Skip to content

Two hundred years a monastery,now a guesthouse

SaQi is a restored monastery guesthouse in the mountains of Lebanon. Two hundred years old, it sits among pine and garden, with a spring that still runs and a table long enough for everyone.

Come switch off.

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 the old stone.

The resident dog stretched out asleep on an antique wooden bench against a stone wall

A carved stone basin set against the bare stone wall of the Ermite room, beneath a dark round mirror

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

Garden vegetables including cauliflower, peppers and tomatoes being rinsed under running water in a metal basin

idea 02Eat what the garden gave this morning.

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

A bowl of red apples resting on top of a cast-iron wood stove

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

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

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

The tree-lined drive up to the guesthouse, lined with potted plants and a red wooden door in the stone wall

The terrace table laid for dinner beneath hanging terracotta jugs, a blue striped cloth, roses at each place setting

idea 03Sit down at one very long table.

Bundles of wheat and dried herbs hanging to dry from a wrought-iron chandelier under the terrace roof, potted plants below

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

A vine-covered stone building at the end of a dry-stone garden path, its arched window catching the light

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

idea 04Walk straight into the pines.

A large rosemary bush in full pale blue flower in the garden

Roses and wildflowers growing thickly beneath an old tree in the garden

A woven tray of mezze — labneh, salad, olives, radishes and flatbread — laid out on a painted table

Come switch off