Overview
** BEIRUT, LEBANON **
Read travel tips for Beirut from our amazing community of BLACK AND BROWN TRAVELERS that will help you find some of the best places to visit in Beirut.Our variety of travel tips will definitely help you plan your next trip. Our tips range from best places to visit in Beirut, affordability, nightlife, local food, where to stay and even what it is like Traveling While Black. Lastly, we are working diligently to create a comprehensive city guide for Beirut. Stay tuned! But in the meantime, scroll down to read tips below!
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We went to Beirut at the end of the “summer” season and missed many of the rooftop bars and open air clubs. We were only there for a weekend, and lucked up on a pretty cool and accommodating tour guide, Kasem through LebanonTours. Our first night there, we found a cute little strip with some bars in the Mar Makhael area. It was almost reminiscent of New Orleans. There are some good bars, lively music, great art, and friendly guys! Lebanese men have a sweet spot for black women.
We took a day trip up to Harissa, which offers amazing views on the way up via cable car (definitely take the cable car). Jeita is also amazing with the chance to travel through the upper and lower grottos. It leaves you in awe of nature and all it’s glory.
With some begging and pleading, I managed to go up into Qasr Bechara El Khoury, it was pretty cool, you can still see some remnants of all the beauty and opulence once there. I also appreciated the view of Mohamed Al-Amin Mosque next to St. George Maronite Cathedral—it’s so calming to see how the country of two religions live together peacefully.
Also go see the ruins of Byblos, and Baalbeck (ruins with parts of Christian and Muslim accents) and go wine tasting in the Caves of Ksara!
I travel to Beirut every summer to visit my family and it always so much fun. There is so much to do in this city and the surrounding cities of Lebanon. Whether you want to relax on the beach or by the pool, go shopping, or party until 7am, Beirut literally has it all. If you’d like to stay local, the Riviera Hotel is a great place to stay by the pool. It has an adult pool, bars, and a restaurant. It also overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. Over the summer they host a lot of pool parties as well and it gets packed. There are many places like Riviera so you really can’t go wrong with wherever you decide to go. Although I usually stay with family while I’m in Beirut, I have stayed at the Riviera and it’s very nice. There is an underground tunnel that takes you from the hotel to the pool area as the hotel itself is technically across the street. If you’d like to take a nice stroll on a long boardwalk and stop to grab a bite to eat, there is Zeitunay Bay. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants and the food is awesome. If you’re in that area make sure to check out Raouche which is a natural landmark in Beirut. If you want, you can even go kayaking right next to it!
The food in Lebanon is seriously to die for. There are many outdoor ovens where you can pick up a zaatar and/or cheese manouche for breakfast and keep moving. A very fun and traditional way to eat in Lebanon is going with a large group of people to a restaurant and eat mezze style which is just ordering a bunch of small plates and dips for the table and trying everything. A few foods you must try while you’re there include hummus, tabouli, falafel, shawarma (lamb & chicken), cheese sabousek, and kibbe. There’s so many things to choose from and you really can’t go wrong with the Lebanese cuisine. A restaurant I would highly recommend trying if you want the real mezze experience is Diwan Beirut. It’s a little pricey but honestly worth it for good quality food.
Beirut’s nightlife has consistently been voted one of the top cities in the world and coming from someone who has experienced the true nightlife there, this is 100% true. For Hip-Hop and R&B clubs definitely check out White Beirut and AHM. There’s a variety of places to go that cover pretty much anything you’re in the mood to do. There are streets filled with small outdoor pubs that are a little bit more Americanized, roof top bars with stunning views of the city, lounges if you feel like relaxing and smoking a little hookah, or raging clubs that stay open until the sun comes up. Some of the higher end places I would recommend going to that receive amazing feedback year after year are SkyBar and White Beirut. These are much higher end places though so you have to really dress to impress if you want to get in. There are also many places to go to eat or drink in downtown Beirut which also happens to be a historical area of Beirut. If you’re in that area be sure to check out the Roman baths right in downtown Beirut.
These are only recommendations within the city of Beirut. There is so much more to see in the country as a whole and I am still discovering it every time I go. Going up to the mountains, hiking, skiing, wine tours are just a few more activities you can do while you’re in Lebanon. Of all the cities in the world I’ve visited, Beirut is my favorite. You seriously will not regret it.