Lebanon in winter is not a compromise

Most writing about Lebanon assumes summer, which is understandable and leaves out the half of the year when the country is arguably at its best. Winter here is not a lesser season; it is a different one, and the main thing it removes is other people.

Snow sits above the sea, which is the fact everyone repeats and is genuinely strange to see. What it means practically is that a single day can hold a mountain morning and a coastal afternoon, and the drive between them is under two hours from most of the country.

What closes, and what does not

Coastal beach clubs shut. Mountain guesthouses that are marginal in August become the point of the trip. Town restaurants mostly stay open and get considerably easier to get into.

The honest caveat is that seasonal closures are the hardest thing for any catalogue to keep current, ours included. A place listed as open in this article is a place we hold a record for, not a promise that its door is unlocked in February.