Getting from Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport to the city

What the advisory actually says about the airport road

• The FCDO advises against all travel to a list of areas in Beirut and its southern suburbs, and the sentence that introduces the list contains an explicit carve-out: "excluding Route 51 from central Beirut to Rafic Hariri International Airport".
• Route 51 is the airport road. Using it to reach or leave the terminal is not travelling against the advice. The areas the advice does cover, including Haret Hraik, Burj Al Barajneh, Ghobeiry and Chiyah, lie around it. The distinction is between staying on the road and leaving it, and it is drawn by the FCDO in so many words.
• This matters beyond geography: travel insurance can be invalidated by travelling against FCDO advice, and consular support is severely limited in those areas. A guide that tells you the airport transfer itself is against advice is wrong about your cover as well as about the map.

The instruction for when the road closes

• The FCDO's transport section is blunt about the real risk: major roads in and out of Beirut, including the roads to and from the airport, have become blocked at short notice.
• Its three instructions are worth following literally. Check your flight status before leaving for the airport. Allow extra time for the journey. If roads from the airport are blocked, wait there until the authorities confirm the access roads are open.
• That last one is the part travellers get wrong. The advice is to stay inside the airport, not to find another way out.

Cars you should not get into

• Do not use shared taxis, known locally as service taxis, or any taxi hailed on the street. The FCDO records armed robberies and physical attacks on passengers in shared taxis, by the driver or by other passengers.
• Use a recognised company with vetted drivers, or a taxi your hotel recognises. The airport's own licensed rank is covered in the next entry.
• The FCDO also records that in 2017 the Lebanese Interior Minister advised people in Lebanon not to use Uber taxis.

The official rank, and its published price list

• The airport's own description: certified taxis park next to the terminal at the arrival gate and carry an airport logo on the side, and because they are regulated by the airport authorities they have a unified official rate.
• The tariff is published by destination, in US dollars, which tells you something about Lebanon that no exchange-rate note can: Beirut $18, Aley $26, Broumana $27, Jbeil (Byblos) $43, Saida $49, Zahle $57, Batroun $60, Sour (Tyre) $76, Tripoli $80, Baalbek $86.
• Quote the destination and the published fare at the rank. That table is the airport's, and it is the reason to use the marked cars rather than anything offered to you inside the hall.

There is no bus

• The airport's Transportation menu has three entries and no more: car rental, airport taxi, airport parking. No bus service, no rail link and no airport shuttle is published by the operator. Plan on a car.
• Car hire desks listed by the airport include Avis, Budget, City Car, Green Motion, Wheego and an IPC service, each with a Lebanese landline and mobile number.

Parking, also in dollars

• $4 for up to one hour. $4.50 from one to two. $5 from two to three. $0.35 for each additional hour after three. $12 for twenty-four hours. A daytime monthly subscription covering 06:00 to 18:00 is $135. VAT is included.
• The car park is operated by Modern Airport Company (MAC) for general services, trading and contracting, Lebanon branch, rather than by the airport directly.

Three standing notices worth reading before you pack

• Passengers coming to Lebanon are not allowed to carry fresh fruits and vegetables. This is an arrivals rule, published by the airport, and it is not one most travellers expect.
• Lithium batteries and power banks are not allowed in checked baggage.
• Be at the airport at least three hours before departure, and note that free wi-fi is limited to one hour in any 72 hours. Flight information is on 150 from any fixed or mobile line in Lebanon.