Accommodation in Beirut - Finding a place to stay

Last week, Shane, an Irish guy who is planning to move to Beirut in the near future, asked for my help in finding an affordable and central accommodation in Beirut.

Since I couldn't come up with a decent suggestion he found this interesting site and asked me to check it out for him and advise on the place.

So I followed the directions on this hand drawn map:

at first I found it hard to find the little alley between el Mandaloune grill and the Coral gaz station. In fact the alley is so tiny that I passed it twice without noticing it (see it's behind the orange 'thing')


Taking down the alley, I was surprised to see this nice old building that serves as an Arabic language learning institute

Further down, this private garden that serves as a snack for the hostel , (you can see 2um Nazih baking on her Saj)

I give it to you, it's not the Grey or the Four seasons, but one could not but admire the old house architecture under renovation

below the reception,

and the double room setting :

Now comes the most interesting part : the rates that will highly interest any student or NGO worker such as Shane (25usd per night the single room on a monthly rate) also available, a shared dorm option.

Now why am I blogging about it ?

1 - I never knew we have such places in Lebanon

2 - I found it cute,decent and suitable for students / foreigners / tourists who cannot afford the expensive luxurious hotels we have... so spread the news

3 - On that same day , there was a candle light march in Beirut for preserving such old buildings from being destroyed and replaced by modern towers

A good example of how we can take advantage of those charming structures without destroying them.

Voila...