ای‌سیم ارمنستان

Yerevan centre and the CascadeYerevan

A pink tufa city built to a Soviet-era plan around Republic Square, with the Cascade's giant stairway and sculpture collection climbing the hill, and the Matenadaran holding thousands of medieval manuscripts at the top of the main avenue.

two days

TsitsernakaberdYerevan

The Armenian Genocide memorial — a split stele and a ring of leaning slabs around an eternal flame, with a museum beneath. Central to how the country understands itself, and worth the time to visit properly.

half a day

Garni and GeghardKotayk

A colonnaded Hellenistic-style temple on a gorge edge, and half an hour further up the valley a monastery with chapels cut directly into the rock, where singers demonstrate the acoustics. In the gorge below Garni, the basalt columns known as the Symphony of Stones.

a day

Khor VirapArarat province

A monastery on a hillock in the plain with Mount Ararat filling the sky behind it, and the pit where Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned beneath. The Turkish border runs immediately past it and Ararat itself is on the other side.

half a day

NoravankVayots Dzor

A monastery at the end of a narrow red-rock canyon, with an external staircase of stone slabs cantilevered off the church front that visitors still climb. The Areni wine villages are on the way.

half a day

Tatev and the Wings of TatevSyunik

A ninth-century monastery on a promontory above the Vorotan gorge, reached by an exceptionally long reversible cable car strung across the valley. The road alternative is a long series of switchbacks.

a day · رزرو از قبل

Lake SevanGegharkunik

A very large mountain lake at altitude, cold even in August, with the Sevanavank churches on a peninsula above it and fish restaurants around the shore.

a day

Dilijan and HaghartsinTavush

Forested hills that Armenians call their Switzerland, a restored old street in the town, and the Haghartsin monastery in the woods above it.

two days

Haghpat and SanahinLori

Two UNESCO-listed monasteries a few kilometres apart in the northern canyon country, with carved khachkars and vaulted book depositories, and far fewer visitors than the sites near Yerevan.

a day

GyumriGyumri

The second city, built in black and orange tufa, with the Kumayri district of nineteenth-century merchant houses. The 1988 earthquake is still visible in the fabric of the place and in how people talk about it.

a day

Marshrutka

Shared minibuses running fixed routes from set departure points, leaving when they fill rather than on a timetable. Cheap and everywhere, but cramped and not always obvious to a first-time visitor.

very low

Hired driver for the day

Booking a car with a driver for a full day is normal, affordable and the usual way Armenians themselves reach the monasteries. Arranged through guesthouses, agencies or a taxi driver you liked.

moderate for a full day

Yerevan metro and buses

A single metro line runs under the city and is quick for the stops it serves. Buses fill in the rest of the network and are paid on board or by card.

very low

Train

South Caucasus Railway runs a small network, with Yerevan to Gyumri the main domestic service and summer trains toward Lake Sevan. The overnight service to Tbilisi runs seasonally and books out.

low

Self-drive

Possible, and the road quality on the main corridors is reasonable, but the mountain routes into Syunik and Lori are demanding and driving standards are assertive. Fuel stations thin out in the south.

moderate

تاکسی اینترنتی

Yandex Go, GG

Both work well in Yerevan and are very cheap, which removes any need to negotiate a fare. GG is the domestic app. Coverage falls away outside the capital and the larger towns, where you arrange a car through your accommodation instead.

پرداخت در محل

• Common in Yerevan — restaurants, supermarkets, wine bars — and increasingly in the larger regional towns.
• Supported by the major Armenian banks and accepted at many contactless terminals in the capital.
• پول نقد هنوز لازم است برای: marshrutka fares, markets and roadside stalls, monastery donations and candles, village guesthouses, the gata sellers at Geghard

اطلاعات پایه

• شماره اضطراری: 112
• پریز: Type C, Type F · 220V
• آب لوله‌کشی: yes
• Around 10% in restaurants, though many in Yerevan now add a service charge to the bill — check before adding more. Not expected in marshrutkas or markets.