Rebuilt more times than anyone has counted
An independent guide to Beirut — 27 landmarks, museums, parks, venues and neighborhoods, walked and written up first-hand.
The ones you came for
Raouché and the Corniche
Two limestone stacks in the sea and five kilometres of seafront promenade — the one place the whole city shares.
National Museum of Beirut
The collection survived fifteen years on the front line because the director sealed it in concrete.
Sursock Museum
A Venetian-Ottoman villa given to the city as a modern art museum, wrecked by the port blast and reopened in 2023.
Martyrs' Square and Downtown
A statue full of bullet holes, and a rebuilt city centre that a great many Beirutis have never forgiven.
Gemmayzeh and Achrafieh
Nineteenth-century houses, long staircases and the best surviving streetscape in the city — most of it damaged in 2020.
Byblos
Seven thousand years of continuous occupation in one mound, a Crusader castle on top, and a fishing harbour to eat in.
Beirut by category
Day-by-day itineraries
Neighborhoods
The essentials
How to get in from all three airports, how the subway and the ferries actually fit together, and the history that explains what you're standing in front of.
From the guide
Beirut Airport to the City
Nine kilometres, one road, no train, and a set of things to arrange before you land.
Eating in Beirut
One of the great cuisines of the world, at every price point, in a country where feeding a guest is close to a moral obligation.
Getting Around Beirut
No metro, no timetable, no bus map worth the name — and a shared taxi system that works better than it sounds.