Tyre is an easy hour and a half hour drive south from Beirut. Many official travel advice recommend against travelling to this part of Lebanon, but the southern border is peaceful now and though the area looks a bit rough around the edges, the double site is very nice. We started with the Al Baas site with ruins of a Roman hippodrome, tombs with holes dug out probably by grave robbers, large cobbled route with a lovely arch. And outside it, a bit of a dishevelled town that makes it really interesting. There's a museum on site, but it's in a process of a very gradual restoration, with no info when it's going to be ready for visitors. To get some information on the site, just read your tour guides before the visit or buy a booklet from the ticket office. There's a parking on-site and the entrance is a bit inconspicuous, so just trust your online maps.

The second site is Al Mina about three kilometres away in a residential area. There is a street across the entrance, we found parking spot easily there. On site are loads of columns, a lovely views of the sea with a submerged harbour. There's also some kind of large rectangular space that we read was apparently an arena for water sports. And a couple of mosaics, but don't expect Old Paphos or Villa Romana. A nice visit we finished by stopping at Sidon by the Crusader castle (there's loads of restaurants opposite it, if you have trouble parking, go to Zawat, they have valet parking for customers and were very cool with us going for a short visit to the castle after our lunch).