Product Description

Sunlight on the ancient stones of Palmyra and Baalbek, the bustle of the Aleppo souq, the buzz of Beirut's nightlife, the decorative wonders of Damascene houses and picturesque villages beneath Mt Lebanon - our definitive guide is your essential companion in every corner of this diverse and hospitable region.

Tempt Your Tastebuds with our dedicated Food & Drink chapter covering the region's mouth-watering cuisine written by expert authors and chefs

Connect With Culture through our comprehensive exploration of Syrian and Lebanese society and daily life

Unravel The Pastwith our in-depth coverage of the region's lengthy history and myriad historic sites

Find Your Way using our 68 detailed maps, including customized itineraries, maps and a full-color regional map

Talk The Talk with the help of our Arabic language chapter

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63383 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
Lonely Planet guides are a must-pack --Toronto Star, February 2006

Customer Reviews

Your best bet!!
I was so excited to travel through the Middle East as it's not something that happens regularly in the region if you're American. I was wowed by the overall accuracy of the book and while I wasn't taking pictures or shooting video, I was reading my LP guide :).

Aside from a few wrong numbers and a little exaggeration on how "friendly" people are, it was a gold mine of information. The info on Lebanon was great and useful. I only wish I could spend more time there instead of 3 days. For the most part, it really helped in Syria and I stand by the hotel and restaurant recommendations.

Lonely Planet Syria and Lebanon Review
This book is excellent it gives very good tips for travelling in these countries. In fact I always buy Lonely Planet travel guides because it's a guarantee that it will be a good book

Lebanon-4 stars, Syria-2 stars
I can't say I won't recommend this book but I would suggest looking at other travel guides if possible. The Lebanon aspect of the book was much better than the Syria section. The food section for Beirut is knowledgeable and accurate. I was living in Lebanon at the time so I can't speak for the hotel selections accuracy. The book does do a good job on describing the more cultural aspects of Lebanon and what to visit and what is worth a miss.

I spent a bit of time traveling in Syria and I can not give this guide a positive review. This is a complete guess and biased of me but I would think the couple that wrote the book are Lebanese and didn't properly investigate or travel enough to Syria to see the best it has to offer. As with the Lebanon chapter the food section was good, it gives a pretty good description of the eating varieties. The hotel guide was useful in it gave names and phone numbers of hotels in Syria. As for the reviews, well I didn't find them to be accurate or useful in any sense. Some reviews were close and some were completely off base. I do agree with another reviewer that the book misses some really great cultural aspects of the trip that I would have missed if I didn't have friends living in Syria who recommended them.