"The sun and the snow make it too much delicious.” My driver was describing the apples that grow in his beloved mountain region of Faraya, but he could just as well have been talking about Lebanon as a whole. Barely a 90-minute flight from Cairo, Lebanon is one of the region’s most comprehensive destinations and one of its coziest countries.

The Lebanese Mountains partition the country’s 10,230 square meters into a narrow, hilly, densely populated coastline and the flat farmland of the Bekaa Valley. Lebanon’s 225 kilometers of coast could fit into our very own El-Sahel, which stretches some 290 kilometers between Alexandria and Marsa Matruh, with room to spare.

In March, I set out to see how much you could do with three full days in Lebanon. Teetering on the edge of winter and spring, this is a prime time to explore the country: The mountains are still snow-draped, while the coast and valleys are starting to show their colors.

My flight with Middle East Airlines from Cairo landed in Beirut in the mid-afternoon, so I headed to the Markazia Monroe Suites, about 20 minutes from the airport and well-placed in the heart of the city. Within a five-minute walk is Solidere, the pedestrian square that has become a tourist magnet, with big name shopping from Virgin Records to Bang & Olafson, as well as street-side restaurants and argileh (shisha) cafes. Next to Solidere is Martyr’s Square with the imposing Ottoman-style Mohammed al-Amin Mosque and the tomb of slain Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A five-minute drive brings you to Gemmayze, a narrow, bar-lined street that has replaced Solidere as the local party scene, while an almost equally quick drive gets you to Roucheh in time for a sunset photo of the landmark Pigeon Rocks and a stroll along the Corniche.

I kicked off day one at Jeita Grotto, a worthy candidate in the New 7 Wonders of Nature competition (www.n7w.com). Just 20 kilometers and half an hour away from Beirut, the grotto is a two-level cavern of stunning stalactites and stalagmites. A short cable-car ride takes you up the tree-lined draw to the Upper Grotto, which has a 750-meter walking path among the white limestone formations, in places descending like inelegant pleated icicles and in others rising from the floor as mammoth hoary-headed mushrooms.

Kate Durham Quiet during the week, Solidere comes to life on the weekends.

The Lower Grotto is accessible only by boat, taking you 450 meters along an underground river lined with stalactites spilling down like frozen waterfalls. During the spring, the Lower Grotto is closed for a couple of weeks because the waters are too high for the boats to enter the cave.

From a natural wonder to the ancient,:About 45 minutes from Jeita and 40 kilometers north of Beirut is Jbeil, better known as Byblos on the tourist map. A UNESCO World Heritage site, this relatively compact plot of land overlooking the Mediterranean is the oldest known stone settlement in the world: Humans have continuously lived in Byblos for more than 8,000 years. Remains of Neolithic burial plots circa 6,000 BC abut a hill topped by a nineteenth-century Ottoman house. From the ramparts of the Crusader castle built in the 1100s, you can see remains of a Roman theater near the royal Phoenecian tombs dating back to 1200 BC.

If it sounds like a hodgepodge, that’s because it is. The residents of Byblos believed in recycling, with each dynasty using the stones from previous eras. So the square stones of the Crusader castle are interspersed with round cross-sections of Roman-era columns, for example. The castle has a well-arranged site museum to educate the independent wanderer, or you can hire a guide for about $15 (LE 84) at the ticket office (entrance: 7,000 LBP or about $4.6 (LE 26)).

The twenty-first century contribution to the old city of Byblos is an impossibly cute pedestrian village edging the archeological site. In addition to the requisite souq (a market containing much of the same Oriental kitsch as is found in Cairo’s Khan El-Khalili), there are a few restaurants, art galleries and smaller museums, including the Wax Museum and the Fossil Museum. The latter has an intriguing collection of 100-million-year-old fish skeletons trapped in rock found in the nearby hills some 800 meters above sea level.

It is possible to base your stay at one of the Jbeil hotels, including the five-star Castel Mare Beach Hotel & Resort, or you could opt for one of the resorts near the Casino Du Liban, about 15 kilometers away in Jneih.

Courtesy Jeita Grotto Jeita Grotto is vying to become one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

On our way into the mountains, my colleagues and I stopped at Harissa (www.harissa.info) with its landmark Notre Dame du Beirut. Stationed about 600 meters above sea level, this 100-year-old statue of the Virgin Mary rises above one of the best overlooks of the coast, with the cities of Jneih and Beirut sprawling down the mountain slopes. The domed Church of Saint Paul looks like it would be right at home on the Vatican grounds and houses some notable mosaics. The Cathedral of Notre Dame du Beirut, where the monumental Madonna is actually located, has a more contemporary design of gray metallic pleats sweeping upward.

The road to Harissa has other overlooks in the form of strategically placed restaurants and cafes. Or, for a bird’s eye view, a cable car ascends above the slope from the Belvedere in Jneih.

On the coast, the temperature was a delightfully unseasonable 22 degrees Celsius. In less than an hour after leaving Byblos, we had reached the snowline, and as we drove up to Oyoune El Simane, Kafrdebaine, I watched the car’s temperature readout steadily drop. By the time we reached the InterContinental Mzaar Lebanon Mountain Resort & Spa, it was six degrees.

Playing in the snow was the agenda item for day two. Mzaar is one of four main ski areas in Lebanon, the others being The Cedars, 122 kilometers north of Beirut; Laqlouq, 62 kilometers; and Zaarour, 35 kilometers. At 53 kilometers from Beirut, Mzaar and the nearby village of Faraya (with its famed apples) are a preferred winter weekend getaway for city dwellers.

Sylva Hagop The Mzaar ski domain is a popular weekend getaway for Beirutis.

The ski domain has three peaks with 18 slopes of varying difficulty, all the way up to pro. As one of the very few natural ski areas in the Middle East, Mzaar is well-equipped to handle us desert dwellers with four different beginner slopes. I passed Baby One slope and flunked Baby Two with flying colors – emphasis on flying. Personally, my favorite part of skiing is the chairlift. You get to sit down, bask in the sun and watch all the action on the slopes around you. Toward the end of the ski season, daytime temperatures on the mountain in March and April can peak in the low 20s, and on a sunny day you’ll see many skiers and snowboarders engage in high-speed tanning, zipping by in their water-resistant ski pants and sleeveless shirts.

Cross-country (Nordic) skiers can use the chairlift to reach the mountain plateaus, with trails at the Mzaar, Laqlouq and The Cedars domains. We had planned an afternoon Skidoo tour of the Mzaar area, but my equally inexperienced colleague and I were having so much fun scraping ourselves off the snow that before we knew it, the sun was sinking toward the Mediterranean – taking the temperature down with it.

While perhaps not as frequented during the warmer seasons, Lebanon’s mountain ranges are beautiful in the summer, with hiking trails through the greenery and whitewater rafting opportunities that follow the rivers’ descent down the slopes. The chairlifts takes you up to the peak of Mount Mzaar for trekking, mountain biking and even paragliding. A short distance from the Mzaar ski domain are the Roman ruins of Faqra, as well as a picturesque natural stone bridge spanning a small river.

In the summer, it only takes 45 minutes by car to get from Mzaar to the famed ruins of Baalbek. In the winter, the shortest, safest route takes about two and a half hours, descending into a narrow valley before climbing another peak to the east side of the mountain range. Along the way, you pass through apple-growing country up into forests of pine trees, which produce the pine nuts that are a staple of Lebanese cuisine. The small mountain towns are lined with picturesque villas roofed with orange tiles and faced with stone quarried from the same mountains on which they perch.

As you crest the mountain ridge, you have an amazing vista of the Bekaa Valley. Around us, gray rocks and patches of dirt were starting to peek through a melting snow blanket, while in the distance was another snowcapped mountain range marking the Syrian border. Below was a green expanse so flat it looked freshly pressed, neatly partitioned in farmable plots. The Bekaa Valley is known for its grapes, and there are a number of Lebanese vineyards open for visits, including Chateau Kefraya (Tel: +961-8-645333 or 444 www.chateaukefraya.com) or Chateau Ksara in Ghazir. (Tel: +961-8-813495 ext. 104 www.ksara.com.lb). A third vineyard open for tours is Chateau Musar (Tel: +961-1-201828, 328111, or 328211 Email: www.chateaumusar.com.lb)

Just 70 kilometers from Zahle, where you enter the valley, Baalbek shelters the temple complex for the ancient Roman gods Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The temple of wine god Bacchus is one of the best-preserved in the world, with walls and columns standing in proud testament to the valley’s fertile reputation. The classical music performances during the Baalbek International Festival (www.baalbeck.org.lb), held on weekends in late July and August, are actually held inside the Bacchus temple because of its good acoustics and intimate setting. The larger acts take place in and around the Jupiter temple, most of which has fallen during earthquakes over the millennia.

Like Byblos, Baalbek has a well-arranged museum located in one of the ancient tunnels running beneath Jupiter’s sacrificial court. To understand a lot of the site’s history in a short time, hire a guide for $20 (LE 112) for an hour-long tour. For shutterbugs, the ruins offer at least two hours of dramatic photo ops.

From Baalbek, it’s a 90-minute drive across the mountains to Beirut. The capital’s weekend runs Saturday-Sunday, with Saturday being the big night out. Gemmayze Street took off as a nightspot about three years ago; now there are dozens of watering holes with more opening monthly, it seems. (The still-under-development website GemmayzeStreet.com will attempt to keep tabs on all of them.)

Barhopping is a capital sport in Gemmayze. The newly opened G-Bar (Tel: +961 (01) 444111 or (03) 140110) has an art gallery feel, jovial bartenders trying to perfect moves out of the 1988 film Cocktail, and a DJ that keeps the place bouncing like a dance club. The restaurant-bar Sepia (Tel: +961 (01) 577666 or (07) 705200) has meshed Buddha Bar sensuality with Euro palatial décor: Never has something felt so boudoir without actually looking the part. Just down the street, the barely decorated Lab 29 (Tel: +961 (01) 566969) had a jammin’ 80s night going on, proving that grown-ups just want to have fun.

What didn’t I do? The fourteenth-century Crusader castle at Tripoli, for one, and the ancient Phoenician city at Tyre, and the Cedar Forest, and the Beirut National Museum, and the birthplace of poet Khalil Gibran in Bcharre and, well, you get the idea. Heading back to the airport after just three hours of sleep, I fuzzily realized that you can do a lot in Lebanon in three days. To do Lebanon right, however, you’re going to need a lot more weekends. et

Currency: $1:1,500 Lebanese lira (LBP). Businesses accept both US dollars and lira.

Getting there: Middle East Airlines (www.mea.com.lb) has a daily Cairo-Beirut flight, arriving in Beirut about 2:30pm, arriving in Cairo around 12pm. Egyptair (www.egyptair.com) has daily flights arriving in Beirut at about 8pm, plus earlier flights depending on your departure day.

Lebanese Ministry of Tourism

www.destinationlebanon.gov.lb

Markazeya Monroe Suites Syria Street, Solidere, Beirut Tel: +961 (01) 991200 Email: reservations@monroebeirut.com www.monroebeirut.com

Monroe Hotel Kennedy Street, Solidere, Beirut Tel: +961 (01) 371122 Email: info@monroebeirut.com www.monroebeirut.com

InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut Downtown Beirut Tel: +961-1-369100 www.intercontinental.com

InterContinental Le Vendome Beirut Ain Mreysseh, Beirut Tel: +961-1-369280 www.intercontinental.com

InterContinental Mzaar Lebanon Mountain Resort & Spa Ouyoune El Simane, Kfardebiane Tel: +961 (09) 340100, (03) 777991 Email: mzaar.resort@icmzaar.com www.intercontinental.com

Jeita Grotto www.jeitagrotto.com Email: mapas@jeitagrotto.com Summer hours, 9am – 6pm daily; Winter hours, 9am-5pm, closed Mondays Admission: adults 18,150 LBP (LE 68), children 10,175 LBP (LE 38)

Mountain activities www.skimzaar.com www.skileb.com (includes itineraries for summer activities) www.skifarayamzaar.com