When nostalgia meets luxury

Ask almost any Beirut resident about Summerland Hotel & Resort and they will get a misty eyed look before recounting a childhood memory involving the waterfall “cascades”, clubbing at the hotel’s legendary nightclub or celebrating a wedding on the private sandy beach. The list of memories of this historic resort goes on and on. Opened in 1978 (in an area that now neighbors Ouzai) by Raja Saab, a prominent businessman, and his family, Summerland quickly became a place where people could stem the tide of worry brought on by the grim reality of the country’s long and bloody Civil War. Summerland closed in the early 1990s, supposedly for necessary maintenance and upkeep. Today it is finally being reopened – with a totally renovated, modern and luxurious look – under the operation of Kempinski, Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group, which was established in 1897. The project’s resort section has been in