit and cool down and watch daily life which was mainly tourists passing by.
We walked for another half an hour after having a drink and stopped for a lunch at a seafood restaurant. What we loved about Lebanon regarding the food is, we never got disappointed no matter where we stopped for sweets, coffee, tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. And this lunch wasn’t an exception.
Leaving Lebanon from Beirut Airport
We left Byblos after lunch around 15:00. Once again, Beirut traffic! No matter how much you plan for it, it just takes you to the point that you get worried if you can ever get to the destination on time. We had to drive to the city center to take our luggage from our hotel and head to the airport. Getting in and out of the city was a real mission but we managed to get to the airport on time.
Beirut airport is not big but it’s well organized and it’s easy to find your way around. All the big brands for Lebanese sweet have a branch in the airport so it’s convenient to buy souvenir there if you are willing to. If you got a pink card when entering Lebanon, they will stamp the same pink card instead of your passport and probably ask few questions on why you don’t want to have your passport stamped and that’s it.
We got our boarding pass, said goodbye to our friends and headed to Amman, Jordan.
I’ll get to the flight tips from Beirut to Amman and how we managed to get a cheaper flight on the next post. Till then enjoy your life 🙂
Michael Chernishov
January 5, 2020 at 6:52pmThanks for posting these Azadeh, they are really interesting. Kind regards, Mike
akhodaparast
January 6, 2020 at 9:17amThanks Michael, glad to see that you like them 🙂