Spring is Beirut’s best season. Skies are clear and the mountains are in flower across Lebanon’s capital.
While it’s still pleasantly cool at night, it’s often warm enough to hit the beach by day, making this the nicest time of the year to wander a city that is constantly in flux.
Here are seven reasons to visit right now.
By design
Lebanon’s architects and designers are some of most talented in the region. Beirut Design Week (May 19-26), an eight-day smorgasbord of exhibitions, lectures, open studios and cocktail events is the perfect, effervescent introduction both to Beirut and its creative crowd.
Art attack
Between the reopening of the Sursock Museum in its lovely Italianate palace and the arrival of the David Adjaye-designed Aishti Foundation, the local art scene is undergoing a massive expansion. Add the Beirut Art Center and the dozen or so major galleries that have opened in the last five years into the mix and you have the makings of a top-tier art hub.
Walk this way
You can learn far more about Beirut from an hour pounding the pavement than from every guidebook on Amazon. Join the guided tour offered by Beirut Old City Walk (about $10) or the Beirut Walking Tour (free but tips welcome). The former concentrates on the charming backstreets of Achrafieh and Bourj Hammoud, Beirut’s Armenian quarter; the latter on the new-meets-old city center. For the aesthetically minded, the amazing Arab Center for Architecture (from $26) arranges themed walks that cover specific neighborhoods, architects and building trends in Beirut and beyond.
Time for dinner
The Food Heritage Foundation can arrange private dinners in village homes in the Bekaa Valley or the Chouf mountains (from $18). For those who don’t have the time to make the trip out of town, the daily buffet at Tawlet ($40) is home cooking at its most sophisticated. For a more extravagant evening, Hussein Hadid — nephew of the late architect Zaha — offers a private dining experience in his own kitchen upon request (from $125 per person).
Dress up
For those in search of Hollywood glamor, homegrown superstars Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad — who have dressed the like of Sofia Vergara, Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez — have showrooms in the city center. So too does the elegant and understated Rabih Kayrouz, whose chic creations have generated buzz at Paris Fashion Week in recent years. Emerging designers have their space, too, at the Starch Foundation, which supports both clothing and product design.
Hot ’hood
Head to hipster central, the Mar Mikhael neighborhood. A pocket of old Beirut, it has more cafes, bars and restaurants than you’ll know what to do with, plus a smattering of designers and an excellent bookstore, Papercup. For food, try Baron for its inventive vegetarian dishes or Butcher’s BBQ Joint for mouthwatering merguez (sausage). Coffee is best enjoyed in the courtyard at Kalei, and cocktails at Anise, a mash-up between a speakeasy and your grandmother’s living room. When it all gets to be too much, the delightful Villa Clara (from $165), Beirut’s best boutique hotel, is a 10-minute drive away.
Let’s dance
Beirut is a city where women in heels shimmy on tabletops. Come summer, you can party until dawn at outdoor megaclubs like Gärten, White, Skybar and Pier 7. More intimate weekend parties include the more alternative Decks on the Beach or The Pop-up Hotel. Never fear, there are also plenty of nightlife options that don’t involve drugs or even breaking a sweat. Try Onomatopoeia for experimental music, Salon for Wednesday night jazz and the Bar Farouk event, a cabaret that channels the best of pre-civil war Beirut’s musical stars, at Metro Al Madina.