Yuppie Park

Not long ago I took the girls and some friends on an exploratory excursion to Yuppie Park. I say exploratory, because the park is nowhere near my home, in a part of town that's well off my beaten track. It'd been years since our last visit and Beirut being a city of change, I wasn't counting on getting there easily.

But got there we did!

Yuppie park is a private, paid-entry park. Kids get in for 6,000 and adults (maids, moms, whatever) 3,000 ($4, and $2). They have a little cafe, but only sell drinks and junk food (I think). They don't post or advertise business hours, and when I asked, they said they're always open. Huh. I could tell it was time for follow up questions. I suggested that perhaps they closed at sunset. The fellow pointed to their flood-lights. We close when everyone leaves, he said. For now, we'll just have to take his word for it.

They facility is pretty good. I don't much care for the dirt/sand covering most of the ground. I'd rather have the kids running around on something less messy. But given that they have the rope jungle gym pictured above, a huge jungle gym-pirate ship, trampolines, zip-lines pictured below, etc., the dirt factor is something I've decided I'll live with.

Getting there is not easy unless you already know how to do it. Because of recent construction in the area there are fewer ways to access the park. The map that I've got below (Satellite image from Google) isn't quite up to date. The red x is there to show you that this portion of the road is now completely blockaded.

As is my custom, the park's perimeter is marked in red, the entrance is shown by the red arrow. The Mt. Lebanon Hospital circled in blue is the best landmark. The park and this hospital are on a side road that you can access from the road where you'll find Galaxy mall. All of this (Galaxy, Mt. Lebanon, Yuppie Park) is situated below Hazmieh. In other words, if you're headed uphill, you've missed it. And that's the best advice I can give you if you want to go there someday.