Private Baalbek, Saint Thomas & Ksara Winery Tour | from Beirut

Your driver meets the group at your Beirut hotel and heads east on the Damascus highway — over the Lebanese mountains and into the Bekaa Valley. First stop is Chateau Saint Thomas, about an hour away.

Begin at Chateau Saint Thomas — a respected family-owned estate producing wines from vineyards at over 1,000 metres altitude in the Bekaa. High elevation and cool nights create growing conditions of real complexity — wines that earn international medals and consistently surprise visitors who arrive expecting something more modest. The guided cellar tour covers the winemaking process before a tasting of the estate's acclaimed Cabernet Sauvignon, full-bodied red blends, and elegant whites. A quiet, confident opener that sets the right tone before Baalbek.

A single limestone block, 21 metres long, weighing 1,000 tonnes, cut 2,000 years ago and never moved. Your driver explains the engineering logic — and why standing next to it recalibrates your sense of what is waiting five minutes ahead at the temple complex.

The greatest Roman temple complex on earth — with an expert local guide who knows these structures at a depth that visiting guides cannot match. The Temple of Jupiter on Trilithon stones each weighing over 800 tonnes. The Temple of Bacchus — larger than the Parthenon, almost entirely intact, the best-preserved Roman temple on earth. The Temple of Venus completing a complex that took three centuries. After a morning at a high-altitude winery in the same valley, the Roman scale of Baalbek hits differently — your guide makes the connections between the valley's ancient and modern production of exceptional things.

Lebanese mezze in Baalbek or at the riverside terraces of Zahle — Lebanon's most celebrated food destination. Optional and at your own expense. Your driver recommends the best options for the group.

End the day at Lebanon's oldest winery — founded by Jesuit monks in 1857 above 2 kilometres of Roman cave cellars where wine ages at a naturally constant temperature year-round. After the temples of Baalbek, these Roman tunnels feel like a continuation rather than a new stop — the same civilisation, the same valley, a completely different kind of monument. A tasting of Ksara's iconic Cabernet-Syrah blends, crisp Blanc de Blancs, and celebrated Sunset Rosé closes a day that started with Lebanese wine, peaked at Rome's greatest achievement, and ends underground. Done properly.

6:00 PM Drop-off at your Beirut hotel. Wine, temples, Roman wine caves — the Bekaa Valley as one coherent story, from the morning's first cellar tour to the afternoon's last tasting. Done properly.