When was Sporting Club Beach founded?

1953, by George Abou Nassar. The club is named after Sporting Club of Monte Carlo. It has remained on the same site in Manara, Ras Beirut, for the whole of its existence.

Did Sporting Club Beach close during the Lebanese Civil War?

No. The club remained open throughout the fifteen years of the war (1975–1990), and through every subsequent crisis — 2006, 2020, the post-2019 financial collapse, and the displacements of 2024–2025. Numbers fluctuated. The doors did not close.

Who owns and runs Sporting Club Beach?

The Abou Nassar family. Three brothers — Walid, Marwan, and Ralph — manage the club today. The third generation, including Tarek and Rayan, is already involved.

Can non-members visit?

Yes. Day passes are $35 weekday and $45 weekend and holidays for adults. Children pay $25 and $35. No booking required — pay at the entrance.

Is Sporting Club Beach open in winter?

Yes. The club is open every day of the year, from 7:30 in the morning until sunset. Two of the three pools remain in service. The Sea Lovers annual membership ($1,400) is built around winter use; members swim through January and February.

Since 1953: The Unbroken Story of Sporting Club Beach

There is a stretch of rocky coastline at the foot of Manara, in Ras Beirut, where the city ends and the Mediterranean begins. Three saltwater pools are cut into that rock. A wooden terrace sits above them. The club's kitchens have worked off that terrace, in some form, since 1953.

This is the story of how that has held.

The founding

Sporting Club Beach opened in 1953. Its founder, George Abou Nassar, was a graduate of the American University of Beirut. He named the club after Sporting Club of Monte Carlo — a deliberate borrowing, but with a different climate, a different sea, and a different country in mind.

The location was chosen for what it already was: one of the last private stretches of Beirut shoreline where the sea is still the sea, not engineered into a marina or a bay. The rock is the rock. The water that comes in is the water that comes in. The pools were cut where the cuts wanted to go.

By the late 1950s, Sporting was where Beirut went for the summer. It stayed that way through the 1960s — the years the city now remembers as its golden age, a period of openness, prosperity, and quiet confidence that has since become almost legendary.

The war years

In 1975, Lebanon entered fifteen years of civil war.

Sporting Club Beach did not close.

Fewer people came. The journey was sometimes dangerous. The economy went to pieces around the property. On some weeks, the staff outnumbered the swimmers. The doors stayed open. The pools were maintained. The water was the water.

This is the part of the story that is rarely told on the website itself. It survives mainly through the memory of members who were children then, and through scattered press accounts (The National, 2026; The Spaces). The decision not to close was never framed as defiance. It was framed as the obvious thing — this is the place, the place is open, people swim in summer.

When the war ended in 1990, the club was still there. So was the family.

The family

Sporting Club Beach has been run by the Abou Nassar family for the entirety of its life. Today, three brothers — Walid, Marwan, and Ralph — carry the daily work. A third generation, including Tarek and Rayan, has already begun.

This is unusual in Lebanese hospitality, where the average venue’s lifespan is closer to a decade than a century. It is also unusual that the family has resisted the temptation, on offer many times over the years, to convert the property into something larger, glossier, and more profitable per square meter. The conscious decision has been to keep it what it is.

"No bright lights and grand designs" is the line the club uses for itself. It is accurate. The umbrellas are old. The deck chairs are repaired rather than replaced. The food on the terrace is the food on the terrace. None of it has been redesigned to look like a magazine.

The members

What Sporting Club Beach has, and what almost no other Lebanese hospitality venue can claim, is five generations of members.

Grandparents who came as children bring grandchildren of their own. Members who learned to swim in the children's pool watch the next generation learn now. Diaspora families returning from London, Paris, São Paulo, and Sydney spend their summer weeks here, because it is one of the few places in Beirut that has stayed recognizable across five decades of upheaval.

The economic and political shocks since 2019 — the financial collapse, the 2020 port explosion, the displacements of 2024 and 2025 — have hit Lebanon hard. The club has felt them. The members have stayed. So has the family. So has the water.

What is here now

In 2026, the club still operates year-round. Two of the three pools are open through the winter. The Sea Lovers membership covers the full calendar year. A small group of members swims in January every year, because that is what they do.

On the property today: the three saltwater pools; direct sea access on the rocky shore; four on-site venues — Feluka, the seafood restaurant and wine bar; The Deck Cafe, for Lebanese mezze and the long lunch; Sunset Bar, open every summer evening; and The Loft by Sporting, the open-air event venue. Scuba diving, kayak and paddleboard rentals, swimming lessons, a gym, racquetball and basketball courts. The list has changed at the edges over seventy years. The center has not.

What this place is for

There are clubs in Beirut for performance — for being seen, for posting from, for spending money in conspicuous ways. They serve their purpose. Sporting Club Beach is not that. It is for the day you actually want to spend by the sea. It is for the long lunch. It is for the swim you take alone at 7:30 in the morning, when the only other person in the pool is someone you have known for forty years.

It is, more than anything, a place that has been continuously available. To Beirut. To its members. To anyone who walks in on a Tuesday in February and pays for a day pass.

We have been here since 1953. The sea has not noticeably changed. Neither, in the ways that matter, have we.

Frequently asked

When was Sporting Club Beach founded?: 1953, by George Abou Nassar. The club is named after Sporting Club of Monte Carlo. It has remained on the same site in Manara, Ras Beirut, for the whole of its existence.
Did Sporting Club Beach close during the Lebanese Civil War?: No. The club remained open throughout the fifteen years of the war (1975–1990), and through every subsequent crisis — 2006, 2020, the post-2019 financial collapse, and the displacements of 2024–2025. Numbers fluctuated. The doors did not close.
Who owns and runs Sporting Club Beach?: The Abou Nassar family. Three brothers — Walid, Marwan, and Ralph — manage the club today. The third generation, including Tarek and Rayan, is already involved.
Can non-members visit?: Yes. Day passes are $35 weekday and $45 weekend and holidays for adults. Children pay $25 and $35. No booking required — pay at the entrance.
Is Sporting Club Beach open in winter?: Yes. The club is open every day of the year, from 7:30 in the morning until sunset. Two of the three pools remain in service. The Sea Lovers annual membership ($1,400) is built around winter use; members swim through January and February.

Sources and further reading: The National — A postcard from Sporting Beach Club · Monocle — Beirut beach clubs · Al Rifai — 60 years, still swimming · The Spaces — Six days at the Sporting Club · 365 Days of Lebanon — Beirut’s beacon of faded glamour · Lebanon Traveler — Sporting Club Beirut · This Is Beirut — Lebanon still charms · Photo Orientalist — Lebanon in Technicolor