Beirut

9:00 AM — Departure from Beirut Your private English-speaking driver collects you from your Beirut hotel and heads southeast into the Chouf Mountains — the landscape climbing steeply from the coastal city through pine-forested ridges toward the historic heartland of the Druze mountain region.

Arrive at one of the most magnificent palaces in the Arab world, built between 1788 and 1840 by Emir Bashir II — the powerful ruler who unified Lebanon under a single authority for the first time in centuries. The palace complex is a breathtaking achievement of Lebanese craftsmanship — three grand courtyards connected by vaulted arches and decorated with intricate geometric tilework, carved cedar-wood ceilings, and elaborately painted reception rooms. The underground museum beneath the palace houses the finest collection of Byzantine mosaics in Lebanon, recovered from archaeological sites across the country. Today Beiteddine serves as the summer residence of the Lebanese President and hosts the internationally acclaimed Beiteddine Art Festival each July and August. Your driver brings the full story of Emir Bashir and the palace's extraordinary history to life.