Armenia is the kind of place your friends have heard of, but can’t tell you much about – like lots of the Roaming Rascals holiday destinations! So, during our visit to Georgia, we took the opportunity to visit its neighbour and discover what Armenia had to offer.
The journey from Kazbegi in Georgia to Armenia looked short on the map but it took us most of the day to even get to the border. Then getting across the border with a hire car and an 11 month old baby was a great test of our patience and language skills, but this is what travelling is all about… we had to visit about 4 different offices and pay a variety of perplexing fees, but eventually they let us in!
Our first stop was the Debed Canyon, just across the border. The canyon provides great scenery but more importantly is home to a very nice hotel – one of the Tufenkian chain – which we enjoyed very much, both for its tasty Armenian food and friendly welcome as well as its nice indoor swimming pool. We enjoyed a few visits in the local area, in particular to some amazing churches and monasteries. Our favourite was the Haghpat monastery which had lots of nooks and crannies to explore along with well-preserved buildings and stone carvings.
After a couple of days we continued our journey south where the scenery got even better. We took a detour up Mount Aragats, the highest peak in Armenia at 4,090 metres above sea level. We didn’t quite reach the summit, but did enjoy a rather bumpy drive up to Lake Kari high on its slopes where we stopped off for a picnic and a short hike to take in the views. This was the little one’s first time above 3,200 metres and she managed fine with the altitude, so we reckon that Everest should be on the itinerary soon…
A short distance on was the capital city, Yerevan. We stayed at another Tufenkian hotel right in the middle of the city and again really loved it, with its very comfortable room and great location. They provided a baby cot and the staff were very accommodating!
Yereven must be one of the hottest places we’ve been to, with temperatures between 38 and 41 degrees celsius during our visit. However, with a combination of air conditioning and us taking things easy in the afternoons we managed fine.
Yerevan has a nice modern feel to it with some good restaurants and cafes – we could easily have stayed longer. A particular highlight was a good Lebanese meal at Liban, where we enjoyed the mezze on offer as well as the speciality spiced trout. Yum!
The biblical Mount Ararat is visible from Yerevan on a clear day, but we wanted to take a closer look so headed out to the monastery complex at Khor Virap which provides a stunning view of the mountain.
Mt Ararat is in modern-day Turkey and the nearby border is no longer open so this was the closest we’d get to it on this trip. Nevertheless, seeing Ararat shimmering in the haze from this beautiful monastery was the absolute highlight of our trip to Armenia. We think the little one liked it too although she seemed more impressed by the ice-cream in the cafe beside the monastery…
Our final stop in Armenia was Lake Sevan, a massive stretch of water and very popular as a place to escape the heat of the city. We explored Sevan for a couple of hours, saw some more churches and enjoyed a fish lunch with lovely lake views.
Travelling in Armenia with a toddler presented no real difficulties. Both the hotels we stayed in provided baby cots and there was even a Mothercare shop across the road from the Yerevan hotel where we could stock up on supplies. All in all, Armenia was a fascinating place to visit and well worth the diversion from Georgia. We’ll be back!
Armenia Gallery:
Roaming Rascals 