Beirut & Beyond

Lebanon

Once more the haunt of playboys and jet-setters, the 'Paris of the East' has risen from the ashes of a brutal civil war and the recent conflict with Israel.

Sophisticated hotels, café-lined boulevards and hip clubs have put Beirut firmly back on the map, and as befits a population with an innate sense of style, Beirut has superb nightlife. The glamorous clubs and bars on Rue Monot stay open until the early hours. Start the evening with a cocktail at an open-air bar overlooking floodlit Phoenician ruins before a delicious meal at a roof-top restaurant on Rue El-Inglizi in the trendy Achrafieh district and on to any number of achingly hip clubs.

In the winter months the party transfers to the mountains and the swish ski resorts of Faraya and Mzaar where (as you had probably guessed by now) the apres-ski is as important as actually hitting the slopes.

But it's not all about partying. As a reminder that this is a region that has been inhabited by various highly advanced civilisations for several thousand years, there are enough ruins to keep culture vultures circling for weeks. The highlight is undoubtedly Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley, site of some of the most impressive Roman temples ever built and including the six remaining columns of the Temple of Jupiter which, at 66ft, are the tallest in the world. The Lebanese are a cultural (as well as trilingual) bunch, and the annual Baalbeck International Festival takes places among the ruins.

From Baalbeck it's only a short distance to the Syrian border, and we think that a combination of Lebanon and Syria (and even Jordan as well) would be an excellent insight into a most fascinating region.