For my most recent trip I decided to go to Lebanon as it is full of history, impressive architecture and amazing scenery. It was also one of the few places I wanted to visit in the region that I hadn’t already. It is also currently a safe place to visit.
Unfortunately the first three days were wet so I didn’t venture out too far. Because the country is small and as I was based in the capital Beirut I decided not to book any trips. This gave me a lot more freedom to explore the city by walking around. It was also the low season so very few tourists around. The feeling in the city was very positive, and had a feeling of European streets with cafes and old well preserved buildings amongst historical sites. There were also the ruins of buildings damaged in the 20 year civil war. The city also boasts a wonderful esplanade with many cafes/restaurants perched precariously on the cliffs.
One of the great things about Lebanon is that you could be swimming in the sea one minute, and 45 minutes later be skiing on the mountain. Has similar geography to Kaikoura but with a slightly larger population of 1.7 million. The only downside to the city was the traffic – just a very congested area.
On the day I decided to take a tour I had a taxi driver take me to some of the sites of the country. The first place I visited was the town of Byblos. This town is around 6000-7000 years old, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in the world. The ruins today consist of the crusader castle and church as well as the extensive remains of city’s past- from Neolithic times to the crusader era. There were about 5 visitors to the site that day so I was free to roam around the old village
Photos of Byblos (Above and below)
Two of the planned stops on the tour were to the Jeita Grotto caves and the cable cars that look over the city. Unfortunately these were both closed for maintenance, so added was a trip to the Ksara Caves Winery. What a beautiful place and not bad wine either. They produce over 2 million bottles a year and export all around the world, but not to NZ. The cool thing about this winery was its cellar – 2km of natural underground caves. This keeps the wine at a year round temperature of about 13 degrees. I wanted to take some wine back with me but Kuwait is a dry country so no doubt it would have been confiscated. Well that’s about all from my trips. Have 1 more week of holidays in April before the school year ends, so possibly Morocco.
Posh private school in the city (above)
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