Armenia: Yerevan, Dilijan, Goris and Tatev

Arrive in Yerevan

Zvartnots International Airport to your hotel in Yerevan, then the Cascade

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Yerevan
• Environ 18 min de route

Soir

Many flights into Yerevan land late at night or in the early hours, so a driver meets every guest's flight on day 1, whatever the time, and takes you to a central hotel within walking distance of Republic Square. To make the evening briefing, plan to land by about 4 pm. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide, who stays with you all week, meets the group to talk through the route, the long road south, what to wear in churches and how the days are paced. Then we walk up to the Cascade, a white stone stairway of terraces, fountains and sculptures, as the evening light falls on the city, and on a clear evening Mount Ararat stands over the rooftops. Dinner is together nearby: Armenian dishes to share, from herbs, cheeses and lavash to grilled khorovats.

Compris

• Pick-up at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk to the Cascade
• Welcome dinner

Yerevan: memorial, manuscripts and brandy

Tsitsernakaberd, the Matenadaran, Republic Square, then a brandy cellar in the evening

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Yerevan
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

It is a quiet, serious morning, and your guide gives it time. Then the Matenadaran, the institute of ancient manuscripts, with illuminated gospels and early texts in the alphabet Mesrop Mashtots created in the early 5th century.

Après-midi

We walk down Mashtots Avenue and Northern Avenue to Republic Square, its government buildings in pink and ochre tuff stone, finishing in the early afternoon. Both museums close one or two days a week, so on some departures we swap the order of the day's visits around those closing days. The afternoon is free: the History Museum of Armenia on the square, the GUM market for dried fruit and sujukh, or the Vernissage market at weekends. At about 6 pm we meet again for a guided visit and tasting in the cellars of one of Yerevan's historic brandy houses, among barrels laid down for decades.

Soir

Dinner tonight is your own.

Compris

• Tsitsernakaberd memorial and the Armenian Genocide Museum with your guide
• The Matenadaran
• Walk to Republic Square with your guide
• Brandy cellar visit and tasting

Geghard, Garni and Lake Sevan

Yerevan to Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple, then Sevanavank on Lake Sevan and Dilijan

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Dilijan
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is with a family in Garni village, where you watch, and try, lavash being slapped onto the wall of a tonir, the clay oven sunk in the floor. In the afternoon we drive about an hour and a half north to Lake Sevan, at about 1,900 m, and climb to Sevanavank, two small 9th-century churches on a peninsula above the water.

Soir

Then about forty minutes through the Dilijan tunnel to Dilijan, with the evening free.

Compris

• Geghard Monastery with your guide
• Garni Temple entry
• Lavash baking and lunch with a family in Garni
• Sevanavank on Lake Sevan

South over the Selim Pass to Goris

Dilijan along Lake Sevan to Noratus, over the Selim Pass, then through Vayk and Sisian to Goris

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Goris
• Environ 6 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is sit-down, on the way down into the Vayots Dzor valley. The afternoon runs through Vayk and over the Vorotan Pass to Sisian and the green plateau of Syunik.

Soir

We reach Goris, a town of stone houses in a bowl of hills, around 6 pm, with a free evening.

Compris

• Sharambeyan Street in Dilijan
• The Noratus khachkar field with your guide
• Selim Caravanserai on the Selim Pass
• Sit-down lunch in Vayots Dzor

Wings of Tatev and Khndzoresk

Goris to Halidzor, the cable car to Tatev Monastery, then Khndzoresk and back to Goris

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Goris
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We drive about half an hour to Halidzor and take one of the first Wings of Tatev cars of the morning: about 5.7 km of cable across the Vorotan gorge, high above the river, in around twelve minutes. Tatev Monastery stands on the edge of the gorge at the far end, built in the 9th and 10th centuries and for centuries a university and seat of bishops. Inside the walls, look for the Gavazan, a stone column on a hinge that rocks when pushed.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Tatev village, then back across on the cable car. In the afternoon we drive to Khndzoresk, where people lived in houses cut into the soft rock of a ravine until the 1950s; a swinging footbridge crosses the gorge to the old village. We are back in Goris by about 4 pm, with the rest of the day free to walk its streets of stone houses.

Compris

• Wings of Tatev cable car, return
• Tatev Monastery with your guide
• Lunch in Tatev village
• Khndzoresk cave village and its swinging bridge

Zorats Karer, Areni wine and Noravank

Goris to Zorats Karer near Sisian, Areni and the Areni-1 cave, Noravank, then Yerevan

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Yerevan
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Après-midi

We visit the cave, then sit down to lunch at a family winery in Areni with a tasting of wine from the local areni grape. In the afternoon, a few minutes up a narrow red-walled gorge, Noravank, a 13th-century monastery whose carved church facade takes the low sun.

Soir

Then about an hour and a half to Yerevan, to the same hotel as nights 1 and 2 by about 6 pm, and a farewell dinner together.

Compris

• Zorats Karer with your guide
• The Areni-1 cave
• Winery lunch and tasting in Areni
• Noravank Monastery
• Farewell dinner in Yerevan

Departure from Yerevan

Yerevan to Zvartnots International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 18 min de route

Soir

Many flights from Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), about 12 km west of the centre, depart in the early hours or early morning, and we drive you to the airport at whatever time your flight needs; your guide checks the time with you the evening before. If you fly later in the day, leave your bags at the hotel after check-out and use the morning: the History Museum of Armenia on Republic Square, the Vernissage market if it is a weekend, or a last coffee on Northern Avenue. The ruins of the 7th-century Zvartnots Cathedral, part of a UNESCO listing with Echmiadzin, stand beside the airport road; with a flight after midday we can stop there for half an hour. Book a flight that suits the transfer time you prefer. If you would like more days, ask us for extra nights in Yerevan or our Georgia and Armenia trip.

Compris

• Drop-off at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time