Every good day in Armenia starts on the road out of Yerevan.
Which monastery circuit is worth the nine hours. What the Tatev cable car costs once you add the drive. Whether Sevan and Dilijan fit into one day.
Garni, Sevan, Khor Virap, Tatev. Almost every Armenian itinerary is built from these four.
Four circuits, four different lengths of day. What each one costs a head, and how long you are actually in the minibus.
01The half dayGroup Tour: Garni, Symphony of Stones, Geghard, Lavash BakingGarni temple, the basalt organ pipes below it, then Geghard cut back into the cliff. Lavash baked in a clay tonir before you drive home.
02The lake dayGroup Tour: Lake Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Goshavank, Haghartsin)Sevanavank on its blue promontory, then down into the Dilijan forest for Haghartsin and Goshavank. The green half of the country.
03The Ararat dayGroup tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and CaveKhor Virap with the mountain filling the whole windscreen, then the red gorge at Noravank and a tasting at Areni on the way back.
04The long oneGroup Tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)Khor Virap and Noravank in the morning, Tatev by cable car in the afternoon. Fourteen hours, and nobody regrets it.
Half a day, a full day, or the fourteen-hour one.
Armenian monasteries are spread over three hours of mountain road in every direction from Yerevan, so the real choice is how long you want to be out. Three lengths of day, and what boarding each one costs.
Six circuits carry almost every tour sold in Armenia.
A monastery on a cliff, a temple the Romans would recognise, a lake the colour of ink and a cable car over a gorge. Six routes out of the capital, and the best day on each.
The days out of Yerevan that fill up first.
Every Armenia review →These are the days out with the most bookings behind them, and what puts each one there.
1
Group Tour: Garni, Symphony of Stones, Geghard, Lavash Baking
Explore Garni, Geghard, the Symphony of Stones, and lavash baking on a well-priced half-day tour from Yerevan.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Group Tour: Lake Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Goshavank, Haghartsin)
from $32
3
Group tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and Cave
from $37
4
Group Tour: Tsaghkadzor (Kecharis, Ropeway), Lake Sevan, Trout barbecue treat
from $38
5
Group Tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)
from $73
6
Sevan, Dilijan, Haghartsin, Goshavank, Lake Parz
from $31
7
Group Tour: Garni pagan temple, Geghard monastery, Lake Sevan, Sevanavank
from $41
8
Paragliding in Armenia
from $180
Sevan is a sea at 1,900 metres. Dilijan is the forest behind it.
The lake takes up a twentieth of the country and changes colour by the hour. Behind it the road drops into beech forest, and the monasteries stop being defensive and start being hidden. Most tours pair the two in one long day.
Every Sevan and Dilijan day →
What a day out of Yerevan actually costs.
Three price brackets, and what each one buys you here. A full day with a guide in Armenia costs less than dinner at home does.
The shared minibus days: Garni and Geghard, Echmiadzin, a run up to Sevan and back.
The long circuits. Khor Virap with Noravank and Areni, or the whole southern road to Tatev.
A car and a driver to yourself, the multi-day loops, and the trip across to Tbilisi.
Three things Armenia has and nowhere else does.
Monasteries and mountain roads exist all over the Caucasus. A cliff of hexagonal basalt, the longest cable car ever built in one span, and a wine cave six thousand years old do not.
The Symphony of Stones
The Azat gorge below Garni is walled with hexagonal basalt columns that cooled into near-perfect shafts and now hang over the riverbed like pipe organ ranks. You walk in along the riverbed from the road, and the columns close over you. Most Garni tours include it without saying so on the ticket, which is why people come back up the path surprised.
- 1Group Tour: Garni, Symphony of Stones, Geghard, Lavash Baking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,042 reviews
- 2Group Tour: Garni pagan temple, Geghard monastery, Lake Sevan, Sevanavank★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 430 reviews
- 3Group Tour: Khor Virap, Garni temple, Geghard, Lavash baking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 333 reviews
The Wings of Tatev
Five and a half kilometres of cable in one uninterrupted span, strung across the Vorotan gorge to a ninth-century monastery on the far lip. It was built because the road down and up again takes an hour on switchbacks. High wind closes it, and when it closes the tour drives instead, so the operator you pick decides whether you get the cable at all.
- 1Group Tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Tatev monasteries (wayback on Ropeway)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 506 reviews
- 2Tatev & Shaki Waterfall Guided Group Tour with Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 266 reviews
- 3Group Tour: Hin Areni Winery, Tatev (wayback on Ropeway), Khndzoresk Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 192 reviews
The Areni caves
Archaeologists pulled a wine press, fermentation jars and grape seeds out of a cave above Areni and dated the lot to roughly six thousand years ago, which makes it the oldest known winery anywhere. The valley never stopped. The cellars along that road pour Areni noir grown on the same slopes, and most Khor Virap circuits stop at one on the way home.
- 1Group tour: Khor Virap, Noravank, Areni Winery and Cave★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 651 reviews
- 2Khor Virap, Noravank & Birds’ Cave Day Trip with Wine Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 320 reviews
- 3Group Tour: Lake Sevan, Hayravank, Noratus, Jermuk, winery★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 256 reviews
Six thousand years of wine, and bread baked on the wall of a pit.
Areni noir off the same slopes the oldest winery in the world sat on, brandy the Soviets shipped everywhere, and lavash slapped onto the inside of a clay tonir. Most monastery circuits end at a cellar. These are the days built around one.
Four Armenian bookings that will not wait for you.
Almost everything here can be settled the evening before over a glass. These four cannot. They run on cable-car weather, group minimums and a four-hour road south.
- 01Group Tour: Hin Areni Winery, Tatev (wayback on Ropeway), Khndzoresk CavesThe cable car shuts in high wind and the operators do not always say so until the morning. Book the run that carries a road fallback.
- 02Group Tour: Khor Virap, Garni temple, Geghard, Lavash bakingArarat is only there on a clear morning. The early departures get the mountain; the afternoon ones often get haze.
- 03Group Tour: Lake Sevan, Hayravank, Noratus, Jermuk, wineryThe lake road is the first to go under snow. Between November and April the Sevan and Dilijan pairing runs on the weather, not the timetable.
- 04Armenia. Akhpat, Dilijan, Sevan, cascad Yerevan from TbilisiThe crossing to Georgia is a border day, not a drive. Seats go early and the paperwork wants a real departure time.
When the passes close, the day moves indoors and downhill.
Armenia sits high and gets real winter. The southern road to Tatev turns unreliable, the lake road drifts, and the cable car sits still on a windy morning. The answer is the same every year: stay closer to Yerevan, go under a roof, or go up to the snow on purpose.
By route. What the minibus actually drives
By kind of day. Cellar, cable car, cathedral or kitchen
Garni, Sevan, Khor Virap, Tatev: the week almost everybody drives first.
Yerevan
Garni & Geghard
Echmiadzin
Lake Sevan
Khor Virap
TatevThe tours we wrote up most recently.
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Private tour to Khor Virap, Areni winery, Noravank, Selim pass, Hayravank
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Private tour to Gyumri, Dzitoghtsyan Museum, Black Fortress
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Private tour to Garni, Geghard, Sevan (Sevanavank), Dilijan (Haghartsin)
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Private Tour: Tsaghkadzor, Ropeway, Kecharis Monastery, Sevan Lake, Sevanavank
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Tsitsernakaber-Hripsime-Echmiatsin-Noy brandy factory
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Mount Aragats, Amberd Fortress, Saghmosavank Monastery, Alphabet – private tour
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