Bekaa Valley tour from Beirut: Anjar, Baalbek & Ksara

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/11

Duration9h

GroupUp to 12

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Three completely different chapters of the same valley, connected by one guide who makes them cohere.

A guided small-group tour of the Bekaa Valley from Beirut covering Anjar, Baalbek and Chateau Ksara, with hotel pickup, lunch at a local restaurant, and entry to the archaeological sites — the guide connects the Umayyad city, the Roman temples and the ancient wine caves into one coherent story instead of three separate stops. You choose at checkout whether to add lunch and tickets or book the guided tour alone; gratuities are optional.

Step-by-step itinerary

The Experience

Hotel pickup happens at 8:30 AM, and the drive east over the Lebanese mountains takes about an hour to reach Anjar. Most tour groups skip it entirely — a complete Umayyad palatial city built in the early 8th century by Caliph Walid I and abandoned within decades, never reoccupied. Colonnaded streets, a palace with over 40 towers, a mosque, bathhouses: all still standing, and the only surviving example of its kind in the entire Levant. Your guide explains why the buses are wrong to pass it by, and what the layout tells you about how the city actually functioned before it was abandoned.

The drive to Baalbek passes the Stone of the Pregnant Woman — a single limestone block 21 metres long, weighing 1,000 tonnes, cut 2,000 years ago and still lying in the quarry where it was abandoned. Standing next to it recalibrates your sense of scale before you reach the temple complex. Baalbek itself is where the guide earns the booking: the Temple of Jupiter sits on Trilithon stones each weighing over 800 tonnes — the largest dressed stones in human history. The Temple of Bacchus, larger than the Parthenon and almost entirely intact, is the best-preserved Roman temple on earth. The Temple of Venus completes a complex that took three centuries to build. Without context, the site is overwhelming; with the right guide, every column and courtyard makes sense.

Lunch is included in two of the three options — Lebanese mezze and grilled meats either in Baalbek or at the riverside restaurant terraces of Zahle, Lebanon's most celebrated food destination, depending on timing and group preference. The afternoon continues at Chateau Ksara, founded by Jesuit monks in 1857 above 2 kilometres of Roman cave cellars. The cave tour comes first — ancient tunnels at a naturally constant temperature year-round — then a tasting of Ksara's wines. Your guide connects the dots between the morning temples and the afternoon caves, making the winery feel like a continuation of Baalbek rather than a separate stop. Drop-off at your Beirut hotel happens around 6:00–7:00 PM.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off in Beirut.
air-conditioned vehicle.
full guided exploration of Baalbek and Anjar with a professional expert guide in English.
lunch at a local restaurant (included in two of the three options).
entry to Anjar and Baalbek (included in the "Guided Tour + Lunch + Tickets" option).
cave tour and wine tasting at Chateau Ksara.

Good to know

Easy physical levelInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Beirut Daily Tours

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want the Bekaa Valley explained rather than simply seen — the guide transforms three separate archaeological sites into one coherent story, which is what separates a morning of impressive stops from an afternoon that actually makes sense. Choose the "Guided Tour + Lunch + Tickets" option if you want everything arranged; pick "Guided Tour + Lunch" or "Guided Tour Without Lunch" if you prefer to add entry tickets separately or skip the included meal.