We spent a week in Byblos sur Mer in late June and enjoyed our stay in what arguable is one of the best waterfront hotels in Lebanon outside Beirut. Don’t expect modern luxury in this hotel, but its vintage charm, large rooms, good location and staff friendliness make it very good choice in the country that clearly has shortage quality hotels. Here are some key facts: Byblos. The town is fascinating place that reflects Lebanon’s ups and downs. Ups: the area – and anywhere we visited in Lebanon – felt perfectly safe and welcoming. Food is great and affordable. Byblos is sort of Lebanese Dubrovnik, great history very lively and entertaining nightlife (but surely not as overcrowded). Beautiful and liberal people of various religions. Lots of international visitors also give Byblos very cosmopolitan feel. Downs: expect frequent power cuts with whole town going dark – luckily just for 10 seconds or so. Beirut and coastal towns north of Beirut are very densely populated giving it a feel of concrete jungle. Outside of Beirut there are not many modern quality hotels. Coastal highway between Beirut and Byblos is heavily congested, there is lot of smog in the area. Drivers – both those in newest Porsches, Range Rovers as well as those in 40-years old falling apart cars - all drive crazy. Hotel location. Right next to Byblos historical port. Plenty of good restaurants, nightlife bars of old souk within 5mins walk...We spent a week in Byblos sur Mer in late June and enjoyed our stay in what arguable is one of the best waterfront hotels in Lebanon outside Beirut. Don’t expect modern luxury in this hotel, but its vintage charm, large rooms, good location and staff friendliness make it very good choice in the country that clearly has shortage quality hotels. Here are some key facts:
Byblos. The town is fascinating place that reflects Lebanon’s ups and downs. Ups: the area – and anywhere we visited in Lebanon – felt perfectly safe and welcoming. Food is great and affordable. Byblos is sort of Lebanese Dubrovnik, great history very lively and entertaining nightlife (but surely not as overcrowded). Beautiful and liberal people of various religions. Lots of international visitors also give Byblos very cosmopolitan feel. Downs: expect frequent power cuts with whole town going dark – luckily just for 10 seconds or so. Beirut and coastal towns north of Beirut are very densely populated giving it a feel of concrete jungle. Outside of Beirut there are not many modern quality hotels. Coastal highway between Beirut and Byblos is heavily congested, there is lot of smog in the area. Drivers – both those in newest Porsches, Range Rovers as well as those in 40-years old falling apart cars - all drive crazy.
Hotel location. Right next to Byblos historical port. Plenty of good restaurants, nightlife bars of old souk within 5mins walk from the hotel. In the summer the hotel location is quite noisy- lots of loud music around, street in front of the hotel is small local street, but still has quite noisy traffic. Overall great location but rather for entertainment not silence.
Hotel standard. Its rooms are large, beds are comfortable but furniture and other infrastructure is quite old. Its rather vintage charm, definitely not modern luxury. Also, Wi-Fi in the hotel is very poor. In the room it did not work at all. It worked reasonably well in the reception, but still speed was very slow. Choice of TV channels – mainly Middle Eastern, but it had CNN and BBC in English too.
Breakfast. Tasty but choice of food and overall layout is bit strange. Not really usual hotel breakfast. Perhaps it’s because it is served in a café that also serves non-resident hotel. Staff during breakfast tries to be helpful but all was quite poorly organized -e.g. they care little to refill coffee kettle or replace coffee cups. We need to repeatedly keep asking for those things. All in all, breakfast was reasonably good.
Beach and pool. The hotel does not have a beach really. Its more sort of concrete harbour with ladder and stairs to enter the water. Water clean and very warm as for June. It was good enough for swimming but its not a thing for small kids. There is a public beach nearby though. The hotel also has very small outdoor pool – its not very attractive but it still was quite popular for both kids and adults.
Other facilities. Byblos sur Mer also seems popular for conferences, wedding parties, etc. In its waterfront area it also has fish restaurant (very good quality food) and area for parties.
Staff. helpful and friendly. We had an early flight and had to miss breakfast so instead they offered us two pizzas for dinner on the night before. This was nice.
Price. In the summer the hotel is quite pricey for what it offers. But from what it does not seem to have much competition. I did not see any other attractive hotels in Byblos. As alternative to Byblos sur Mer I also considered L’Auberge de La Mer in Batroun (see separate review for its restaurant), which was even more expensive.
Conclusion. Overall, we were very happy with Byblos sur Mer. Despite some issues, it its good choice to for summer holidays in fascinating place as Lebanon is.More