Top Things to Do in Lebanon

Lebanon squeezes a week of contradictions into a space the size of Connecticut. Mist lifts off the Qadisha Valley at dawn while the call to prayer rolls across Tripoli's Mamluk souks. By dusk you're sipping arak under banana palms in Tyre as fishing boats clang into harbor. Coastal highways tunnel straight into 2,000-year-old ruins, and mountain passes climb from citrus orchards to cedar forests in 40 minutes. The Lebanese, polyglot, fast-talking, famously hospitable, treat every guest as a returning cousin, so expect invitations to cardamom-scented coffee even when you've only stopped to ask directions. First-timers should know the country runs on two currencies (Lebanese lira and US dollars), that shared taxis honk for passengers like rolling auctions, and that lunch is a three-hour ceremony beginning with mezze platters of smoky baba ghanouj and ending with tiny cups of thick Arabic coffee. Roads twist wildly. Allow double the GPS estimate. Fridays are sacred for seaside kibbeh and family, so museums and many shops open late, plan mountain trips then and coast visits on weekdays to dodge weekend traffic from Beirut.