Tag Archives | chouf

5 Things to do in Lebanon

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The Wall Street Journal compiled this list of five fun things to do around Lebanon in an article published yesterday.

  1. Visiting one of the vineyards in Batroun or Bekaa and do wine tasting.
  2. Sitting down at a Beirut couple’s table for a home-cooked meal.
  3. Visiting Mleeta museum in the south.
  4. Vising Moussa Castle in Chouf.
  5. Snowshoeing in the mountains.

It’s good the articles mentions nothing about the nightlife in Beirut for a change! Anyway, I’m familiar with 4 out of the 5 things the author listed, but it’s the first time for me to hear about this couple in Beirut (Sylvia Khoury & Charles Ghorayeb) who welcomes visitors in their own apartment in Beirut and offer them home cooked dishes for the price of $20 per person, and $30 including wine. Has anyone heard about them before? I tried to look them up online but found nothing except what the article mentions that they previously used to organize tours around Lebanon for tourists.

2. Sit down at a Beirut couple’s table for a home-cooked meal

Sylvia Khoury and Charles Ghorayeb welcome visitors into their Beirut apartment for an evening of Lebanese food, wine and conversation. The couple, who formerly offered tailor-made tours of Lebanon to tourists, now focus on their home-kitchen venture. They serve dishes such as malfouf (stuffed cabbage leaves), shankleesh (ripened cheese) and makanek (little sausages). The food relies on seasonal staples that are grown in the couple’s garden in Damour, just outside the city. $20 per person, $30 with wine; to make a reservation, email Ms. Khoury at skhoury131@hotmail.com

Would you give them a try?

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Shouf Cedar Reserve

I’ve always heard people talking about the Shouf cedar reserve, but I never knew it was really that nice until I visited it last weekend thanks to a couple of friends.

We were originally planning a visit to Maaser El-Shouf village but then got tempted to continue further to the cedar reserve, the largest nature reserve in Lebanon containing 25% of the country’s cedars, and to our luck there was some festival ongoing in Maaser and shuttle service to and from the reserve was offered for free.

Entrance tickets are at 5,000L.L, and once you’re inside you’ll get to choose among 3 hiking paths with different lengths and each showing you different parts of the reserve. We chose the shortest one, a 1.2Km walk that took around 25-30 minutes to complete with awesome views and feel. Definitely worth a visit especially if you’re showing some tourists around the country.

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Beiteedine VS. Moussa Castle

Here’s a funny fact:

It costs you more money to enter Moussa castle (Entirely built by one man, Moussa Maamari) than to enter Beiteddine castle.
For Moussa Castle you pay 10,000 L.L. to mainly see a large weaponry collection, while you pay 5,000 L.L. for Beiteddine to see a nice piece of history.

Note that Moussa castle is a private property.

I went to both places today, and it was very nice being in the Chouf area. Some photos coming soon 😉

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