10 Days in Armenia

This ten-day route is for travelers who want both of Armenia’s big landscapes, the green forested north and the dry canyon country of the south, without turning the trip into a bus marathon. The pace is moderate: two-night stays at each base, one long travel day at the end, and the capital used as a hinge in the middle. Marshrutkas handle the Yerevan to Dilijan and Yerevan to Goris legs, while ride-hailing taxis or a hired driver make the southern monastery stops much easier.

Days 1-2: Yerevan and Echmiadzin

Give Yerevan one full day to its streets: Republic Square, the Vernissage flea market on weekends and the cafés around the Opera. On day 2, take a 30-minute marshrutka west to Echmiadzin, the spiritual center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Cathedral of Echmiatsin, first built in the early 4th century, is the reason to go, and if you arrive for a Sunday morning service you’ll hear the liturgy sung beneath painted ceilings.

Days 3-4: Sevan and Dilijan

Head north with a stop at Sevan … read more 👉

This ten-day route is for travelers who want both of Armenia’s big landscapes, the green forested north and the dry canyon country of the south, without turning the trip into a bus marathon. The pace is moderate: two-night stays at each base, one long travel day at the end, and the capital used as a hinge in the middle. Marshrutkas handle the Yerevan to Dilijan and Yerevan to Goris legs, while ride-hailing taxis or a hired driver make the southern monastery stops much easier.

Days 1-2: Yerevan and Echmiadzin

Give Yerevan one full day to its streets: Republic Square, the Vernissage flea market on weekends and the cafés around the Opera. On day 2, take a 30-minute marshrutka west to Echmiadzin, the spiritual center of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Cathedral of Echmiatsin, first built in the early 4th century, is the reason to go, and if you arrive for a Sunday morning service you’ll hear the liturgy sung beneath painted ceilings.

Days 3-4: Sevan and Dilijan

Head north with a stop at Sevan for a walk up to the peninsula churches, then continue about 40 minutes over the pass into Dilijan, where dry highland gives way to beech forest in the space of a tunnel. Day 4 is your hiking day: the Dilijan National Park’s Parz Lake Trail climbs through dense woodland for about 3 to 4 hours to a small forest lake with a café on its shore. On the way back, take a taxi to Haghartsin, a 10th to 13th-century monastery tucked into a wooded valley about 20 minutes from town.

Days 5-6: Back through Yerevan to Areni

Return to Yerevan (about 2 hours), have a night of good food, then start south. Stop at Khor Virap for the classic view of Ararat, then continue to Areni, the wine village at the mouth of a red-rock canyon. In the late afternoon, drive 15 minutes up the gorge to Noravank, where the stone glows orange as the sun drops. Taste local Areni Noir at one of the village wineries and sleep in a family guesthouse.

Days 7-9: Goris, Tatev and Khndzoresk

From Areni it’s around 2.5 hours to Goris, a calm town of stone houses and fruit-vodka shops. On day 8, ride the Tatev Monastery and Wings of Tatev Aerial Tramway, a 5.7-km cable car (around 9,000 AMD, about US$23, return from March to November) gliding over the Vorotan Gorge to a 9th-century monastery on a cliff. Day 9 morning goes to Khndzoresk, an abandoned cave village reached by a wobbling suspension bridge. After lunch, take the 4.5- to 5-hour trip back to Yerevan for your last night.

On the drive south from Sevan or north from Areni, the 14th-century Selim Caravanserai on the Vardenyats Pass is a worthwhile detour, a stone inn for Silk Road travelers still standing alone in the high meadows.