We went to Armenia intending to hike, but also to explore the culture, people and region.
One of the coolest options to hike in Armenia is to follow the Transcaucasian Trail for over 800km throughout the whole country from south to north (or the opposite). Combined with the trails in Georgia, you can do a thru-hike across the Caucasus for over 1500km. The year before we hiked 36 days straight across Georgia so this year we were eager to also explore Armenia.
Instead of taking on a long and tough journey and spending all of the time hiking, we decided to tackle different regions in Armenia with shorter hikes. Mostly staying in local guesthouses but also camping from time to time.
Upon reaching Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, we visited the office of HIKEArmenia, the local organisation overseeing the hiking trails in the country. We got very valuable information from them and decided upon our itinerary for Armenia after talking with them. So, if there is one thing I can recommend, is to visit their office in Yerevan for the best information and advice. They also have a website and an app which are very useful in planning your trip and also during it.
The following is the overview of the route that we decided to take during 3 weeks in Armenia. We believe it covered many areas but there are still many beautiful regions that we didn’t have time for this time.
This is our 3-week itinerary for Armenia with a focus on hiking.
0 – Yerevan
1 – Mount Aragats
2 – Dilijan National Park
3 – Garni Tempel & Geghard Monastery
4 – Gomk to Artavan
5 – Gndevaz to Jermuk
6 – Goris
7 – Tatev
8 – Gyumri
You will find hyperlinks inside the text for all the locations and useful trail descriptions.
Table of contents
- YerevanYerevan
- Mount AragatsMount Aragats
- Dilijan National ParkDilijan National Park
- Garni tempel & Geghard MonasteryGarni tempel & Geghard Monastery
- Gomk to ArtavanGomk to Artavan
- Gndevank Monastery, JermukGndevank Monastery, Jermuk
- GorisGoris
- Tatev MonasteryTatev Monastery
- GyumriGyumri
- SummarySummary
- Other regions & trailsOther regions & trails
Yerevan
Unless you are travelling into Armenia by land from Georgia, you will most probably fly into Yerevan. As the capital of Armenia, it is a good introduction to the country.
Also, almost all roads go through here. Due to the itinerary, we ended up staying in Yerevan on 4 different occasions + passing by 2 more times.
What are some of the main things to do in Yerevan?
- Go see the Republic Square + pay a visit to the History Museum of Armenia.
There are some cool fountain shows in the evening at the square. We were too late to visit the history museum but it should be a good one. - Walk along the Northern Avenue and end up at the Freedom Square and Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. The Northern Avenue is mainly a shopping street. The restaurants here seemed to be quite expensive so I would recommend finding a place to eat in one of the neighbouring alleys. A good and affordable place was for example Mer Taghe.
- Go see the stairs of Cascade Complex at night. There are also some great restaurants around for dinner.
- Visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex. Well worth visiting as its extensive exhibition explains the tough history and Armenian Genocide well.
- Visit the HIKEArmenia office for advice on your upcoming hiking trips. Also, this is almost the only place in the country where you can buy camping gas cylinders. There is another place in Yerevan, called CAMP.AM but it was closed for the whole of September when we were there.
Yerevan turned out to be a very nice city with plenty of options for exploring and walking around.
Mount Aragats
Mount Aragats, a four-peaked volcano massif lies just north of Yerevan. The highest of its peaks is at 4090m which also declares it the highest point in Armenia.
As you can see, we were not waiting around and decided to tackle the mountain as the first hike in Armenia. The easiest way to get to the beginning of the climb is to take a taxi from Yerevan. The ride takes a few hours and is surprisingly affordable. In Armenia, mainly 2 different taxi applications are being used – GG Taxi and Yandex Taxi. The basecamp is at Qari lich (Kari Lake). After the taxi ride we set up our tent on the north-west side of the lake and took a rest. There is also a restaurant on the east side of the lake (where you will be dropped off) which also offers accommodation options I believe. We didn’t use any of their facilities so I can’t say it for sure.
The climb on the next day turned out not to be easy. We were originally aiming for the Northern Peak but due to our poor form and lack of acclimatization, we decided to call it a day after reaching the Southern Peak at 3888m. We got back to the camp late afternoon, packed our tent and hitchhiked back to Yerevan. There were only a few cars at the lake and luckily one accepted our request for a ride with them.
For the GPX tracks and more detailed trail descriptions, I recommend checking out some of the hiking apps, like Wikiloc.
Dilijan National Park
After spending a night in a hotel in the northern part of Yerevan (great food and atmosphere in Odalen restaurant) we took a taxi to the Northern Bus Station from where we took a bus to Dilijan.
If you are on a budget or looking for a great company then we can recommend Dilijan Hikers Hostel. Founded by the author of Armenia Bradt Travel Guide and the founder of Transcaucasian Trail, Tom Allen. The hostel is open for the hiking season and you will most likely meet Tom himself there.
Dilijan is a lovely town between the hills and offers plentiful hiking opportunities. You will find many interesting hiking routes in the HIKEArmenia application. In fact, the ones in Dilijan as well as all the next ones we did in Armenia were done using the help of that application.
In Dilijan, we decided to hike the following trails:
- Hidden Waterfall Trail. A short trail that we did after visiting the Haghartsin Monastery. It was perfect to combine the hike with the Monastery as there was time for both.
- Goshavank to Parz Lake. We took a taxi to Parz Lake and hiked the trail opposite direction. Finishing with great views of the Goshavank Monastery and again with plenty of time to visit the Monastery itself as well.
A beautiful but difficult trail around there would be the Three Hawks Loop. We opted for a bit easier trails this time but if you are up for the challenge then HIKEArmenia recommends that one. Another option would be to hike it in 2 days with overnight camping.
Garni tempel & Geghard Monastery
From Dilijan, bus back to Yerevan, where we changed bus stations and headed to Garni. The bus to Garni departed close to Gai Statue on the corner of Nansen Street and Gai Avenue.
In Garni, we stayed in a lovely local homestay for a few nights. On the first evening, we walked to see the Garni temple at night. That 2000 year old temple looked pretty impressive with all the lights.
On the second day, we walked down to Garni Canyon to the basalt rock formations that are called Symphony of Stones. From the Canyon, we took a shortcut straight up towards Havuts Tar Monastery Complex. We were stopped at the Garni Visitor Center. It turned out that there is a fee to go all the way to Havuts Tar. As we were getting hungry and wanted to also visit the Geghard Monastery that day, we decided to not continue and walk back down along the road. Closer to the town we hitchhiked and got lucky to be picked up by a couple who was heading exactly to the Geghard Monastery as well.
All those three destinations were well worth visiting.
Gomk to Artavan
Bus back to Yerevan, taxi to Gortsaranayin metro station, bus to Vayk, taxi to Gomk. Gomk is a very small village with muddy roads. We stayed in Nvard’s homestay for a night and started hiking early morning the next day.
This trail Gomk-Artavan (or Old Bandit Road) is fully explained and described on the HIKEArmenia app. As walking past the next village, Kapuyt, we had the only unpleasant dog encounter in Armenia. The trail passed a farm and a mother dog came to threaten us. The owners didn’t do anything as well so it was a bit struggle to get by (I also needed to use the animal spray that I luckily had with me).
After that village, we did a little side trail to the Natural Stone Arch after which we hiked up the mountainside. Beautiful views from the top!
Upon almost reaching Artavan, a local farmer called us over. We thought he wanted to give us a few apples but it turned out to be a proper feast with fresh fruits, potatoes, bread, tea, cheese and of course local vodka. They even offered us to stay the night there but we wanted to keep on going. We didn’t find any transportation out from Artavan that evening so we stayed at Artavan Campsite. It was a good decision as the campsite had even a hot shower and it was a beautiful spot to stay.
Gndevank Monastery to Jermuk
The following morning we managed to get a taxi (organised by the owner of the campsite) directly to Gndevaz. From the town you walk down to Gndevank Canyon where you will find Gndevank Monastery. A quiet place where two monks live.
From the monastery, we joined the gravel road in the canyon that goes all the way to a water reservoir south of Jermuk. The river canyon trail is all uphill and quite exhausting during a hot day. We hoped to join the big road from the reservoir to hitchhike to town but the access was closed and guarded by the military at that time. Most likely due to the tensions between Azerbaijan. So the only way was to take on the 6km road walk to Jermuk centre.
Jermuk is an old spa town and has many different resorts. Accommodation options are plentiful so you can get a nice affordable hotel or splurge a bit on a fancier resort.
Trail description for the Gndevank Trail.
Goris
From Jermuk a taxi (the owner of the hotel we stayed at, Hotel Life, offered to take us) to the main highway from where we hitchhiked to Goris.
The only thing we did in Goris was visit the Goris Town Viewpoint for great views of the city. There is also a short hiking trail that goes from the viewpoint down to the city – Old Bells of Goris Trail.
Tatev Monastery
As we understood, then there are no buses between Goris and Tatev, so your only option is a taxi (or hitchhiking). There is a cable car line, called the Wings of Tatev, that travels for over 5km between Halidzor and Tatev. We tried to take that option but our driver failed to tell us, that it is closed on Mondays. In Tatev we stayed at Lena & John B&B.
The main attraction in Tatev is the Tatev Monastery. We explored the Monastery in the evening and the following day walked along the road up to the viewpoint. There is a hiking trail from the viewpoint to the Devil’s Bridge. We enjoyed the generally downhill trail with lush forest, beautiful vistas and some interesting river crossings.
During this hike, we started to receive messages about an escalating conflict nearby. It was the 19th of September 2023 and the Azerbaijani forces had just started artillery strikes and attacks at the Armenian-controlled Negorno-Karabakh region. As our location was quite close to the conflict and there was potential for escalation, we decided to leave the region and head back up north the following day. Luckily, this time the cable car was open. From the final station, we hitchhiked and after the first ride luckily stopped a bus coming from Meghri and heading all the way to Yerevan.
Gyumri
Back in Yerevan (again), we met up with a friend who was travelling with his campervan all the way from Germany. We joined him for a ride up to Gyumri. In Gyumri, we had some lunch at Vardanants Square and visited the Black Fortress and The Iron Fountain. We continued a little bit more towards the north and found a cool camping spot next to Jradzor.
Summary
The 3 weeks in Armenia flew by fast. In general, we found Armenia to be quite affordable and very friendly.
The total cost of transportation in Armenia for 2 people – 81270 dram= 199 eur
The total cost of accommodation in Armenia for 2 people – 215200 dram = 526 eur
526 € / 2 people / 21 days = 12,50 € per person a night
We were travelling on a budget and looking for most affordable options but at the same time, all the places we stayed at were really nice. In Yerevan we stayed in a hostel with a pool for 2 nights upon arrival but other times it was a private room. We camped for a total of 3 nights.
Taxis are very available and an affordable option to get to some remote places. Also, hitchhiking was amazingly easy and common as we usually got picked up within minutes. The food is delicious and the people are friendly. English is not very commonly known though, so it makes it a bit harder to communicate. Make sure to pick up some basic words (like hello and thank you) in the local language.
Other regions and trails
The landscape of Armenia is very diverse. Ranging from high mountains and volcanoes to lush green forests and dry deep canyons. There were many regions and hikes on our minds that we didn’t manage to do this time.
- Lori Province. With green landscapes and historical wonders, this area was recommended to us by Tom Allen.
- The Geghama Mountains. A week-long trek through the most remote landscape in the Caucasus. This one is an epic one that is a reason on its own to return to Armenia for.
- Mount Khustup. The highest peak in the southern provinces of Armenia.
- The Legends Trail in Syunik Province.
As you can see, there are countless hiking opportunities in Armenia. Something for everyone. Keep in mind that most of the trails require you to be quite self-sustainable. There are great resources online (with GPX tracks) but once on the ground, you need to figure everything out yourself. There are not many trail markings and no one to hold your hand to tell you what to do next. That is why Armenia is a great place for an adventurous soul eager for exploration and pure experiences!
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