Originally Posted by
Pausanias
Sorry to hear about your problems which forced you to cut short your trip. However, I am hugely impressed by your intrepidness - renting a car is something I'd not ever regarded as doing in Lebanon. The area around Baalbek is very close to areas of the Bekaa Valley/Syrian border areas which have significant security concerns. Here's our current Foreign Office advice which, I know, always errs on caution - -
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/lebanon
I just wouldn't want to take a wrong turning or have a wayward satnav.
Yeah - the Aussie foreign advice is do not travel even to Baalbek which is apparently ridiculous. We'd probably try and head from Baalbek to Bsharri and then down the mountain to Byblos from there. This does take us kind of around the 'trouble zone'. I'm a little blase about all this though (not recklessly so). Someone asked me about safety in Egypt because a bomb went off near the pyramids. I said I go to Paris a few times of year and would say risk on paper is just as high there. The next day a bomb went off in Lyon.
Edit: Just checked Aus, UK and US travel advice and the Aus one seems the most restrictive by far. UK looks like just all but essential travel, not do not travel.