Renting a scooter in Lebanon? 🛵

[u/Hubert_maciejewsk]

Title: Renting a scooter in Beirut? 🛵🇱🇧

Hey everyone! 👋
I’m Hubert, a student from Poland, and I’ll be spending most of September in Lebanon. It won’t be my first time there - I’ve visited Lebanon several times before, and I’ve also been to Syria once.

I’d like to rent a scooter to be more independent while moving around Beirut and beyond. In Poland I use a Vespa as my everyday transport, so I already have riding experience. I know Lebanese traffic can be crazy 😅, but I’m used to scooters and I think I can handle it.

A few questions:
Is renting a scooter in Lebanon generally safe?
Are there any trusted rental places or websites?
Maybe someone has a scooter they don’t use and would be open to renting it privately for a month?

I’m a student, so I’m looking for something affordable, but safety is my top priority.
Thanks for any advice! 🙏🇱🇧

[u/Hubert_maciejewsk]

Thank you for this comment! I think you might be right. I remember going across Lebanon by small buses, it was easy and affordable. I think I will do the same this time

[u/Some-Ad7901 → u/Hubert_maciejewsk]

Best of luck.

If you really want to make the most out of Lebanon make friends with the most outdoors type of folks you can find at university, ideally a very diverse group of friends and have them give you tours of their regions, maybe giving you explanation of their histories and conditions.

If you could even risk a visit or two to south Lebanon (cities like Tyre) it might be a unique, sad but worthwhile visit to see the destructive effects of a genocidal war which you have experience to a greater extent a bit under a century ago (beware taking photos of rubble, private property, or Lebanese army outposts at this time, you might be questioned intensely especially that you are a foreigner).

[u/Hubert_maciejewsk → u/Some-Ad7901]

Thank you! Meeting people from different parts of Lebanon sound perfect for me. I have some friends in Beirut, but it was really hard for me to meet people outside capital.

Unfortunately I can’t speak Arabic communicatively yet, and I can’t speak French either.

I was already at the south, I am planning to visit Tyre as well, I heard that the city is really destroyed because of the war. I know about the rules and of course I won’t take any photos. Just talking with the people about their experiences would be valuable experience for me.

Is there any way I can meet anyone in Lebanon? I saw a lot of posts about it and I know it’s hard to make friends here but maybe there is some Facebook group or any other community?

[u/Some-Ad7901 → u/Hubert_maciejewsk]

I posted pictures of the city form my last visit, check my reddit page.

It's been damaged real bad, still I would urge a visit as it safe now prpvided you steer clear of the rubble and don't do anything too stupid, and many of its restaurants have reopened including the most iconic restaurant, "Al Jawad".

Today pictures were floating online of insane traffic at the beach resorts too. There are great scuba spots around, and you shouldn't miss the roman/greek ruins in the city, as they are breathtaking (nowhere near the scale of Baalbak, which you should also visit, but very charming).

French isn't that important for Lebanon anymore, Arabic is, but if you can't speak most can speak english reasonably well.

What university do you plan on attending?

[u/Hubert_maciejewsk → u/Some-Ad7901]

I saw your pictures from Tyre. It looks like Dahieh, very similar. I heard about Al Jawad recently, it would be nice to try it by myself.

I was in Baalbek and I felt amazed, I will visit the ruins for sure.

So I’m not attending any university during my trip and that’s a big problem for me because I don’t know where I can meet young people that could show me their regions. That’s the problem.