Travel Review: Beirut, Lebanon

Time for another Travel Review!!! After my stop in Rome recently, I made it to Europe of the Middle East; Beirut. I loved it. Having been on the IT list for a while now, but never having either the guts (yes it still can be a turbulent country having died 1000 times and revived 1000 more, especially with upcoming elections, you can never be too careful) or the opportunity to visit in the past, it came up recently as quite a surprise.

Three days in Beirut, staying at a beach/city resort was perfect. As the summer starts to heat up back in my home, it was nice to escape to a moderately cooler climate, just before peak season kicks in.

The first evening was spent getting to know Beirut’s mid week nightlife (which at midnight is not that great mind you). Allowing our cab driver to take us to wherever he thought best, we ended up downtown at a lovely little club called Taboo, playing a combination of 90’s R&B hits that we recognized and Lebanese pop hits which of course we didn’t. Not sure if we were being ripped off by the bartenders (as we gave US dollars and were given change in Lebanese Liras) or the duty free tequila we'd had in the hotel room before hand had caught up with us, we decided to call it a night around 3am, to ensure we didn’t waste too much of our following day.

The weather didn’t disappoint, with a poolside salad lunch and couple of cocktails to help ease the slight headache from the night before. Ideas of traveling inland soon abated when we realized it was 6pm already and once again time to find a place to eat and drink.

Gemmayze strip in downtown Beirut was our first stop, with finding a place for dinner and wine my idea, but PPP happy to find a hip cocktail bar, whichever of the two we came across first. He won this time, and we settled on Gem, which the bar tender told us is short for the Gemmayze tree which is what the area was famed for, with the plant growing only in that region of Beirut. He spoilt us with a few different delicious cocktails, and realizing we had missed dinner, I settled on some bar bites.

Al Amin Mosque

Walking down Gemmayze street a little wonky from our delish cocktails I was confronted with the most magnificent sight. The Al Amin Mosque. So overcome with it's beauty I had to take a moment and sit in the car park just in front to take it in. After a short while we were all of a sudden aware of the sound from the boom boom room to the right of the mosque. Flashing lights from what appeared to be a rooftop open air bar at the top of an 8 story building. We were drawn like the rats in the pied piper story. On arrival at the red carpet entrance on the ground floor we were amazed at the designer dressed peeps sprawled out on the sidewalk looking us up and down in our clearly not dressed up enough duds. Hey we were travelling. But yeah I did feel a bit skanky in my T-shirt dress and gold flip flops. Note to self, next trip to Beirut, pack the Prada (oops I don't own Prada). Clearly we were not going to be allowed in by the burly bouncer, so I smiled and asked which club it was. He responded 'White'. This is the hippest club in Beirut.

Buddha Bar

Never to be discouraged, we decided to head off to find our own cool club, and settled on Buddha Bar. Although it was uber quiet being a Thursday night, the top floor still had a group of at least 12 locals and the bar was still serving. I knew they were locals because every Arabic song that would play, PPP and I would take a drink break and sit back down at our table and witness some elaborate hip shaking and with every western dance hit that we recognised, would ensure a break from our neighbous and we'd show them our thang. We even danced some salsa which made PPP's night!!! Buddha Bar had a great 3 or more levels, an massive Buddha that every floor had a perfect view of and fantastic music, so would of been great to see it packed out on a weekend!

The next day was a recovery in room day, with room service and in house videos til PPP had to take his flight home that afternoon. Did I mention that PPP arrived in Beirut to surprise me on my trip and I had no idea he was coming? Brilliant. He thinks he was being romantic, I think he couldn't let me get one up him on countries I have visited. Just for fun we are compiling a spreadsheet to keep a tally. B wants in as she reckons she will beat us both. That's what she gets for having worked for Emirates . Stay tuned for the competiton!

All in all Lebanon has a great history and beauty, especially if you travel further inland to places like Byblos, but the main advice I was given regarding what Beirut would have to offer, was mainly dining and partying, which I think we definitely touched on. A trip back is definitely on the cards.