Beirut · بيروت
Walk Beirut with two Beirutis in your ear
Maya and Karim tell ten walks through their city and seven day trips beyond it, with a film on its five thousand years and the dishes to order tonight. It opens in your phone’s browser, with nothing to install.
- 10 walks in the city
- 7 day trips
- 14 minute film
- 51 dishes to try
Maya and Karim
Press play to hear them start a walk through Gemmayzeh.
The opening of the Gemmayzeh walk
Opening soon
The Beirut guide opens to every traveller soon
Guests of the hotels that work with Flâne already have it in their rooms. Write to us, and we will tell you the day it opens to everyone.
The walks
Ten walks, drawn in gold across the city
From the Pigeon Rocks to the Armenian bakeries of Bourj Hammoud, 89 stops over 27 km. Each walk takes between 1 h 15 and 2 h at an easy pace, and every stop tells you where to stand and what to look for.
- 1The rebuilt centre, from Martyrs’ Square to the SerailDowntownFree2.4 km
1 h 50 - 2Stairs, houses and the railwayGemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael2.4 km
1 h 40 - 3From College Hall to the Sanayeh gardenRas Beirut, Hamra and Sanayeh2.6 km
1 h 30 - 4The Corniche from Ain el-Mreisseh to the Pigeon RocksAin el-Mreisseh to Raouché3.9 km
2 h - 5Along the Green Line, Martyrs’ Square to the pinesMartyrs’ Square to the Horsh3.8 km
2 h - 6The grand hotels of the bayMinet el-Hosn and the waterfront2.2 km
1 h 30 - 7The Sursock ridge and AchrafiehAchrafieh3.1 km
2 h - 8The seaward old town, from the tell to Wadi Abu JamilDowntown2 km
1 h 20 - 9Mansions of Kantari and Zokak el-BlatKantari and Zokak el-Blat2.2 km
1 h 15 - 10The Armenian table across the riverBourj Hammoud2.2 km
1 h 40
Where they take you
Every walk is a story with its own streets
Stairs where the neighbours hold film nights, the palaces of the Sursock ridge, the old front line now lined with pines and museums, and the Corniche at the hour everyone comes out.
Maya and KarimDowntown
The rebuilt centre, from Martyrs’ Square to the Serail
From Martyrs’ Square and the Egg, past cathedrals, mosques and Roman streets, up to the Ottoman barracks where Lebanon is governed.
Maya and KarimGemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael
Stairs, houses and the railway
Along the old road east, from the Mar Maroun church down Rue Gouraud and Armenia Street to the railway station, by the St Nicholas stairs, the electricity tower lifted to show the sea and a doctor’s hidden orchard.
Maya and KarimRas Beirut, Hamra and Sanayeh
From College Hall to the Sanayeh garden
Through the American University’s nineteenth-century campus and down Hamra Street’s cafés and cinemas to the Ottoman crafts school that gave Sanayeh its name.
Maya and KarimAin el-Mreisseh to Raouché
The Corniche from Ain el-Mreisseh to the Pigeon Rocks
Along the seafront promenade from the fishermen’s cove of Ain el-Mreisseh past the university and both Manara lighthouses to the Pigeon Rocks and the headland of Dalieh.
Maya and KarimMartyrs’ Square to the Horsh
Along the Green Line, Martyrs’ Square to the pines
Down the Damascus Road past Beit Beirut, the cemetery walls and the National Museum, then along the old Museum crossing to the Résidence des Pins and the pine forest.
Maya and KarimMinet el-Hosn and the waterfront
The grand hotels of the bay
From a view of the port along the marina to the St Georges and the Phoenicia, and up to the two towers left from the Battle of the Hotels.
Maya and KarimAchrafieh
The Sursock ridge and Achrafieh
From the top of the St Nicholas stairs along Rue Sursock, past the villas, the museum and the foreign ministry, over the hill by Mar Mitr and Sassine and down to the Jesuit university.
Maya and KarimDowntown
The seaward old town, from the tell to Wadi Abu Jamil
From the mound where Beirut began, along the Mandate streets and the edge of the souks, to the old Jewish quarter below the Serail.
Maya and KarimKantari and Zokak el-Blat
Mansions of Kantari and Zokak el-Blat
From an Armenian college on Rue Mexique over the Kantari hill, past the presidents’ church and the Murr Tower, to the villas of the late Ottoman years on either side of the ring road.
Maya and KarimBourj Hammoud
The Armenian table across the river
Over the Beirut River into Bourj Hammoud, the town Armenian refugees built from the late 1920s, along Arax Street to the bakeries and the churches of the home-town associations, ending with basterma on Armenia Street.
How a walk works
Put your phone in your pocket and listen
Choose a walk
Press Listen, and Maya and Karim start by telling you how long it takes and what you are about to see.
Follow the map
It takes you to the first stop, and each stop opens by itself when you reach it.
Look up
At every stop they tell you where to stand and what to find, with photographs of the details and of how the street once looked.
Go at your own pace
Pause for a coffee, come back tomorrow, or save the walk before you set out and it plays without mobile data.
The film
The story of Beirut
14 minutes told over a living map of the city, from the Phoenician port to the streets you will walk tomorrow, with Maya and Karim telling it between them.
Free, whenever you like
Weygand Street in 1945, crowded with buses and shoppers
Beyond Beirut
Seven day trips, each with a walk of its own
Byblos, Batroun, Tripoli, Sidon, the emirs’ towns of the Chouf, Harissa by cable car and the Qadisha valley, each with the drive, the best time to go and where to eat once you are there, and a walk you take on the spot.
38 km · 45 to 60 min by car
Byblosجبيل
Where the pharaohs bought their cedar and the Greeks got their word for book.
54 km · 55 to 75 min by car
Batrounالبترون
Swim below a sea wall cut from fossil dunes, then drink the town’s lemonade.
80 km · 75 to 105 min by car
Tripoliطرابلس
Mamluk souks still trading under a Crusader castle, and Niemeyer’s unfinished fairground.
20 km · 30 to 45 min by car
Jeita and Harissaمغارة جعيتا وحريصا
Take a boat into the mountain, then a cable car up to Our Lady.
116 km · 120 to 150 min by car
Qadisha and the Cedarsوادي قاديشا وأرز الرب
Monasteries cut into a holy gorge, with Gibran’s tomb and the old cedars above.
42 km · 60 to 75 min by car
Beiteddine and Deir el-Qamarبيت الدين ودير القمر
Where Lebanon’s emirs ruled, from a stone square and a palace of fountains.
44 km · 45 to 60 min by car
Sidonصيدا
The port Homer praised for its craftsmen, with a Crusader castle in the sea.
And between the walks
What to eat, and how the city was built
Food
51 dishes, and how to order them
From the mezze table to the Armenian counters of Bourj Hammoud, with how to say each one.
Beirut’s Architecture
Seven stories of its houses
Why the old houses have three arched windows, and what the red roofs came from.
The city that isn’t there
18 places now gone
The tramway, the old town walls and the Rivoli cinema on Martyrs’ Square, drawn back where they stood.
The price
Start with a walk on us
The walk through the rebuilt centre, the film and the food guide are free. Everything else opens with one payment, kept for good.
$29once, for all of Beirut
- 10 walks through the city with Maya and Karim
- 7 day trips, each with a walk on the spot
- Beirut’s Architecture and the places now gone
- Every walk and trip we add to Beirut later
Or every city Flâne opens, for $129 a year.
Tell me when it opensIf you are staying at a hotel that works with Flâne, scan the card in your room and the whole guide is yours for your stay, with every city Flâne opens at 40% less for the year. If you run a hotel yourself, here is Flâne for hotels.
Questions
Before you set out
Do I need to download an app?
Flâne opens in your phone’s browser with nothing to download, and you can add it to your home screen so it opens like an app.
Does it work without mobile data?
Save a walk before you set out and it plays offline, with its voices, photographs and map.
How long are the walks?
The city walks run from 2 to 3.9 km and take 1 h 15 to 2 h at an easy pace, with cafés on the way. You can stop and pick up where you left off.
What language is it in?
It is in English, and Maya and Karim say the names of streets and dishes the way Beirutis say them.
Where do the day trips start?
Each trip page gives the drive from Beirut and the best hour to arrive, with places to eat nearby. Its walk starts when you reach the old town.
My hotel gave me a card with a QR code
Scan it with your phone’s camera. Your hotel has already paid for your guide, so every walk opens for your stay, with the hotel’s own recommendations inside.