Jeita Grotto, Harissa, and Byblos Tour

In Lebanon, a country experiencing four seasons, you can hit the slopes in the north while enjoying the sea in the south. Besides the capital Beirut, there are numerous places and natural beauties worth visiting in the country. I’ll share some of these wonders from Lebanon: Jeita Grotto, Harissa, and Byblos.

Jeita Grotto, Harissa, and Byblos Tour: Transportation

As mentioned in my Beirut article, we arranged a day tour to Byblos, Jeita Grotto, and Harissa with a taxi driver we coincidentally met. For the sake of coherence, I recommend reading my Beirut article first if you haven’t already. Despite some paranoia about whether our taxi driver would arrive on time or leave us stranded, we got up early as agreed. Our taxi driver was there as promised. And our journey began around 6:30 in the morning.

We arranged our tour by chance. However you can arrange everything online as you wish. Below some of the popular activities you can do around Beirut, you can easily check the activity details and prices.

Jeita Grotto, Harissa, and Byblos Tour: Places to Visit

Hall of Fame

Firstly, we visited the Hall of Fame, a museum with silicone sculptures of celebrities, recommended by our taxi driver, which wasn’t initially on our minds. After peeking inside, we decided not to enter. Honestly, it didn’t seem very appealing to us. For those curious, the entrance fee was $10 per person.

Continuing our journey, we headed towards Jeita Grotto through lush green mountains. Occasionally, we stopped the car to enjoy the scenery and catch our breath.

Jeita Grotto

Finally, we reached Jeita Grotto, a system formed by the merging of limestone caves extending 9 km. As vehicle access ends here, a cable car is used to ascend to the valley since the cave’s entrance is at the top of the valley.

We took the cable car and reached the cave. Jeita Grotto is truly enchanting, a system of limestone caves that are 9 km long. Photography is prohibited inside, and they show you lockers to store your belongings at the cave entrance; you’re required to leave your phone there. After depositing our belongings, we boarded a small boat and proceeded inside the cave. The interior of the cave was genuinely mesmerizing, and we were glad we came. Jeita Grotto made it to the final 14 in the New 7 Wonders of the World voting.

Lebanon Mountains

After leaving, we wanted to see the settlements in the mountains. The taxi driver took us to areas where Maronite Christians mostly lived. The air was so clean and cool; the climate suddenly changed. Wealthy people living in Beirut usually have summer houses in these mountains, escaping here in the heat of summer to enjoy plenty of oxygen. In winter, this region is popular for winter sports. As seen, there is a constant demand for the mountains year-round. 🙂

Along the way, we saw plenty of cedar trees, symbolic of the country’s flag. Following the taxi driver’s recommendation, we went to Al Hara Restaurant for lunch. The interior of the venue was designed like a wine cellar, and it had a large terrace outside. Although the place was very crowded, we were the only tourists. If you choose set menus, they serve you dozens of mezes, main courses, desserts, etc. However, we selected what we wanted from the menu since we were not sure, including hummus, kebabs, falafel, among others. The food was delicious.

Lebanese people really love to have fun. After eating a bit, they turned up the music and started dancing. While we were eating on the terrace, a large group in the middle started line dancing to their own songs. We watched them, but after a while, I couldn’t resist my instincts and joined them. Even though I didn’t know anyone, the music was infectious and no one asked “Who is this girl?”. I had a great time. Compared to other countries in the region, I couldn’t have this kind of activity with local people anywhere but Lebanon. 🙂

Harissa

After leaving, our next destination was Harissa, the Sanctuary of Our Lady. For Harissa, we also needed to take a cable car. The cable car took about 15 minutes and moved through the heart of the city.

When we got off, there was the giant statue of Our Lady with open hands towards Beirut, weighing 15 tons. We climbed to the top of the temple using its stairs, the view was amazing.

The entire city, the Mediterranean Sea, and the coastline were literally under our feet. Since sunset was approaching, the sky became very beautiful. My advice is to come here in the hours close to sunset.

Byblos

We watched the sunset from the cable car and arrived in Byblos in the evening. Byblos is one of the oldest cities where life has been continuing on Earth, protected by UNESCO. It is estimated to be an 8000-year-old city. This ancient city is located by the sea, with a small souq (market) and a harbor where shops are located. After wandering around for about 45 minutes, we started to feel the tiredness of the day. We hopped in our taxi and completed our journey, which started at 6:30am, around 9pm.

Lebanese Jeita Grotto, Harissa, and Byblos Tour: Evaluation

After an intense, informative, and very fun day, we said, “Thank goodness we saw these places.” If you want to see Byblos during the daytime, you can complete this tour more quickly without wandering around in the mountains like us. You can arrange the tour exactly as you want.