Mira Minkara

After earning a degree in tourist guidance in 2002, Mira Minkara worked for years as a freelance tourist guide, an assistant manager and coordinator for NGOs in Tripoli and Beirut and a customer professional in Prague (Czech Republic). She was also coorganizer of the Spring Festival Beirut (2010) and Beirut’s Art Center’s communication manager for four years. She’s currently running Mira’s Guided Tours, organizing tours around the old city of Tripoli while explaining its traditional crafts, Rachid Karami International Fair, the Mina seaside and Tripoli’s old train station. Minkara lives between Beirut and Tripoli, her beloved hometown city, as she could never live with one and without the other. She says that her most memorable trip was to Turkey: “The first time I went to Konya, home of Rumi’s shrine for a Sufi gathering, to celebrate his death or as they call it ‘the wedding night.’ It was a very intense spiritual experience.”

Q: What do you love most about your work?

A: When the tourists I’m guiding through Tripoli look absorbed by my historical facts, stories and anecdotes with a slight smile on their face.

Q: Name one person who has left a lasting impact on your life and explain why.

A: My grandmother who had 14 kids! She used to tell me to go out and travel as much as I could, and that the most important thing in life is to be thankful and accepting of what I have.

Q: Which was your most memorable trip and why?

A: First time I went to Konya in Turkey, home of Rumi’s shrine for a Sufi gathering, to celebrate his death or as they call it “the wedding night.” It was a very intense spiritual experience.

Q: Where do you go in Lebanon to disconnect from everything?

A: The Rachid Karami International Fair. It has a beautiful park and fantastic buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Or Koura, where I look for trees and flowers.

Q: Which is your favorite holiday destination outside Lebanon?

A: Czech Republic.

Q: Which destination would you like to visit and never have before?

A: Brazil.

Q: If you could go back in time and change one thing about your life, what would it be?

A: The separation with my dad, my childhood home and school, when we had to move to Lebanon from Abu Dhabi when I was 10.

Q: What’s your favorite dessert?

A: Chocolate fondant.

Q: Describe yourself in just one word.

A: Nonconformist.