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5 days in Armenia

A five day, one base trip that works with the country's geography instead of against it.

Last updated . Border status is the live variable in this region and can change with the politics. Day trip roads and the Wings of Tatev timetable move seasonally. Recheck official travel advice before travelling.

Armenia rewards a different shape of trip from its neighbours. There is no circuit to drive: the country is small, the sights radiate from the capital, and Yerevan itself is good enough company that coming back every evening is a feature. So this itinerary stays in one hotel for 5 nights and goes out in a different direction each day, which is cheaper, lazier and better than dragging bags between towns that are 90 minutes apart.

How many days do you need in Armenia?

5 days: 2 in Yerevan and 3 day trips covering Geghard, Garni, Khor Virap, Noravank and Lake Sevan.

Tatev, the cable car monastery in the south, deserves 2 more days as an overnight rather than a punishing day trip. A week total is the comfortable ceiling before you are inventing reasons.

Do you need a visa for Armenia?

UK visitors do not, for up to 180 days in a year, one of the most generous visa free rules going.

Many other nationalities get similar treatment or an easy e-visa. Check the official rule for your passport; the generosity is the point, not the paperwork.

Can you continue overland from Armenia to Azerbaijan or Turkey?

No. The eastern border with Azerbaijan is closed, and the land border with Turkey has been shut for around 30 years.

Overland, Armenia connects through Georgia in the north and Iran in the south. A Caucasus run that includes Azerbaijan does it by air. Check current government advice for the border regions before travelling near them.

How do you get around without a car?

Marshrutkas and the GG ride app cover Yerevan and the near sights; for the monastery days a hired driver or day tour costs little and saves 2 to 3 hours each day.

Recent travellers do the whole country by marshrutka, but the monastery clusters involve junction transfers and waits that a day tour deletes. Pick by patience, not principle.

The plan at a glance

Day
1
Where
Yerevan on foot
What needs arranging
Nothing fixed
Day
2
Where
Geghard and Garni
What needs arranging
A driver or tour, the day before
Day
3
Where
Khor Virap and Noravank
What needs arranging
Same again; it is the longest day
Day
4
Where
Lake Sevan
What needs arranging
Nothing that cannot be decided at breakfast
Day
5
Where
Yerevan, then out
What needs arranging
Nothing fixed
One hotel for the whole trip. The only recurring arrangement is wheels for the monastery days.

The route at a glance

9 mapped stops · 5 days

Live route map

OpenStreetMap tiles

Loading the OpenStreetMap map.

ROUTE OVERVIEW9 stops · 5 daysStop 1: Republic Square and the Vernissage market1Stop 2: The Cascade Complex2Stop 3: Matenadaran3Stop 4: Geghard Monastery4Stop 5: Garni Temple5Stop 6: Khor Virap6Stop 7: Noravank7Stop 8: Sevanavank8Stop 9: Tsitsernakaberd9

Route stops

Follow the numbered order through each day.

2 stops need a location

Day 1: Yerevan

  1. 1Republic Square and the Vernissage market · about 2.5 hours
  2. 2The Cascade Complex · about 2 hours
  3. 3Matenadaran · about an hour

Day 2: Geghard and Garni

  1. 4Geghard Monastery · about 2 hours
  2. 5Garni Temple · about 2.5 hours

Day 3: Khor Virap and Noravank

  1. 6Khor Virap · about 90 minutes
  2. 7Noravank · about 2 hours

Day 4: Lake Sevan

  1. 8Sevanavank · about 2 hours
  2. ·The Sevan shore · about 2 hours

Day 5: Yerevan, then out

  1. 9Tsitsernakaberd · about 2 hours
  2. ·Zvartnots airport · about 30 minutes
A star, not a line: Yerevan at the centre, with day trips east to Geghard, south to Khor Virap and Noravank, and north east to Lake Sevan. 2 of the 11 stops are not plotted because we do not hold a checked coordinate for them.

Day 1: Yerevan

A pink stone capital that is best understood from its steps: the Cascade up, the market down.

On foot
About 7 km on foot with the Cascade's steps

Morning

  1. Republic Square and the Vernissage marketabout 2.5 hours

    The tuff stone set piece square, then the open air market two blocks east for carpets, chess sets and Soviet leftovers. Weekends are fullest.

Afternoon

  1. The Cascade Complexabout 2 hours

    A giant limestone stairway stuffed with sculpture, with Ararat filling the horizon from the top on a clear morning. The escalators inside are the secret.

  2. Matenadaranabout an hour

    The manuscript library that holds the national memory: illuminated gospels going back over a thousand years. An hour repays itself.

Day 2: Geghard and Garni

A monastery cut into a cliff and a Greco Roman temple over a gorge, half an hour apart.

On foot
About 4 km on foot
Book before you go
The driver or tour, arranged the evening before

Morning

  1. Geghard Monasteryabout 2 hours

    Chambers hewn straight into the rock, with acoustics that choirs travel for. Arrive before the coach groups and stand in the carved chapel when someone sings; it happens most mornings.

Afternoon

  1. Garni Templeabout 2.5 hours

    The only standing Greco Roman temple in the region, rebuilt on its gorge edge. Walk down to the basalt organ pipe columns in the canyon below if your knees allow it.

Day 3: Khor Virap and Noravank

The postcard monastery under Ararat, then the red canyon one, on the longest driving day.

On foot
About 4 km on foot, plus about 4 hours of road in total
Book before you go
The driver again; this pairing is the standard long day

Morning

  1. Khor Virapabout 90 minutes

    The monastery in every photograph of Armenia, sitting under Ararat right on the closed Turkish border. The pit where Gregory the Illuminator was held is climbable by ladder for the committed.

Afternoon

  1. Noravankabout 2 hours

    Red stone against red cliffs up a narrow canyon, with the famous narrow external staircase on the Astvatsatsin church. Late light turns the whole gorge the colour of the buildings.

Day 4: Lake Sevan

The high altitude lake an hour away, for monasteries on a peninsula and fish by the shore.

On foot
About 3 km on foot with one stair climb

Morning

  1. Sevanavankabout 2 hours

    Two dark stone churches on the peninsula above the lake, up a flight of about 200 steps. The view over high altitude water at nearly 1,900 metres is the reward.

Afternoon

  1. The Sevan shoreabout 2 hours

    Grilled sig and crayfish at a shoreline restaurant, then back to the capital by mid afternoon. This is the deliberately light day of the five.

Day 5: Yerevan, then out

The memorial the country asks you not to skip, and a last unhurried city morning.

On foot
About 4 km on foot

Morning

  1. Tsitsernakaberdabout 2 hours

    The genocide memorial and museum on its hill above the city. Sober, essential, and rightly placed at the end of the trip rather than its start.

Afternoon

  1. Zvartnots airportabout 30 minutes

    About 30 minutes from the centre, which is what lets day 5 hold real content before an evening flight.

The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.

Book the separate parts

Book the parts that need booking

Nothing here has a hard deadline. What is worth arranging is the flight, the one hotel, and the two monastery driving days.

You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.

  • Flights
    Flights to Yerevan(opens on Aviasales)

    Zvartnots is the country's one real gateway, and on a Caucasus run the Yerevan and Tbilisi legs are worth pricing as an open jaw.

    Search on Aviasales

  • Stays
    One Yerevan base for 5 nights(opens on Booking.com)

    The whole plan runs from a single hotel, so its position near Republic Square or the Cascade is the one accommodation decision that matters.

    Search on Booking.com

  • Activities
    Monastery day tours(opens on GetYourGuide)

    The Geghard and Khor Virap pairings are exactly the days where a driver deletes 2 to 3 hours of junction transfers, and the small group versions cost less than a private hire.

    Search on GetYourGuide

What is worth the time, and what is not

Worth your time

  • Geghard early, before the coaches. The rock cut chambers work on silence and echo, and both leave the site by mid morning.
  • One hotel for all 5 nights. Everything is a day trip anyway, and the evenings back in Yerevan are half the country's charm.
  • Tsitsernakaberd on the last morning. It reframes everything already seen, which is exactly why it belongs at the end.

Skip it

  • Tatev as a day trip. It is roughly 4 hours each way; as an overnight from Goris it is the best thing in the country, as a day trip it is 8 hours of road.
  • Planning an onward land crossing east or west. Both borders are closed; the overland exits are Georgia and Iran, and pretending otherwise wastes a planning evening.
  • A rental car for this exact plan. Five days of day trips with drivers costs about the same, skips mountain road stress, and lets you actually look at the country.

Why this order

Yerevan opens the trip because the day trips make more sense once the capital has given you the scale and the history. Geghard and Garni come first among the excursions because they are the shortest drive and the strongest pair, which insures the trip early against weather or fatigue. The Khor Virap and Noravank day sits in the middle where the longest drive belongs. Sevan is the deliberate exhale before departure. And the genocide memorial is last on purpose: it lands differently once the country is familiar, and a trip should end where the nation's memory actually lives.

Book the trip

Start with Armenia, dates and travellers

Compare the travel services first, then use the itinerary below to plan each day.

You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.

Read next

What we checked

Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route built on Armenia's one base geometry: 180 visa free days for UK visitors, everything within day trip range of Yerevan, and closed borders east and west that make Georgia the only overland neighbour that matters.