The Veer leak had myself and many of you very excited about the new place. It would be awesome to have a posh beach resort closer to home, not all the way up in Jbeil or down in Dammour. On Sunday, Lori and I tried it out for the first time, and I must say, we loved it.

At first, you go in through the cool steel structure tunnel after paying 23USD on weekdays and 33USD on weekends. That’s when you get to the pool area, with the private aquarium pool and duplex bungalows lie on your left hand, and the hotel and restaurant on your right.

As soon as you’re in, courteous hostesses escort you to your beds or tables and hands you towels, which is a big plus if you’re like me and can never remember to get your beach gear with you. When you’re settled in and your cold water bottle is set, Mr Toufic comes over to give you some tips and tricks about how to stay safe from the sun, stay well-hydrated and gives you an approximate air temperature (30-34C on Sunday) and the approximate water temperature (19-23C). I thought that was extremely cool, like concierges in fancy hotels and shows you the place means business.

I love the water, and what I love more are bar stools inside a pool where you can sit in the water and have a drink, which is the first think we did. I got a strawberry lemonade and Lori got a cosmo. The pool is 1.6 meters deep throughout, which is perfect for adults and a clear indication that children aren’t too welcome. The W-shaped pool houses the bar in the middle (if you’re wondering how the staff get there, apparently there’s an underground tunnel), and on each side a deck with two jacuzzis under which lie the submerged rooms I told you about in the leak, which unfortunately won’t be done till 2013!

The food was amazing too. I had, of course, the swiss and mushroom burger (22,000 LBP) and loved it. The burger is homemade and you can see and taste how the ground beef and spices were turned into a burger patty in their kitchen. It’s sort of like Brgr Co, only slightly more affordable and I’d say more delicious (of course, the setting makes it taste all the better I guess =P).

The music was the tie-breaker though. The sound system rivals the ones you see at rooftop clubs. It’s more of a concert-like setup, with massive suspended blasters and stacks of subwoofers making for one hell of a set up that’ll make the pool water vibrate with the bass. The DJ played a mix of commercial house and lounge tracks, along with a few remixed classics. Then, a band performed later in the day, toning down the mood into a more mellow, sunsety mood before finally screening the EuroCup Final that night (which we did not watch there).

All in all, I loved Veer. I know a lot of you will whine that you don’t like these posh beaches, but to that I say, would you go to the disease-infested landfills we call San Baleish? When thinking of this place, Veer is sorta like White, but for beaches. It’s a posh place with some of the best service I’ve seen in Lebanon (where waiters and staff are usually rude and tiresome). So, you do get what you pay for and if you’re looking to spend a whole day, a night or even a weekend there in the bungalows, it is definitely worth it, and much closer to Beirut than any other beach resort.

Veer’s opening on July 12th, but won’t be complete till the summer of 2013 when the boutique hotel will be complete. I unfortunately will be abroad, but I hope you all enjoy yourselves as much as I did on Sunday!

The images below were taken with the new Nokia 808 PureView phone, with 41 megapixel resolution. I kept most at full resolution, so enjoy zooming in as much as you like!