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TOURISM IN ARMENIA

As part of the Soviet Union, Armenia was unknown to the west as a tourist destination.  There were however large numbers of tourists from the former Soviet and East Bloc countries who stayed at the mineral spring resorts, forested areas, the shores of Lake Sevan, and the ski slopes of Tsaghkadzor.  That is all changing quite rapidly now as the borders are wide open, and direct flights are available from all over Europe and the Middle East.  There is still a void of tourism information about Armenia however, which is changing with the Lonely Planet Caucasus guide, as well as other publications in English, French and German.  Books however cannot compete with the web for sheer amounts of information and pictures, and this site has as much information as you can digest.

HOW TO SEE ARMENIA

This will depend on the type of traveler you are.  There is everything from organized package tours, to organized adventure tours, to just arriving with a backpack and walking out of the airport towards the mountains.  The information on these pages will be useful for everyone, with the pictures allowing you to decide where you want to go, or the text often giving you information, history, and directions that you will not otherwise find, with maps (complete set in the Rediscover Armenia Guide) that are impossible to buy, and good basic itineraries for travelers by car and by foot alike.  Most tourists just end up seeing 5 things and leaving, thinking they have seen everything, and learning little about what they have seen.  This site is dedicated to changing that.  The main sites of Echmiadzin, Garni, Geghard, Lake Sevan, and Khor Virap are certainly worthy, but they only form a very small part of the whole picture.  They leave out over 90% of the country which is full of forests, rivers, canyons, castles and monasteries that are almost unknown to the world.  Seeing Armenia takes some time, due to the road conditions, but the hidden treasures are worthy despite this.  I encourage you to break out of the mold, to spend a few nights outside of Yerevan, closer to the Armenia that is ancient, unchanged, unknown, and beautiful.  The itineraries will help you plan just such a trip.

ACCESSING INFORMATION

The menu on the main tourism page has all of the most important links and the weather, as well as a double drop-down box system for selecting the site you want to see.  First you select for example Armenia - Churches in the left hand drop-down box, then in the right hand drop down box you select for example Goshavank, and then click on "go".which is on the very right.  You will be taken directly to the page with pictures and information about Goshavank.  If you want my opinion on which sites are the most worthwhile, you can visit my ratings page, which has a list of sites rated on a scale of 0 to 100.  That should save you from downloading over 100 pages of sites to decide which ones you have time for.  The itineraries page is also very helpful in planning, by illustrating which sites can be seen in one day, or which sites are close to one another.  And finally, my favorite tool has got to be the Click!Armenia page.  This is a topographical map of Armenia and Karabakh, with clickable icons all over it representing the different towns, monasteries, fortresses, hot springs, caverns and other attractions you can visit.  Main roads and bodies of water are also represented, so a color printout could be handy during your visit.

THE MAP OF ARMENIA

Location in ArmeniaThe outline on the left is an outline of the Republic of Armenia, and the blue part is Lake Sevan.  This outline shows up on most of the destination pages with a red dot which indicates where a particular site is located in Armenia.

THE AMENITIES ICONS

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