Beirut is now firmly on the agenda with many of the coolest travel magazines as one of the top hip destinations this year. Flights are reasonably priced although almost always full at many times of the year and there is a huge choice of hotels in and around the city.
So what is there to do in Beirut? For those who love the nightlife, bars and dancing the Gemayzeh area is one long street of pubs and top class restaurants. Beirutis love to socialise and you will find them up and about till the early hours of the morning.
Shopping is also a must there and you have a huge range of shops from the small unusual designer shops to the huge malls such as ABC or the newly opened Beirut Souks right in the city centre, a tasteful new complex with both designer and high street names.
The food is to die for – fresh salads, humus and smoky moutabel. Grilled kibbe and kofta, cooked just right and delicious freshly caught fish.
A little further afield the spectacular Jeita Grotto, an amazing cave system full of huge and ancient stalagmites and stalactites, a finalist for one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. What an honour to be in the final together with other famous landmarks such as the Grand Canyon, Table Mountain and Mount Kilimanjaro! Then there is historical Byblos, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, founded around 5000 BC!