The last public sand beach in Beirut, and an honest answer about whether you should swim off it.
Ramlet al-Baida — “the white sand” — is a kilometre of sand at the southern end of the Corniche, and it is the last free public beach in Beirut.
Why “last”
Beirut’s coastline has been progressively privatised since the 1950s and dramatically so since the 1990s.
Most of the shore is now occupied by beach clubs and resorts charging a substantial day rate for a lounger and a pool. Some occupy land whose legal status is contested — Lebanon’s maritime public domain law reserves the shoreline for public use, and enforcement has been effectively absent for decades. A 2017 parliamentary study found hundreds of violations along the national coast.
Ramlet al-Baida has itself been repeatedly encroached on, including by a large resort development on the beach that went ahead despite protests and legal challenges.
Dalieh, the rocky headland beneath the Pigeon Rocks, was common ground used by fishermen and families for generations and was fenced off by private owners in 2014. The campaign to reopen it continues.
So the beach is not just a beach here. It is the subject of a long, live argument about who owns the coast.
What it is like
Sand, a shelving beach, lifeguards in season, and no facilities to speak of.
On a summer weekend it is full, and it is one of the most genuinely mixed places in the city — families from every district, because it is free.
There are informal cafés and vendors along the promenade.
The water
This is the difficult part and it should be said clearly.
Beirut’s sewage treatment has not worked properly for a very long time. The main plants were damaged in the war, inadequately rebuilt, and then hit hard by the electricity collapse after 2019 — a treatment plant with no power discharges raw.
Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research and the environment ministry have both published bathing-water testing along the coast, and the results for the Beirut shoreline have repeatedly been poor to unsafe.
Do not swim here. People do, and that does not make it a good idea.
Where to swim instead
Batroun, about an hour north — a pleasant small town with clean water, Phoenician sea walls, good fish restaurants and its own lemonade.
Tyre (Sour), in the south, has the best beach in Lebanon — a long sand strip beside a UNESCO archaeological site — subject entirely to the security situation in the south, which must be checked.
Byblos (Jbeil), an hour north, combines a swim with the archaeological site.
The beach clubs north and south of the city offer pools rather than sea swimming, and that is what most people who can afford them use them for.
Practical
Free. No entry, no charge, no facilities.
Busiest on summer weekends and after five in the afternoon.
Women should expect a fairly conservative environment on the public beach compared with the clubs — most Lebanese women swim in shorts and a T-shirt here rather than in a swimsuit, and following that makes for an easier afternoon.
Sunset from this stretch, with the Pigeon Rocks to the north, is the reason to come even if you have no intention of getting in the water.
