Highlights from trip in summer 2013

Sometimes all it takes is one picture. One day a photo of a beautiful monastery in a mountain setting showed up in my Facebook feed. The caption simply read something like “Mountain Monastery in Armenia” and I was hooked immediately. It just so happened a group of us had been planning a trip to Georgia for a few months and adding neighboring Armenia was a no-brainer.

Armenia did not disappoint. The country is fascinating and little visited by foreign tourists, yet some of its site can easily compete with much more famous tourist attractions worldwide.

We spent three days in Armenia in the summer of 2013 and covered a lot of ground in that short stay.

Here’s what we enjoyed most

• Visiting Cathedral and Churches of Etchmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots 
• Exploring Monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley.
• Seeing Monasteries of Noravank and Haghpat
• Admiring Khor Virap Monastery and its spectacular Mount Ararat views.
• Relaxing at Lake Sevan after trying the Ishkhan, lake Sevan’s endemic trout the night before.
• Climbing the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, inside the Yerevan Cascade – a giant indoor staircase in the Kentron downtown area of Yerevan.
• Sampling Ararat brand Armenian brandy, which in the humble opinion of this casual drinker can easily give more famous brandy producers a run for their francs (or euros now). If you enjoy cognac at all, definitely try the 20 year old Nairi.
• Marveling at the delicate masonry of the khachkars – Armenian monument stellae at all of the above religious sites.

Getting there and back: Several international airlines fly to Zvatnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, including Air France – KLM, Etihad and Aeroflot. We chose to take the overnight train from Tbilisi and returned to Tbilisi by car with our Armenian guide. The overnight train was not bad, for anyone used to Soviet train transportation. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to go straight to sleep after boarding the train, as there are two customs inspections to go through before you can retire for the night. The customs checks we had were cursory and over fairly quickly, but you still had to be awake and ready to present yourself and your paperwork. If you are doing a combined trip to Armenia and Georgia, I recommend driving or hiring a car and driver. The border crossing is easy and pleasant, and you can visit places like Haghpat along the way as you go North from Yerevan or south from Tbilisi.

Visas. Tourists from the USA, Europe and most of the former Soviet Union don’t need a visa to enter the country for short visits, and nationals from many other countries can get a visa on arrival at the airport. More information on Armenia’s visa requirements can be found here.

Note: If you are planning a trip around the Caucasus states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, keep in mind that Azerbaijan and Armenia are still formally in a state of war over Nagorno-Karabakh. The practical impact on travelers is that the Azeris tend to be suspicious of visitors with Armenian border stamps in their passports. We have heard the same of the Armenians, but when we put it to the test, the Armenian border control agents did not give our Azerbaijan passport stamps a second look. I recommend starting in Azerbaijan and then making your way to Georgia and Armenia, or be prepared for some extra questioning at the Azeri border.

You can easily spend a week or more in Armenia. There is certainly enough to see and make it worthwhile. We found a wonderful local guide, who organized our tour and transportation. We stayed in a charming small inn called Villa Delenda in Yerevan and drove around the country from the hotel as base.

In addition to the sites we had time to see, there are still some other sites, we’d love to go back for including Tatev and the cable car you can use to access it and the spa town of Dilijan to name a couple. If you have more time, another great idea and something we would love to do one day would be to cross the border into modern Eastern Turkey and for a closer look at Mount Ararat and to take in the ancient ruins of the Armenian city Ani

Like its neighbors Georgia and Azerbaijan, Armenia has a delicious national cuisine.  There are some Armenian staples that are well known throughout the former Soviet Union, such as hash – a soup made with boiled cow feet and sometimes tripe with lemon and garlic (much tastier than this description makes it sound and great for a hangover) and lavash bread. Others, such as chechil string cheese and gata sweet bread are less famous, but all are worth sampling.

Armenia may not be famous for its wine, but is in fact the home of the world’s oldest known ancient winery site, Areni-1, which archaeologists claim is 6,100 years old. (The world’s oldest leather shoe was found at the same site). The site is named after the local grape and the namesake village where the grape is cultivated. The village and winery is worth a visit and can be easily combined with a visit to  Noravank.  The wineries  of Areni offer tastings, and in addition to classic regional grape, offer interesting items such as wine made from pomegranates. More information on Areni wineries can be found here.

Armenia is safe and in general, the people are very friendly and hospitable, if not as outgoing as their neighbors in Georgia. Russian was widely spoken everywhere we went, I think English may not be as common. It is definitely gaining popularity.