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Day 1: Arrive/Beirut |
Bristol Hotel |
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Upon arrival at Beirut International Airport you are met and assisted through customs and immigration formalities. Transfer and check-in to your hotel. |
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Day 2: Beirut |
Bristol Hotel |
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Morning at leisure to adjust to the time change. Today's program in Beirut begins with a traditional local Lebanese lunch. Afterwards, your Beirut city tour starts along the Raouche, past Pigeon's Rocks and cliffside cafes to the old city center. See the recent excavation sites that have revealed remains from Ottoman, Omayyad, Byzantine, Roman, Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches, the clock tower and the Roman baths. You will be amazed at the reconstruction and extensive re-building works of the downtown area largely destroyed during the 20-year civil war. Visit the National Museum and the American University of Beirut Museum. Return to your hotel for overnight. (B,L) |
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Day 3: Beirut/Dog River/Jeitta/Harissa/Annaya/Byblos |
Byblos Sur Mer |
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Depart for the north of Lebanon to see the Dog River Commemorative Inscriptions. Ramses II (the great), Nebuchadnezzar, Marcus Aurelius and other of history's most famous military men left stelae behind to record their victories. Continue to Jeitta Grottos, Lebanon's natural miracle -- 5-miles of underground galleries on two separate levels. Proceed to Jounieh and visit Harissa by cable car, giving you a spectacular view of the city's coastal setting. Drive to the hills near Byblos to the Annaya Monastery. Return to Byblos and check-in to the Byblos Sur Mer Hotel. Stroll the local streets filled with restaurants, snack bars and souvenir shops. (B,L) |
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Day 4: Byblos/Tripoli/Qadisha Valley/Bechareh |
Chbat Hotel |
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Morning tour of Byblos, one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited towns. Visit the Crusader Castle (12th/13th century), the Obelisk Temple, the tomb chambers of the Phoenician king, the Greco-Roman theater, St. John Crusader Church, and the ancient harbor. Continue to Tripoli, the second largest city in Lebanon. Founded by the Phoenicians in 800 BC, Tripoli quickly became an important trade center. Its most important historical sites date from Crusader and Islamic periods; castle of St. Gilles from 1100 AD, the Mamluke Borj es Sbaa (Tower of the Lions), mosques, public baths, theological schools and khans all have survived virtually intact. Proceed via Zgharta-Ehden road to the unforgettable Qadisha Valley (Valley of the Saints) and Bechareh. This drive is through some of the most beautiful scenery in Lebanon. The road winds along the mountainous slopes, continuously gaining altitude and offering spectacular views of the gorges below. Villages of red-tile roofed houses perch atop hills or cling precariously to the mountainsides. Olive groves and vineyards, lush valleys and mountain peaks rise higher and higher behind every road turn. Arrive your hotel for overnight. (B,L) |
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Day 5: Bechareh/Cedars/Ba'albek/Zahle |
Grand Kadri Hotel |
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Morning tour of the birth and resting place of Lebanon's most famous literary prophet, Gibran Khalil Gibran, best know for his famous work The Prophet. According to his wishes, Gibran, who had emigrated to the USA in the 19th century, was buried in an old monastery built into the rocky slopes of a hill overlooking Bechareh. The Gibran Museum, set up in this monastery, houses a large collection of Gibran's oil paintings, drawings and manuscripts. From Bechareh, the road climbs up some 400 meters along a tortuous road until it reaches the last remaining forest of cedar trees in Lebanon. Known locally as arz ar-rab (God's cedars), this national monument of 400 giant trees is the last remaining grove from the time of Christ. Once covering most of Lebanon's high summits, the cedar tree was severely over-exploited over the centuries. The Phoenicians exported cedar wood to the Egyptians, who considered it as the sacred wood of the gods, and to Solomon to build his temple. Today, the Cedars is both a summer and winter ski resort, the oldest in Lebanon. Depart for the Beqaa Valley passing Qornet es Sawda, Lebanon's highest peak, en route. Tour one of the greatest Greco-Roman archaeological sites in the entire Middle East region -- Ba'albek. Originally named after the Phoenician god, Baal, the Greeks later called it Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, and the Romans made it a major worship site for their god Jupiter. This giant acropolis encompasses the temples of Bacchus, Venus and Jupiter. The perfect harmony of the site's proportions and the massive scale of its dimensions are breathtaking. The columns are the tallest ever erected, the stones the largest ever quarried, and the entire group of temples is the biggest of its kind ever built. Continue through a 10-mile wide agricultural swath of the Beqaa Valley to the town of Zahle, the pride of the Beqaa, famous for its restaurants and good food. (B,L) |
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Day 6: Zahle/Anjar/Eddine/Beirut |
Bristol Hotel |
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Start today with an interesting visit to the cool, dark caves of Ksara Winery, known since the times of the Romans and where one of Lebanon's best wines are produced. Proceed to the Omayyad town of Anjar to get a clear idea of what a town looked like during the rule of the Omayyad caliphs. Their palace, with graceful arcades, columns and public baths, suggests a Roman-Byzantine influence. Continue to the Chouf (Look) Mountains and the Beit Eddine Palace, built by Emir Beshir Al-Chehabi II in the early 19th century. See the richly decorated ceilings, colorful marble mosaics, luxurious Turkish baths and the Harem suites, in a setting of beautifully manicured gardens. The renovated stables has a display of mosaics from a Byzantine church. Return to Beirut through the beautiful town of Deir el Qamar. With red-tiled roofs, tidy terraces, a 16th century mosque, palaces and administrative buildings, it was once the seat of the Governors of Lebanon during the 16th-18th centuries. (B,L) |
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Day 7: Beirut/Sidon/Tyre/Beirut |
Bristol Hotel |
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After breakfast, depart for the south of Lebanon to visit two ancient Phoenician cities plus the only Phoenician temple in the country, Echmoun, near the city of Sidon. See Astarte's Throne, the sacred basin, the foundations of three major temples and beautiful mosaic flooring. Continue to Sidon, seat of the government of south Lebanon. Start with the 13th century Crusader sea castle. Walk through the old souks to the Khan al Franj and the great mosque, and finally to the castle of St. Louis. Proceed to Tyre, once the leading Phoenician city-state and famed for exporting purple-dyed textiles. Visit the ancient walled island city replete with colonnades, mosaic streets and Roman baths, the ruins of a Crusader castle, and finally a Roman-Byzantine necropolis and the largest Roman Hippodrome ever found. Return to Beirut for your final evening in Lebanon. (B,L) |
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Day 8: Depart Beirut |
En Route |
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Transfer to Beirut International Airport for your departure flight. (B) |
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INCLUDED IN YOUR PROGRAM |
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• 4 nights in Beirut at the Bristol Hotel including buffet breakfast. | ||
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SORRY, NOT INCLUDED IN YOUR PROGRAM |
• Cost of visa for Lebanon. |
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