Private Sidon, Tyre & Maghdouche Tour | Local Tyre Guide Included

5.0 (7 reviews) 8 hours Free cancellation Private tour

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7 reviews

5.0

Private Sidon, Tyre & Maghdouche Tour | Local Tyre Guide Included — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

Private Sidon, Tyre & Maghdouche Tour | Local Tyre Guide Included, photo 2 — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

About this activity

South Lebanon is the part of the country most first-time visitors skip — and the part that most experienced Lebanon travelers say they wish they had gone to sooner. This private day trip covers three destinations that together span 5,000 years of Phoenician, Crusader, Roman. At your own pace, with an expert local guide at the site where it matters most.

Sidon: a 13th-century Crusader sea castle, the world's only olive oil soap museum, a living medieval souk, and a Silk Road caravanserai. Tyre: a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the Al-Bass complex — triumphal arch, colonnaded necropolis street, and a Roman hippodrome built for 20,000 spectators — is explored with an expert local guide who knows every stone. Maghdouché: the hilltop sanctuary where Mantara — "the one who waits" in Arabic — marks where the Virgin Mary is held to have waited while Jesus preached in Sidon below, revered by Christians and Muslims for two millennia. Private vehicle throughout. Tickets payable on site.

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At a glance

Duration: 8 hours
Confirmation: Instant confirmation
Ticket: Mobile or paper ticket accepted
Group: Your group only
People per booking: 1–9
Guide: Arabic, English
Operated by: Beirut Daily Tours

Ages: Adults (0–99 years)

What is included

Included

Included: Knowledgeable English-speaking driver
Included: Private air-conditioned vehicle exclusively for your group
Included: Soap Museum — world's only olive oil soap museum
Included: Sidon Sea Castle visit
Included: Hotel pickup and drop-off in Beirut
Included: Expert local guide at Tyre Al-Bass archaeological complex
Included: 30-minute walk through Sidon Old Souks

Not included

Not included: Gratuities (optional)
Not included: Lunch in Tyre (optional — at own expense)

Itinerary

Beirut

Passing by

9:00 AM — Hotel pickup

Your driver meets the group at your Beirut hotel and heads south along the Mediterranean coastal highway toward Sidon.
Crusaders Sea Castle

30 min Admission not included

Sidon Sea Castle — Crusader fortress on the water

A 13th-century Crusader fortress on a small island just off the coast, connected to shore by a narrow stone causeway with open sea on both sides. Phoenician traders were using this harbour 3,000 years before the Crusaders built here. Your driver covers the full layered history from the castle ramparts — Phoenician port to Crusader fortress to Mamluk conquest — at your own pace.
Sidon Souks

one hour

Sidon Old Souks — the real thing, not renovated for tourism

Stone-vaulted alleyways where spice merchants, goldsmiths, and artisan workshops have traded continuously for centuries — not curated, not renovated, just functioning exactly as it always has. Your driver navigates with local knowledge and points out what makes Sidon's market different from every other souk in Lebanon.
Stop 4

30 min Admission not included

Soap Museum — the only olive oil soap museum on earth

Sidon has been producing olive oil soap for over a thousand years — and this museum, the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, tells the complete story from olive grove to finished bar. Housed in a beautifully restored khan in the old city. A stop that most travelers did not know they wanted until they are inside it.
Khan al-Franj

15 min

Khan el Franj — where the Silk Road met the Mediterranean

A 17th-century caravanserai built by Emir Fakhreddine II for European merchants trading along the Silk Road — arcaded courtyards, vaulted galleries, carved stone facades. One of the finest Ottoman buildings in Lebanon and a fitting close to Sidon before heading south.
Al-Bass Archaeological Site

one hour Admission not included

Al-Bass Archaeological Complex — expert local guide joins here

Arrive in Tyre and meet your expert local guide — someone who has spent years studying this site and who knows its Roman and Phoenician layers at a depth that visiting guides cannot match. Enter through a triumphal arch still standing after two thousand years. Walk a colonnaded street flanked by ancient sarcophagi from the Roman necropolis. Reach the Tyre Hippodrome — one of the largest in the Roman world, built for 20,000 spectators on a 480-metre track, starting gates and turning posts still in place. Your guide places every structure in its full historical context — the kind of visit where you leave knowing what you actually saw.
Tyre

one hour

Lunch in Tyre — optional

Fresh Lebanese mezze and seafood at a local Tyre restaurant — Mediterranean right there, ancient city as backdrop. Optional and at your own expense. Your driver recommends the best local spots.
Stop 8

15 min

Basilica of Our Lady of Mantara — where she waited

Mantara means "the one who waits" in Arabic. Christian tradition holds that the Virgin Mary waited in a cave on this hilltop while Jesus preached in Sidon below — a place of pilgrimage for two millennia, revered equally by Christians and Muslims. The Basilica stands above the ancient cave. Panoramic views over the southern Lebanese coast. A quiet, unexpected close to a day that covered 5,000 years of history along the way.
Beirut

Passing by

Return to Beirut — approx. 5:30–6:30 PM

Drop-off at your Beirut hotel. Sidon's Phoenician-to-Ottoman layers, the Roman world of Tyre with a local expert, and the pilgrimage sanctuary of Maghdouché — south Lebanon done properly.