New York Times Selects Beirut, Lebanon and Doha, Qatar as "Best Places to Go in 2009"

posted on: Jan 12, 2009

The New York Times has just released its list, “The 44 Places to Go in 2009,” listing the most exciting destinations in 2009.

Both Beirut, Lebanon ranking No. 1 and Doha, Qatar ranking No. 9 made the list.

In the write up for both Beirut and Doha the New York Times reported:

Beirut Lebanon:

With a recent (though perhaps tenuous) detente keeping the violence in check, the capital of Lebanon is poised to reclaim its title as the Paris of the Middle East. Two hotels scheduled to open later this year are raising the luxury quotient–the Four Seasons Hotel Beirut and Le Grey, the latter from the people behind One Aldwych in London–and a clutch of high-profile restaurants are transforming the city’s culinary scene. Traditional Lebanese cooking finds its apotheosis at the cozy Al-Ajami restaurant, while the glitterati settles into Hussein Hadid’s Kitchen, run by a nephew of the architect Zaha Hadid. But nothing symbolizes the city’s gastro-political awakening like Souk el-Tayeb, Beirut’s first farmers’ market. The market, founded in 2004, reconciles Lebanon’s warring factions through their common love of their country’s food.

Doha, Qatar:

Ever since Dubai reinvented itself as the region’s Las Vegas, its wealthy gulf neighbors have been jockeying for the title of cultural capital. But Doha is well ahead with the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art and a raft of new contemporary galleries.

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/11/travel/20090111_DESTINATIONS.html?emc=eta3

Complied by Arab Detroit