Celifornia.com blog

Since I moved to Dubai I had no chance of skiing which used to be a yearly “must” for me no matter where life had taken me. A good friend and I were planning a week-long trip to Iran for skiing and sightseeing, but unfortunately the trip was called off as the timing did not come out right after all. So there I was with holiday already requested and approved from the company, and nowhere to go. A quick Google session revealed that Lebanon has the best skiing in the Middle East so I set off to plan my trip there. Read
on for more details.

I had two weeks to cancel everything in Iran and rebook my trip to Lebanon, and this was no minor task. Lucky for me Lebanon has caught up with the world in terms of Internet and online booking, and I was able to do everything in front of my PC, which was not the case of Iran initially. I normally like to search extensively and book things one by one; however, the short time I had did force me to go with a single company who arranges everything. This is how I got to the following site:

http://www.skileb.com

They have a search engine on the site that helps you build a package that suits your needs. I have first chosen my airport pickup and drop off to match my flights, and then chose the hotel and ski pass and my rental snowboard. All this was done at the site believe it or not, and in less than 10 minutes. I paid by card and received all necessary information via E-mail.

The days were going fast and I was ready to set off to Lebanon. I tried taking my snowboard with me to make sure I’ll have proper equipment but the budget airlines I checked and booked on did not allow this. The air fare costs about 1000AED or 300USD return. Check the following for examples:

http://www.flydubai.com
http://www.airarabia.com
http://www.jazeeraairways.com

I flew in late in the evening after a whole day of work, and was picked up by the taxi company skileb.com has arranged. The trip from Beirut International took 1 hour 10 minutes to Faraya, where my accommodation was reserved at. I stayed at Faraya Village Club , a very modest and cheap hotel with all the basic needs covered like hot water, central heating and clean sheets:). I paid about $40 USD per night for my stay and an extra $20USD for the lift passes and snowboard rental.

I went in late March and expected nearly no snow, but to my surprise, the conditions were great. We had about 120cm’s of snow at the base and 180cm’s at the summit and 80% of the lifts were still working. The resort had about 20 or so lifts and about 50 slopes. I had the real “alpine” feeling, by which I mean you set off at one particular place and ski all day without coming back to the same slope even once. They must have had at least 80km’s of slopes open when I was there.

A good mannakish (Pizza like Lebanese bread) at the slope restaurants cost in the range of $2USD and a beer was about $3USD. This obviously meant I was drinking day in and day out, coming from Dubai and the $10USD and above beer prices.

I had no chance in checking the other great ski resort out, the Cedars, but having seen Faraya and how skiing is done there and for how much, I give Lebanon 5 stars for skiing.

Click here to see the Faraya Gallery at Celifornia.com for more pictures, otherwise see a few examples below.

Cheers,
Ben

And here I am with some Lebanese mountain men from the ski rental shop. They were really nice, every morning they greeted me with Coffee and cigarettes, plus a seat near their warm heater.

And Finally some beautiful Roman era ruins between my Hotel and the ski slope

Cheers,
Ben