The village of Rachiine was featured in the Lebanese English language newspaper, The Daily Star, last Friday, as a must see tourist destination. Congratulations to those who got the newspaper to report on its attractions. Even Ehden got a mention, with the suggestion that it will be crowded this summer.

The article appears on the Full Story page.
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We reported last week that, zgharta.com nominated the Horsh Ehden as a candidate in the, New 7 Wonders of Nature, campaign organised by the New 7 Wonders Foundation, having found no one had.

This week there has been widespread coverage in the Lebanese media of the nomination of the Jeita Grotto. All free publicity, which the Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve is missing.

To add insult to injury, we received an email asking that we vote for the Grotto !

Equally as well, having informed the Reserve of our nomination for them and the need to organise a committee to stand a chance in winning, we have heard nothing in reply.

Perhaps more serious are reports of forest fires in Lebanon already. Still no news if the Reserve has been able to gain either Governmental or voluntary assistance for a fire fighting vehicle.

The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism's website, www.destinationlebanon.gov.lb features Lebanon's nature reserves and tourist towns and villages.

From the nature reserve section you can download a 26 page colour guide for the Horsh Ehden, showing how to get there, the trails, places to stop on route, including Ehden, with photographs and maps.

Also from the website you can download 23 guide books of the main areas in Lebanon, including a 30 page guide for Zgharta Zawie, featuring road maps, towns and villages street maps, highlighting places of interest. The guide can be downloaded from here.

This summer will see the opening of a new restaurant located on the ground floor of the Ehden landmark building, the former Soutou Hotel.

It will be called, "Ayloul" meaning September, alluding to the fact that as the month, between summer and autumn, it too will be open all year round, between the summer and winter seasons.

The owners are, Tony, Joe and Raymond Geitany. It will serve European and oriental food. Seating will be 100 indoors and 25 outdoors.

We wish it every success and applaud the owners faith in Ehden's all year tourism. Please support the enterprise when you visit Ehden this year.

To see photographs of the restaurant as an "work in progress" go to the Galleria - La Dolce Vita - Restaurants & Café's. We shall be bringing your further photographs as work progresses and the resturant opens.

It was a busy Saturday for Ehden Adventures.

On Saturday they unveiled Ehden's first paintballing event in glorious Ehden spring weather. With the help of supporters they laid out the paintballing arena on Friday to welcome competitors on Saturday morning. The arena will be open all this week and the following weekend. All who took part enjoyed the event, learning the art of explaining how unfair it was to get hit due to no fault of themselves.

Also on Saturday, they organised another student day out for the Dar En Nour School. Some 90 students experienced rock climbing and ab-seiling near Bkoufa Lake. They also hiked to the Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve eating on the way along the Saydet Hosn Road at the Moonlight Cafe.

Entry price for paintballing is 30,000 LL per player who will be armed with 200 paintballs. Re-loading will cost 12,000 for a further 200 paintballs. Players will be provided with "armour."

To buy tickets or for more information about student events call 03 491 493

Behind the public persona of smiles there are many worried faces in private in Zgharta Zawie. The cause of concern is mostly economic.

Although the headlines are saying that Lebanon will see a surge of visitors this summer, this does not necessarily translate into there being more people spending money in the local economy outside Beirut.

There are two types of tourists in Ehden. Those who belong and those who are tourists in the pure sense of the word, with no local connection. Those who belong are generally coming to stay with family or to open their summer residences from Beirut. The others use more the public amenities of hotels, restaurants and car hire companies and therefore contribute more directly into the local economy.

It is therefore important to attract the overseas non local tourist; to enable us to do so there must be the stage to welcome them. By this we mean an assured safe environment, with no agitation in the streets after a night of revelry, the wrong word spoken or sign given, the wrong ring tone or colour scarf worn. The right signals need to be given by our community leaders that Ehden and the surrounding area will be a politics free zone during the summer months.

In recent days two major Lebanese festival, which have not taken place for the last two years, have announced programmes for this summer. Although Ehden cannot compete on their scale, it can help itself by holding events which will attract day trippers. As yet it is not clear if Ehden will be holding this year any summer events.

We have the best scenery, the best pure mountain air, the best night skies, the best food, the best historic churches and the best hospitable people in Lebanon. So Yalla visit us this summer.

The Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OSMAR) in co-junction with the European Union are seeking tenders for tourist signs, which includes Zgharta.

The tender is for the manufacturing, supply, installation and maintenance of tourist sign boards and tourist guides. It is for 12 clusters of municipalities, which Zgharta is one, representing approximately 200 municipalities. The number of signs is 64 of which 5 are allocated for Zgharta.

The placement of the signs can be seen from a map forming part of the tender documents. Those for Zgharta Zawie can be see on page 12.

The deadline for the tender for "“Rehabilitation and Refurbishment of Ten Local Development Offices (Aley, Bent Jbeil, Chouf Sweijani, Haut Chouf, Haut Metn, Hermel, Jezzine, Keserwane, Sahl, & Zghorta – Lebanon") has been extended to 25th June 2008.

We bring you photographs of the building of Ehden's future hotel, Hotel Ehden,

It is our understanding that the main building of the hotel will have 35 bedrooms with an annex of furnished apartments for young people and families. The hotel is owned by Mr. Joseph Ndayra who wants the hotel to be of a high standard, open all year round, with professional staff catering to its guests.

The photographs can be seen on the Full Story page.


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We hear from the Parish of Ehden Zgharta that 41 people from the Parish will be going to attend the World Youth Day in Sydney this summer. The event will be held between 15th -20th July and Pope Benedict XVI will be attending.

The Parish trip has been organised by Fr. Joseph Mouawad

The Festival has its own website at www.wyd2008.org

Ya Liban, reports that the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism is expecting 750,000 overseas Lebanese to come to Lebanon this summer. People are hoping that the 2004 record for tourists will be broken this year. Such expectations have been fueled by the Doha Agreement and Sunday's inauguration of a Lebanese President.

So expect a busy summer for Ehden this year and reserve now a table at your favourite restaurant.

The article can be read on the Full Story page.


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Ehden will see a first on the weekend of 31st May 2008, when, Ehden Adventures, will be holding "Paintballing" at its new centre at the Nebeh Jouite Road, Ehden.

The basic idea behind paintballing is to eliminate opponents by hitting them with paintball bullets.

Laid out at the centre will be a "battlefield" designed to have two teams of ten players per session. Entry price is 30,000 LL per player who will be armed with 200 paintballs. Re-loading will cost 12,000 for a further 200 paintballs. Players will be provided with "armour." It will be open from 9am until the evening.

In addition there will be a artificial rock climbing wall.

To buy tickets or for more information call 03 491 493

In recent weeks we have been covering the activities of Ehden's adventure company, Ehden Adventures. In that time we have been in close contact with one of its owners, Jad Hachem. This guy is awesome in his dedication to get the company up an running this summer and to promote its activities. Elsewhere he would be CEO of a Nasdaq or FTSE 100 company, and yet he is only 28 this August.

As part of the Company's promotional campaign it has rebranded itself with a new logo and is in the process of redesigning its website.

They are asking for feedback on the logo via their Facebook, group, Ehden Adventures.

A photograph of Jad can be seen on the Full Story page as well as a larger version of the logo.

So if you are in an organisation who wishes to organise an outdoor event or you wish to enjoy the thrills of abseiling remember Ehden Adventures.


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This summer will see the opening of a new hotel in Ehden, called, Hotel Ehden.

The hotel will be four star and is located at Al Matall, the northern entrance of Ehden. It is run by members of the Ndayra family.

We will bring you more news about the hotel soon.

The Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve is one of the attractions in Lebanon's tourist industry, bringing visitors to nearby Ehden.

The Lebanese tour operator, Cyclamen, a subsidiary of TLB Destinations, have organised a hiking tour on Sunday, 18th May 2008, starting from the Horsh Ehden Nature Reserve and then along the Lebanese Mountain Trail (LMT).

The tour's promotional literature says, "The reserve is located on the northwestern slopes of Mount Lebanon and a multitude of plants flourish here within a forest of junipers and firs. Wild orchids are just waiting to be discovered in gorges during this peaceful hike. A local guide will be on hand to share his knowledge of regions biodiversity with us."

The tour will start at 8 am with the expected arrival in Beirut at 5pm. The hiking distance is 7 kilometres and its difficulty level is described as moderate. The price per person is $US 2525.00, which includes:transportation, tour leader, local guide & insurance. but not breakfast, lunch or the Reserve's entrance fee.

Contact details are cyclamen@tlb-destinations.com ; www.tlb-destinations.com

The troubles of the Capital and Tripoli seem not have impacted on Ehden this weekend, with the number of visitors the same as in previous years. Life's activities went on as normal, drinking a coffee and watching people pass by. Some restaurants and cafés were open in the Al Midan, with others getting ready to open towards the end of the month.

The local outdoor adventure company, Ehden Adventures, had twenty students from the Dar El Nour Elementary School, Koura, attending one of their programme's this Saturday. The students undertook such activities as rappelling and climbing. When asked, Jad Hachem, one of the owner's of the company said that the Company intended to carry on as planned all during the summer months, whatever happens.

The main photograph is courtesy of, Ehden Adventures, and shows the group with Chafic Ghazel, co-owner in front. A larger version appears on the Full Story Page.


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