In September 2025, I spent ten days driving through Armenia. Many of those days it rained — but Armenia wins you over even without good weather. Stone monasteries inside red gorges, villages hanging from cliffs, twisting roads at 2,000 meters, and a Soviet-era hotel on Lake Sevan that takes you fifty years back.
The route started south from Yerevan, dropped down to the Turkish border, climbed east to Lake Sevan, passed through the forests of Dilijan and the gorges of Alaverdi in the north, and eventually we ended up back in the capital.
South
First stop was Khor Virap — a monastery on the plain, a few kilometers from the closed border with Turkey. Mount Ararat stands directly across and is one of the main reasons to go there.
From there we headed southeast, through vineyards to reach Areni, a place where they have been making wine for millennia. In a cave just meters from the road, archaeologists found the oldest known winery in the world, over 6,000 years old. We stopped at local wineries to taste Areni Noir.
A little further the road narrows, red cliffs rise on both sides — and eventually you reach Noravank. A 13th-century monastery built from the same red stone. Inside the Surb Astvatsatsin church, the monks who served there are buried beneath slabs in the floor, and when you are inside the church you are essentially walking over them. The tradition exists so they remain part of the monastery even after their death.
Goris
After Areni we headed toward Goris. We stayed in a room run by a woman who had lived in Greece for years, so we had long conversations in Greek with her. About how she missed Greece and about life in Armenia in general.
We visited Tatev — a monastery on the edge of a gorge, lost in the fog. The second day, Khndzoresk. The suspension bridge — 160 meters long and 63 meters above the base of the gorge. On the other side, an entire village carved into the rock — rooms, tunnels, stone stairs. Over 8,000 people once lived here — schools, churches, shops, a whole town inside the cliff. In the 1950s the Soviets displaced them — the caves were "unfit for habitation" — and moved everyone to a new village above.
Past the bridge, we continued into the mountains and the trails with views across the entire gorge. The fog worked in our favor here. It moved through the valleys, built layers in the distance, and the overcast sky softened the colors while creating a cinematic landscape.
Lake Sevan
After 3 days in Goris it was time to head north. A stop at Zorats Karer — the Armenian Stonehenge. Then an uphill road full of switchbacks until we reached 1,900 meters, where Lake Sevan appears suddenly — the largest lake in the Caucasus.
We stayed at the Sevan Writers House. I had found it in a blog post and decided it was worth at least one night. It was built in 1932 for Armenian writers — a guesthouse where Soviet literati came to write with a view of the lake. The architects, Gevorg Kochar and Mikael Mazmanyan, were arrested five years later and sent to camps in the Arctic.
Today a couple keeps it open. From the outside, it looks almost abandoned. Inside, clean but unchanged — wallpaper in faded blues and golds, heavy wooden furniture, lace curtains. The dining room, which is in a separate building, overlooks the entire lake. The rooms have incredible views over the water. It is not comfortable — if you are tall, watch out for the beds. But for one night, absolutely worth it.
Next door stands Sevanavank — a monastery on the peninsula's ridge, overlooking the entire lake. The peninsula was an island — the Soviets dropped the water level by 20 meters with irrigation projects and the island became dry land.
The North
The drive from Sevan to Dilijan was one of the most beautiful of the trip — forest everywhere, green even in the rain. The town is scattered, no center, but something kept you there — small restaurants, slow pace, a town hidden in the green.
From there we headed toward Alaverdi where the character changed completely. Rivers, deep gorges, green mountains. There we found some of the most beautiful trails and monasteries of the trip — hidden in valleys, next to rivers, still functioning.
Return
On the road back to Yerevan, we stopped at Garni — a 1st-century Greco-Roman temple, the only pagan temple still standing in the country. Just before entering the capital, one last stop above a gorge — one final frame.
Ten days. A unique experience in this country — the oldest Christian nation in the world, and one so recently battered by the war with Azerbaijan.
