Beirut

11:30 AM — Hotel pickup, Beirut Your guide meets you at your Beirut hotel after a relaxed morning in the city. The drive southeast into the Chouf Mountains takes approximately 45 minutes — pine-forested ridges rising steeply above the coastal plain as you climb toward Beiteddine.

Step into one of the most breathtaking palaces in the Arab world. Built over three decades in the early 19th century by Emir Bashir II — the ruler who brought Lebanon's warring factions under a single authority — Beiteddine is a masterwork of Lebanese craftsmanship. Three interconnected courtyards unfold before you, decorated with hand-cut geometric tilework, carved cedar-wood ceilings, and elaborately painted reception halls that once hosted diplomats, merchants, and Ottoman officials. Beneath the palace, an underground museum preserves the finest collection of Byzantine mosaics in Lebanon — floor panels of extraordinary colour and detail recovered from across the country. Today the palace serves as the official summer residence of the Lebanese President and hosts the internationally celebrated Beiteddine Art Festival. Your guide brings the full story of Emir Bashir — his alliances, his ambitions, and his legacy — to life within these remarkable walls.