The stone façade of the guesthouse seen across its terrace, with canvas sling chairs in the foreground and pine-covered mountains rising behind

Two hundred years a monastery,now a guesthouse

In the pine forests above Byblos

SaQi is a restored monastery guesthouse in the mountains of Lebanon — three stone rooms, a spring, a garden, and a table long enough for everyone.

Welcome

The house was here long before us

SaQi takes its name from the village around it — سَقي, to irrigate, to give water. The spring that named the place still runs.

Two hundred years a monastery, restored slowly and deliberately: original stone left where it stood, lime plaster instead of cement, old windows repaired rather than replaced.

The old stone façade of the guesthouse with a bare vine trained across it, a pair of French doors, and a bench set outside in the morning sun

A bedroom with deep ochre walls, an arched stone window recess and an antique wooden wardrobe, the bed covered in an embroidered floral quilt

Idea 01Wake up inside two-hundred-year-old stone.Stay

Three rooms, each shaped by the restoration. One under an original stone arch, one whitewashed and hung with drying herbs, one with room for a family.

The Ermite room, with a kilim rug across the floor and French doors standing open onto the garden

A whitewashed alcove in the Thyme room, with yellow mimosa in a glass jar, folded towels in a woven basket, and green and clear bottle bases set into the wall

A single bed in the Peony room beneath a tall arched niche in the white plaster wall, with a sheepskin thrown across it

A bathroom in the old monastery, with an arched stone window recess, ochre walls and a stone bath surround

A village land survey drawn by hand in blue ink generations ago, showing the terraced plots

Idea 02Find the house on a map drawn by hand.

A map of the village, drawn by hand generations ago — the house, the spring, the terraces, all of it on there somewhere. One day you'll be able to trace a room with your finger. For now, just look.

A breakfast table laid with fried eggs, tomato and cucumber salad, bread and blue ceramic bowls

Idea 03Eat what the garden gave this morning.Dine

Eggs from the hens in the yard, tomatoes and greens from the terraces below the house, preserves put up through the season. It arrives on hammered copper.

A woman in a white shirt smiling as she holds an armful of heirloom tomatoes just picked from the garden

Artichokes, radishes, tomatoes and cauliflower being washed under running water in a galvanised basin

Two jars of homemade preserves labelled by hand — tomato sauce and vine leaves — standing on a stone wall

Hens scratching in the yard, one rust-brown and one white

The long outdoor table set for a group, seen from the side, with the stone building behind

Idea 04Sit down at one very long table.Gather

A birthday, a small wedding lunch, a group of friends on retreat. Room for gatherings that want to move slowly and stay outdoors.

Pine-covered hillsides at dusk, the ridgeline dark against a pale sky

Idea 05Walk out the door into the pines.Explore

Trails leave from the property into the forest. Byblos and the sea are twenty minutes down the mountain; the villages between are worth the detours.

Guest book

We came for two nights and rearranged the rest of the trip to stay four.
Léa, 2024
The children have not asked for a screen since we arrived.
Karim, 2024
I have never eaten a breakfast that tasted so much of the place it came from.
Sophie, 2023

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