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Mira Dandan

Let’s Take A Road Trip To Sannine And Enjoy The Snow This Weekend

Winter is over, and the sunshine is (very, very, very) slowly starting to grace Beirut again. However, look a little further into the distance and you’ll spot a snowy mountain overlooking Beirut. Here is our guide to spending a day in the snow in Sannine and/or Zaarour!

The journey: You can either take the “maten express” highway, or, journey up from Antelias. When you reach Zaarour, instead of continuing up to the Zaarour club, you can continue going straight to reach the mountain. Alternatively, you can head to Baskenta and go up to Qanat Bakish and subsequently reach Sannine from there. Given that there’s not a lot of traffic, this journey should take around 50 minutes.



If you decide to take the Zaarour road, we highly recommend stopping by and having breakfast at either Koukh El Sabaya or our personal favourite, Saj Emm Elias.



For a couple of thousand lira, you can enjoy a fresh man’ouche at a variety of traditional Lebanese flavors, including keshek, awarma, labne and zaatar. If the sun is out, you can even enjoy these outside while gazing at the blanket of snow covering the mountains.



Once you’re done, we recommend driving further up the mountain and choosing from an array of activities.

Ski: You can continue to Zaarour club to ski or sledge, or, for younger children, head to the tiny piste in Sannine’s Snow Land hotel. Alternatively, you may find some cheap sledges on the way to the mountains to buy for your kids to have fun with in the slow without entering the expensive resorts. This is normal for the area, and you’ll see tons of families and children sledging on the open snow.



Hiking: You can rent some snowshoes from any sports shop on your way and hike up the mountain of Sannine. This can be dangerous where there’s fog, so we don’t recommend going alone or without anyone who has experience in hiking. Luckily, there are tons of activity groups that regularly go on hikes to Sannine so keep your eyes peeled for these both on our website, and on FB. Luckily, there’s one coming up next week! Click here to check it out!



If you can, hiking to the cedar trees in Sannine is the most thrilling experience which we highly recommend. From Qanat Bakish, this could take about an hour of snowshoeing. We don’t recommend hiking without any snow shoes as the snow is so deep that you’ll find yourself sinking into it!



Picnic/BBQ: Seeing people perched on the snow with their man2al, plastic tables and chairs is not a rare sight in Sannine or in Zaarour. Bring these along and plant them in the sun to enjoy a lovely BBQ and/or lunch. The kids will be busy building snowmen or having snow fights so you can kick back and relax while enjoying the stunning view for the rest of the afternoon.



When you’re done, and if the weather and your car permits (since the snow from the road probably won’t be cleared completely), you can journey up into the small village of Sannine and fill up water from the fresh nabaa’ for your home.

Journey back: We recommend leaving Sannine/Zaarour before it gets dark around the 4.30/5pm mark to make sure your journey back is safe.