Ararat fills the window. Everything else is a day trip.
Which monastery run is worth five hours in the car. What a driver for the day costs against a seat on the minibus. Whether Sevan is a swim or a viewpoint by the time you get there. Reviews of every tour you can book in Armenia.
Garni, Khor Virap, Sevan, Echmiadzin.
The four days almost every Armenian itinerary is built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it said afterwards.
01The gorge dayGarni, Symphony of Stones, Geghard, Lavash BakingA first-century colonnaded temple over the Azat gorge, a monastery cut into the rock above it, and lavash pulled off the wall of a clay tonir on the way home.
02Ararat, then wineKhor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and CaveKhor Virap under the mountain first thing, the red cliffs at Noravank after lunch, and the Areni cellars before the drive back.
03The lake and the forestLake Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Goshavank, Haghartsin)Sevanavank on its peninsula, then down into Dilijan where the hills turn green and the monasteries hide in beech woods.
04The cathedral morningEchmiadzin Cathedral & churches, Zvartnots TempleEchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian church since the fourth century, and the fallen arcades of Zvartnots on the way back in.
Half a day to Garni, a morning under Ararat, or the whole day south to Tatev.
Every monastery worth the drive sits between thirty minutes and five hours from Yerevan, and the length of that drive is really the only decision. Three shapes of day, what each costs a head, and what the extra hours buy.
Garni, Khor Virap, Sevan, Tatev, Areni, Dilijan.
A pagan temple over a gorge, a monastery under Ararat, a church on a peninsula that used to be an island, a cable car across a canyon, the oldest wine cellars anywhere, and a forest town with monasteries in the trees. Six places to build a week around.
Yerevan: pink tuff, a staircase of a park, and dinner at eleven.
Everything in Yerevan →
The centre is built almost entirely from volcanic tuff, which turns rose at the end of the afternoon. Walk the Cascade before the light goes, eat around the market where the Vernissage breaks up, and treat every monastery as a separate day.
The Cascade, Republic Square, the Vernissage
Up the travertine steps for the Ararat view, back down through the sculpture terraces, then across to the square where the fountains run to music after dark. The weekend market at the bottom sells carpets, chess sets and Soviet camera lenses.
Lavash off the tonir wall, and everything dried
Bread slapped onto the side of a clay oven sunk into the floor, apricots dried on a roof in July, and a table of small plates that keeps arriving after you have stopped. Most food walks finish at the covered market on Mashtots.
A driver for the day, priced by the car
Almost nothing outside Yerevan sits on a bus route, so the standard Armenian day out is a car and a driver who waits at each stop. The price covers the car rather than the seat, which makes it the cheaper answer the moment there are three of you.
The day trips Yerevan runs out of first.
Every tour we have reviewed in Armenia →What most travellers end up booking out of the city, and the reason each one holds its place.
1
Garni, Symphony of Stones, Geghard, Lavash Baking
Explore Garni, Geghard, the Symphony of Stones, and lavash baking on a practical half-day tour from Yerevan.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Lake Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Goshavank, Haghartsin)
from $32
3
Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and Cave
from $37
4
Garni, Geghard, Symphony of Stones & Lavash Baking
from $23
5
Tsaghkadzor (Kecharis, Ropeway), Lake Sevan, Trout barbecue treat
from $38
6
Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)
from $73
7
Sevan, Dilijan, Haghartsin, Goshavank, Lake Parz
from $31
8
Garni pagan temple, Geghard monastery, Lake Sevan, Sevanavank
from $41
Sevan, Dilijan, Tsaghkadzor: the cool half of Armenia.
Ninety minutes north the air changes. The lake sits at nineteen hundred metres and only warms up enough to swim in for about six weeks; past it the road drops into beech forest, and the monasteries stop standing on hilltops and start hiding in the trees.
Armenia was making wine six thousand years before it wrote anything down.
The Areni-1 cave in Vayots Dzor holds the oldest known winery on earth, and the valley around it never stopped. The cellars sit on the road down to Noravank and Tatev, and most of them pour the native Areni grape that nobody else grows.
What a day out of Yerevan actually costs.
What the cheap days, the standard days and the splurges actually come to. Private cars are quoted for the whole car and sit outside this, which is worth knowing before you set one against a seat on a minibus.
City walking mornings, the Garni and Geghard run, Sevan and back, museum entries.
The long ones: the road south to Tatev, Jermuk and the Shaki falls, a full day on the wine road.
Multi-day runs, private guiding, and the trips that cross a border and come back.
- 1Paragliding in Armeniafrom $180
- 2Must see of Georgia in 2 days from Yerevanfrom $186
- 3Balloon ride Skyballfrom $255
Three things that happen in Armenia and nowhere else.
Monasteries and mountain roads exist all over the Caucasus. A mountain you can see but not reach, a cable car five and a half kilometres long, and a wine cave older than the pyramids do not.
Khor Virap and Ararat
Ararat is the Armenian national symbol and it has stood on the Turkish side of the line since 1921; the border itself has been shut since 1993. Khor Virap sits in the fields directly beneath it, which makes the monastery the place Armenians go to look at their own mountain. The view works on clear mornings, before the haze comes up off the plain.
- 1Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and Cave★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 651 reviews
- 2Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 506 reviews
- 3Khor Virap, Garni temple, Geghard, Lavash baking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 333 reviews
The Wings of Tatev
The cable car from Halidzor crosses the Vorotan gorge in about twelve minutes and holds the record for the longest reversible aerial tramway anywhere. Underneath it the old road switchbacks down to the river and back up the far side, which is how everybody reached the monastery until 2010.
- 1Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 506 reviews
- 2Tatev & Shaki Waterfall Guided Group Tour with Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 266 reviews
- 3Hin Areni Winery, Tatev (wayback on Ropeway), Khndzoresk Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 192 reviews
The Areni-1 cave
A dig in a cave above the Arpa river turned up a clay vat, a grape press and drinking bowls dated to around 4100 BC, which makes it the oldest winery anyone has found. The same excavation produced a leather shoe of similar age. The vineyards outside are still working, and the cellars still pour the same grape.
- 1Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and Cave★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 651 reviews
- 2Khor Virap, Noravank Monastery, Areni, Jermuk★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 259 reviews
- 3Hin Areni Winery, Tatev (wayback on Ropeway), Khndzoresk Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 192 reviews
Four Armenian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before over a bottle of Areni. These four run on weather windows, a cable-car timetable and a five-hour drive that has to start early.
- 01Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and CaveThe mountain is only there when the haze lifts. Clear mornings in spring and autumn are the reliable ones, which is exactly why these leave at eight.
- 02Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)It is five hours south before you reach the gorge, and the cable car keeps its own timetable. A late start turns the whole thing into a drive.
- 03Balloon ride SkyballBalloons only go up in calm early air, so the date you pick is a request rather than a promise. Book it for the start of the trip and keep a spare morning.
- 04Lake Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Goshavank, Haghartsin)The lake sits at nineteen hundred metres and is warm enough to swim in for roughly six weeks of high summer. Outside that window it is a viewpoint, and the trout is the reason to stop.
From November the high passes shut and the country moves indoors.
Snow closes the mountain roads and the Selim pass, Sevan turns from a swim into a viewpoint, and the day trips that survive are the ones on the main southern highway. The indoor half of the country carries on regardless: cellars, tonir kitchens, manuscript halls and the lifts at Tsaghkadzor.
By stop, and how far out of Yerevan it is
By kind of day - monastery, cellar, kitchen or ropeway
Yerevan, Garni, Khor Virap, Areni, Tatev, Sevan: the loop almost everybody drives first.
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Private tour to Garni, Geghard, Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Haghartsin)
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