Yerevan, and the roads out.
The monastery mornings, the pit at Khor Virap under Ararat, Lake Sevan and the long cable car to Tatev. What each day is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven bookings that carry the trip.
First visit or fifth, these are the ones that carry an Armenia trip. The classic Garni and Geghard morning, the drive to Khor Virap under Ararat, a table of Areni wine with lavash straight off the tonir.
Garni, Geghard, Symphony of Stones & Lavash Baking
A six-hour Yerevan day trip to Garni, Geghard, Azat Canyon’s Symphony of Stones, plus a lavash baking class.
From $23 per person
Read the review →
★ 5.0Safe betGroup Tour: Tsaghkadzor (Kecharis, Ropeway), Lake Sevan, Trout barbecue treatFrom $38511 reviews
★ 4.5Books out fastSevan, Dilijan, Haghartsin, Goshavank, Lake ParzFrom $31454 reviews
★ 5.0Traveller favouriteGroup Tour: Garni pagan temple, Geghard monastery, Lake Sevan, SevanavankFrom $41430 reviews
★ 5.0Worth the driveParagliding in ArmeniaFrom $180404 reviews
★ 5.0Easy first dayGroup Tour: Amberd, Aragats, Lake Kari, Saghmosavank, AlphabetFrom $41355 reviews
★ 5.0Small groupsGroup Tour: Echmiadzin Cathedral & churches, Zvartnots TempleFrom $25352 reviews
The day almost every trip starts with.
Garni is the one pagan temple that outlasted the churches. Geghard is carved back into its cliff. The gorge between them rings with hexagonal basalt the locals call the Symphony of Stones. Add lavash baked in a village tonir and it is barely an hour from the city.
Which way out of Yerevan?
Everyone drives out of the city. The question is which direction. Three honest ways to spend a day out of Yerevan. Pick the one that sounds like you, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
South, to Ararat
The Ararat day
9 to 10 hours (approx.) · from $37 · 651 reviews
Down onto the plain to Khor Virap, the monastery with the pit where Gregory the Illuminator sat for thirteen years and Mount Ararat filling the whole sky behind it. Most days carry on to Noravank in its red canyon and a wine stop at Areni. This is the photograph you came for.
See the Khor Virap days →
The wine canyon
The Areni day
9 to 10 hours (approx.) · from $37 · 651 reviews
The road into Vayots Dzor runs through the village where a cave held the oldest winery on earth, six thousand years down. Noravank waits at the end of a red gorge, its church reached by a narrow stair up the wall, and the tastings are poured by the people who made the wine.
See the Noravank & Areni days →
North, to the lake
The Sevan day
9 to 10 hours (approx.) · from $32 · 1,036 reviews
Up to the high blue of Lake Sevan, a mountain sea with Sevanavank monastery on a headland above it. Many days push on into the forests of Dilijan or the ropeway at Tsaghkadzor, and lunch is grilled trout eaten at the water. Cooler than the city, even in August.
See the Lake Sevan days →
The long road to Tatev.
Syunik is the deep south, a full day each way and worth every hour of it. The monastery of Tatev hangs over the Vorotan gorge, reached by the longest reversible cable car in the world, and near it the cave town of Khndzoresk drops away on a swinging bridge. Go once, and go for the whole day.
The table is half the trip.
Armenia set a long table before it was fashionable. Lavash pulled hot off the tonir wall, khorovats over vine cuttings, Areni wine from clay, and the brandy that made the city famous the world over. These are the tastings worth building a day around.
Where the country turns to forest.
An hour north of Sevan the land goes green and soft. Dilijan is wooded hills and quiet monasteries, Haghartsin and Goshavank hidden among the trees, a small lake called Parz for the rowing boats. People call it the Armenian Switzerland, and they mean it kindly.
The first Christian nation, still at prayer.
Armenia took up the faith in 301, before any other nation, and the mother cathedral at Echmiadzin has held its ground ever since. Twenty minutes west of the city you find it, the ruined rotunda of Zvartnots, and the small churches the guidebooks race past. Older than almost anything you have stood in.
Pick your Armenia, region by region.
The country reads best one region at a time. Garni and Geghard for the temple and the cave church. Khor Virap for Ararat. Noravank for the red canyon. Sevan for the high blue water, Dilijan for the woods, Tatev for the long way south.
Know how you want to travel?
Twelve ways into the same country. Pick the kind of day that sounds like yours, and every tour behind it is already reviewed and priced.
The days that reach the far corners.
Some of the best of Armenia sits a few hours out. The high lake and its monastery, the forests of the north, the ski town under Teghenis, the great cliff monastery of the south, and the long road across the border into Georgia.
Three days to start with.
You will not see all of Armenia in one trip, but you can spend the first three days well. This is the order to hand a friend landing at Zvartnots tomorrow.
Day 1
The pink city on foot
Republic Square in the morning light, the climb up the Cascade past the sculptures, the Vernissage market, and a first table of Armenian food. An easy pace to shake off the flight.
Plan the city day →
Day 2
Temples and cave churches
East to the pagan temple at Garni, the monastery cut into the rock at Geghard, the basalt columns down in the gorge, and lavash baked in a village on the road home.
Plan the temple day →
Day 3
Down to the Ararat plain
The pit at Khor Virap with the mountain filling the sky behind it, then south to Noravank in its red canyon and a wine stop at Areni. The day the photographs come from.
Plan the Ararat day →
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