Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Armenia: Yerevan, Dilijan, Goris and Tatev
7 days round trip from Yerevan: Geghard and Garni, Lake Sevan and a night in Dilijan's forests, two nights in Goris for the Wings of Tatev and Khndzoresk, and Noravank and Areni wine on the way back.
7 days · Round trip from Yerevan · up to 12 guests
The upper Azat Valley on the road to Geghard Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geghard_landscape,_Armenia.jpg)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 7 days, 6 nights
- Start and end
- Round trip from Yerevan
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Longest drive
- 6 h on day 4
- Activity level
Moderate
Easy to moderate walking: 2 to 3 hours a day on foot at monasteries, in Yerevan and in villages, on steps, cobbles and uneven stone. The highest points are the Selim Pass at about 2,410 m (by road) and Lake Sevan at about 1,900 m. The optional walk down into old Khndzoresk is the steepest part, about 1 to 1.5 hours with a climb back; you can sit out any walk.
- Meals included
- 6 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 1 dinner
- Room of your own
- + CAD 495 (estimated price)
- Season
- May to October
Highlights
Why this trip
- Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian Genocide memorial, at 9 am, with time to take it in
- An evening tasting among the barrels of a Yerevan brandy cellar
- Geghard's rock-cut chapels at about 9 am, then lavash from a tonir oven with a family in Garni
- Sevanavank on its peninsula above Lake Sevan in the afternoon light
- The Wings of Tatev cable car across the Vorotan gorge to Tatev Monastery
- The swinging bridge over the cave village of old Khndzoresk
- The standing stones of Zorats Karer, then a winery lunch in Areni and Noravank against its red cliffs
What makes this trip different
Short drives, all published
Every drive is listed day by day. The longest is 6 h, on day 4.
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 495 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
The longest drive is 6 h, on day 4.
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Yerevan
Zvartnots International Airport to your hotel in Yerevan, then the Cascade
- Welcome dinner
- Stay in Yerevan
- Drive about 18 min
Fly into Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), about 12 km west of the centre.
Evening
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.
Included
- Pick-up at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Evening walk to the Cascade
- Welcome dinner
Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing
Activity: Escalators inside the Cascade spare you the outdoor steps.
Yerevan: memorial, manuscripts and brandy
Tsitsernakaberd, the Matenadaran, Republic Square, then a brandy cellar in the evening
- Breakfast
- Stay in Yerevan
- Drive about 30 min
We open the day at 9 am at Tsitsernakaberd, the memorial to the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, on a hill above the city: an eternal flame inside a ring of leaning basalt slabs. The museum beside it follows when it opens.
Morning
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.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
Dinner tonight is your own.
Included
- Tsitsernakaberd memorial and the Armenian Genocide Museum with your guide
- The Matenadaran
- Walk to Republic Square with your guide
- Brandy cellar visit and tasting
Easier option: We drive between the memorial, the Matenadaran and the square if you would rather not walk.
Free time: Afternoon free; dinner on your own
Activity: Both museums have weekly closing days and set opening hours; we order day 2 around them and confirm the order with your final itinerary.
Geghard, Garni and Lake Sevan
Yerevan to Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple, then Sevanavank on Lake Sevan and Dilijan
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Dilijan
- Drive about 3.5 h
We leave Yerevan at 8 am to reach Geghard at about 9, ahead of the day tours. The monastery sits at the head of the Azat Valley and is partly cut into the cliff: some chapels are carved out of the living rock, and a spring still runs in one. Geghard and the upper Azat Valley are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then twenty minutes down the valley to Garni, a Greco-Roman temple of the 1st century AD on a promontory above the gorge, rebuilt in the 1970s from its fallen stones.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
Then about forty minutes through the Dilijan tunnel to Dilijan, with the evening free.
Included
- Geghard Monastery with your guide
- Garni Temple entry
- Lavash baking and lunch with a family in Garni
- Sevanavank on Lake Sevan
Easier option: Stay at the foot of the Sevanavank steps and walk the shore while the group climbs.
More active option: Walk down into the Garni gorge to the Symphony of Stones, cliffs of hexagonal basalt columns, about 3 km with about 100 m of descent and climb, while the van waits below.
Free time: Evening free in Dilijan
Activity: The steps to Sevanavank are short but steep; Lake Sevan is cool and windy even in summer.
South over the Selim Pass to Goris
Dilijan along Lake Sevan to Noratus, over the Selim Pass, then through Vayk and Sisian to Goris
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Goris
- Drive about 6 h
The longest drive of the week, about 310 km and five and a half to six hours at the wheel, because only one road links the north of Armenia with Syunik in the south; it is the price of two nights in Goris. We leave at 8:30 am after a short walk on Dilijan's Sharambeyan Street, and break the day into parts. First the west shore of Lake Sevan to Noratus, a field of hundreds of carved stone crosses, khachkars, some nearly a thousand years old. Then over the Selim Pass at about 2,410 m, where a stone caravanserai built in 1332 sheltered travellers on the Silk Road; step inside its dark, pillared hall.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
We reach Goris, a town of stone houses in a bowl of hills, around 6 pm, with a free evening.
Included
- Sharambeyan Street in Dilijan
- The Noratus khachkar field with your guide
- Selim Caravanserai on the Selim Pass
- Sit-down lunch in Vayots Dzor
Free time: Evening free in Goris
Activity: The one day over the four-hour driving cap, about 5.5 to 6 hours at the wheel; it is broken by Noratus, the caravanserai, a sit-down lunch and a coffee stop near Sisian. Exact timings are confirmed by our driver.
Wings of Tatev and Khndzoresk
Goris to Halidzor, the cable car to Tatev Monastery, then Khndzoresk and back to Goris
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Goris
- Drive about 1.5 h
A day in Syunik without a hotel change.
Morning
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.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- Wings of Tatev cable car, return
- Tatev Monastery with your guide
- Lunch in Tatev village
- Khndzoresk cave village and its swinging bridge
Easier option: See Khndzoresk from the viewpoint at the top of the ravine and wait at the café while the group walks down.
More active option: Walk down into old Khndzoresk, across the swinging bridge and among the cave houses, then climb back up: about 1 to 1.5 hours with a steep path.
Free time: Late afternoon and evening free in Goris
Activity: If wind stops the cable car, we drive up to Tatev by road, about an hour each way from Goris.
Zorats Karer, Areni wine and Noravank
Goris to Zorats Karer near Sisian, Areni and the Areni-1 cave, Noravank, then Yerevan
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Yerevan
- Drive about 4.5 h
We leave Goris at 8:30 am and drive about 45 minutes to Zorats Karer, near Sisian: more than two hundred standing stones on a grassy ridge, some pierced with round holes, whose age and purpose are still argued over. Then about two hours back over the Vorotan Pass into Vayots Dzor to Areni, where in 2007 to 2010 archaeologists found a leather shoe about 5,500 years old and the remains of a winery about 6,100 years old in a cave above the river.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
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.
Included
- Zorats Karer with your guide
- The Areni-1 cave
- Winery lunch and tasting in Areni
- Noravank Monastery
- Farewell dinner in Yerevan
Easier option: Stay by the van at the Areni-1 cave, which has a short climb on steps to the entrance.
More active option: Walk the ridge path around the whole stone circle at Zorats Karer while the group sees the central stones.
Activity: About four and a half hours of driving, broken by Zorats Karer, the cave, a winery lunch and Noravank.
Departure from Yerevan
Yerevan to Zvartnots International Airport
- Breakfast
- Drive about 18 min
There are no activities planned today, so you leave whenever your flight does.
Evening
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.
Included
- Drop-off at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time
Free time: Free until your airport transfer
Activity: Any flight time works; for the Zvartnots Cathedral stop, book a flight after midday.
- Yerevan2 nights
- Dilijan1 night
- Goris2 nights
- Yerevan1 night
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: We run from May to October. May and June bring green hills and wildflowers in Syunik; September and October bring the grape harvest around Areni and golden forests around Dilijan. July and August are hot in Yerevan, so we sightsee in the mornings there, while Dilijan, Lake Sevan and Goris stay cooler. The high passes on the road south can see snow outside these months.
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Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want Armenia in a week, including the south that shorter trips skip
- First-timers who want Geghard, Garni, Sevan, Tatev and Noravank with entries and a guide included
- Food and drink: lavash from a tonir, an Areni winery lunch and a brandy cellar
- Solo travellers who want a small group and one guide throughout
Not for you if you want
- Step-free access: monasteries, Khndzoresk and the cave mean steps, slopes and rough ground
- Anyone who wants no long drives: two days are four and a half to six hours on the road
- Travellers who want Georgia too: see our Georgia and Armenia trips
- A winter trip: the high passes on the road south can see snow from late autumn to spring
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
6 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Yerevan2 nights
- Dilijan1 night
- Goris2 nights
- Yerevan1 night
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 6 nights: 3 in Yerevan, 1 in Dilijan and 2 in Goris
- Central hotels of a 3-star-plus standard with private bathrooms; we name each hotel when we confirm your dates
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
Transport
- Pick-up and drop-off at Zvartnots International Airport (EVN), at any time
- Our own air-conditioned vehicle and driver for the group throughout
- The Wings of Tatev cable car, return
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide with the group from day 1 to day 7
- Local site guides where a site requires them
Activities
- Yerevan: the Cascade, Tsitsernakaberd and the Armenian Genocide Museum, the Matenadaran, Republic Square and a brandy cellar tasting
- Kotayk: Geghard Monastery, Garni Temple and lavash baking in Garni
- Lake Sevan: Sevanavank and the Noratus khachkar field
- Dilijan: Sharambeyan Street
- Selim Pass: Selim Caravanserai
- Syunik: Tatev Monastery by the Wings of Tatev, the Khndzoresk cave village and Zorats Karer
- Vayots Dzor: the Areni-1 cave, a winery tasting in Areni and Noravank Monastery
- All entrance fees for included sights
Meals
- 6 breakfasts
- 4 lunches: a lavash lunch with a family in Garni, a sit-down lunch on the road to Goris, lunch in Tatev village and lunch at a winery in Areni
- 2 dinners: a welcome dinner and a farewell dinner in Yerevan
- A brandy tasting in Yerevan and a wine tasting in Areni
Not included
- International flights to and from Yerevan
- Visas, if your passport needs them
- Travel insurance
- Meals not listed above
- Drinks, apart from the brandy and wine tastings
- Tips for guides and drivers
- Personal expenses
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 495 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
Prices in these answers apply from Jan 1, 2027. Black Friday offer: 15% off the small-group price for requests received by Dec 1, 2026. From CAD 2,460 per person. Dec 2 to Dec 31: from CAD 2,665. From Jan 1, 2027: from CAD 2,895.
What does the price include?
Six nights in central hotels, 6 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 2 dinners, a brandy tasting and a winery tasting, airport transfers at any time, our own vehicle and driver, the Wings of Tatev cable car, your See Sight Tours guide throughout, and every entry in the day plan, including Garni, Geghard, the Genocide museum and the Areni-1 cave.
How big is the group?
The small-group trip runs with 7 to 12 guests, never more. That is small enough for one vehicle, one table at a family lunch in Garni and the narrow rock chapels at Geghard, and for the guide to change the plan on the day when the weather or the cable car calls for it.
Who leads the trip?
A See Sight Tours guide leads the whole trip, from the airport on day 1 to the airport on day 7. Local site guides join only where a site requires them. Our own driver and vehicle stay with the group all week, with a brief that rules out overtaking on blind bends on the mountain passes.
How fit do I need to be?
Moderately fit. Expect 2 to 3 hours a day on foot on steps, cobbles and uneven stone at monasteries and in villages. The steepest part, the walk down into old Khndzoresk and back up, is optional, and every demanding stop has an easier way. You can sit out any walk.
I am travelling solo. Do I pay a single supplement?
Only if you want a room of your own, which is from CAD 495 more and shown before you book. Everything else is the same for solo travellers: the same table, the same vehicle and the same activities, with no other charge for travelling alone.
How long are the drives to Goris and back?
Day 4, Dilijan to Goris, is about 310 km and five and a half to six hours at the wheel, and day 6, Goris to Yerevan, about 265 km and four and a half hours, because one road links Syunik with the north. Both are broken by named stops and a sit-down lunch. The other days are under three and a half hours.
What if the Wings of Tatev cable car is not running?
We drive up to Tatev Monastery by road instead, about an hour each way from Goris, and keep the rest of the day as planned. The cable car stops in strong wind and for maintenance; we check the day before and tell you which way we are going.
Is it monastery after monastery?
No. Armenia is full of old churches, but we visit three at most on any day and keep the visits focused. Between them are the Genocide memorial, a brandy cellar, lavash baking in Garni, standing stones at Zorats Karer, a cave village, the Areni-1 cave and a winery lunch.
Do I need a visa for Armenia?
Canadian, US, UK and EU passport holders can currently visit Armenia without a visa for a trip like this. Check the rules for your own passport, and the passport validity your airline and the Armenian foreign ministry require, before booking. We confirm the entry rules again with your final itinerary.
When is the best time to go?
May to October. May and June are green with wildflowers in Syunik; September and October bring the grape harvest in Areni and autumn colour around Dilijan. July and August are hot in Yerevan, so we tour there in the mornings. We do not run in winter because snow can reach the passes on the road south.
How does booking work?
Choose a start date and request to book. We check availability and confirm your trip within 24 hours, and no payment is taken when you send the request. Prices are per person sharing a room, with taxes included; the small group starts from CAD 2,895 and a private trip from CAD 5,210.
Can I travel on my own dates?
Yes. The private version runs for your party only on a date you choose, with your own guide and vehicle. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, send us an inquiry from the dates section and we will quote the same route with a driver, hotels and local guides.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
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