The capital of Armenia, the famous city of Yerevan, is the political, economic and cultural center of a hospitable country. Arriving here, you can enjoy Churchill’s favorite drink – Yerevan cognac, buy a carpet at Vernissage and try excellent barbecue at roadside eateries. But in order to correctly distribute free time, tourists and vacationers always need a guide in Yerevan. Only an experienced escort will tell you how to get the most out of your visit to this diverse city.

Getting to know the sights of Yerevan

When we say that Russian-speaking guides in Yerevan are necessary for all guests of the city, we are not exaggerating. Despite the fact that the key historical and cultural monuments here are concentrated in Abakir and the center, it is impossible to see them in one short visit to the capital. A professional Russian guide in Yerevan will help you create the optimal route and take you to those places that can really arouse your sincere interest.
For example, in the Central District and Republic Square. Here are such iconic objects as the Spendiarov Opera and Ballet Theater, the House of Chess Players and singing fountains. In the northwestern district of Kanaker-Zeytune, which is also not overlooked by tour guides in Yerevan, the famous Mother Armenia monument and the blooming Victory Park were erected. You should also take a look at the highest point of the city, located in Nor-Nork. Any private guide in Yerevan will point out to you the need to visit:

• Museum with manuscripts "Matenadaran". This is one of the largest museums in the world with a collection of ancient texts. A trip here is not only entertaining, but also useful for general cultural development;
• Republic Square. A friendly guide to Yerevan and the surrounding area will take a photo of you against the backdrop of the majestic 5 buildings;
• Citadel of Erebuni fortress. The landmark is considered sacred in the capital and throughout the country. Every guide in Yerevan in Russian considers it his duty to bring his “ward” tourist to this majestic place. If you think that guides in Yerevan, reviews of which you can find out right now, are needed only by lovers of sights and excursions, you are mistaken. Your escort can take you, for example, to the legendary Tufenkian Carpets and help you purchase a unique carpet at a discount. Or tell you about where they offer delicious khorovats kebab and excellent homemade wine. You just need to decide what exactly you expect from your holiday in the capital of Armenia.

When should you organize your trip?

Winters in Yerevan are moderately cold and have little snow. Spring arrives strictly according to the calendar - with the arrival of March, nature also changes. The best time to visit the capital is considered to be April-November. The autumn months are always warm and sunny. The duration of dry and hot summer is about 4 months. But in May you can expect rain. One of the tasks that guides in Yerevan solve, reviews of whose services you will find on our website, is choosing the optimal travel time. Contact an escort and he will help you.

Where can you find the right driver in Armenia? October 28th, 2015

Friends, as you may remember, I already told you a story about the difficulties we had with finding a guide-driver in Armenia. The fact is that we thought about how to get to places that are difficult to reach by regular transport - all sorts of mountains and passes, monasteries and hot springs, where no buses or minibuses go, the day before, and agreed with one guide-driver, who first promised, but then suddenly, suddenly and for a reason completely incomprehensible to us, a few days before the start of the trip, he suddenly refused to take us. We, of course, began to look for someone else, Anton even wrote to a special Armenian website for guides and drivers, but they all offered their services for some unimaginable money, starting from 90 dollars per day. And in one of the travel companies, where we also applied, they charged us an even higher price tag.
Therefore, in this note, I decided to tell you about our wonderful driver Armen, whom we eventually found, and with whom we went to Aragats (I wrote about Aragats in mine), and then to Nagorno-Karabakh for three days with a return to Sevan.
My friend Ira recommended it to us. fareast2000 . Ira and her husband traveled around Armenia about a year before us, and recommended the driver who drove them to us. We called Armen and agreed on a great price. For example, he agreed to take us to Aragats for the whole day for 17 thousand drams (about 2500 rubles). Moreover, we traveled with him for this price from early morning until night, and in addition to the mountain itself and the high-mountain lake Kari, we visited the observatory, the Amberd fortress, and the village of Oshakan, where the inventor of the Armenian alphabet Misrop Mashtots is buried, and in the town on the slopes of Aragats, where a monument to the Armenian alphabet is erected. And about the trip to Nagorno-Karabakh, we agreed with him on the amount of 25 thousand drams per day (about 3,750 rubles). Against $90, think about it! At the same time, we also climbed into such wilds that we never dreamed of, and this price included the driver’s accommodation, his food, and refueling. That is, Armen did not require any additional payments from us.
We drove an Opel, Armen turned out to be a very good driver. He knew almost all the places himself, and if he didn’t know how to get to some wilds (and we had, at times, real wilds), then he found out everything himself, solved all the questions himself. At the same time, he never drove (but didn’t drive slow either), stopped and went where we asked, didn’t whine that we, for example, didn’t warn him about some places on the route, didn’t hint that we were doing anything else -they owe him for this. On the contrary, when we returned from Aragats almost at night, and it turned out that we had added almost a hundred kilometers extra, we decided to pay him some extra money ourselves, but he refused.
In general, he is the kind of driver you need. And if we decided to go to Armenia again, we would definitely go again only with Armen. So, my recommendations, friends! Under the cut I leave Armen’s phone number and a link to his FB page. It turns out that he opened a small company that takes tourists around Armenia.
If you decide to go with him, then say hello to him from us. :)

I was given excursions in Yerevan by a guide named Sophia - a sociable and friendly girl. Looking at the cheerful Sophia, it is not difficult to guess that I simply could not help but get enormous pleasure from our joint walk around the city and therefore I simply have to write a separate post about my personal experience and advise those who are looking for interesting excursions in Yerevan where they can book them online , where to look at reviews of tour guides and, most importantly, where to find Sophia.

Excursions in Yerevan - is it worth going?

I ask myself this question regularly. And every time I find another confirmation of the answer: “Definitely, it’s worth it!” The conclusion is incredibly simple: only through excursions with local residents can you learn about the truly interesting features of a particular city/region in a relatively short period of time. And I usually have very little of it.

For example, thanks to an excursion in Yerevan with guide Sophia, I was finally convinced that in the city center it is absolutely safe to drink water from street sources. It’s not for nothing that special mini-fountains with clean drinking water are installed throughout the city. So, I confirm. You can really drink it.

If it were not for excursions in Yerevan, I would not even pay attention to the seemingly completely ordinary residential buildings. Later it turned out that until recently, balconies (loggias) were allowed to be completed independently, thereby increasing the total usable area of ​​the apartment. Taking a closer look, I realized that such “redevelopments” are almost everywhere.

And there are many such examples.

Sophia

Fountains with clean drinking water

Self-built loggias

And if a good half of independent travelers know about street fountains and balconies, who are accustomed to carefully scouring the Internet before each trip (which, in turn, spends a considerable amount of time), then here’s to find a place where you can personally follow the manufacturing process a real Armenian carpet, or a colorful cafe, under the ceiling of which a cute toy train cuts through the air without the help of people like Sophia is almost impossible.

Women weavers at work

You can come closer and see everything for yourself

Toy railway in one of the cafes in Yerevan

And also, if it weren’t for Sophia and her guidance to action, I wouldn’t have seen such a colorful photo with the most stylish (according to me) taxi driver in Yerevan. By the way, Sophia secretly told me that he is a local landmark and quite willingly takes pictures with tourists. As they say, you need to know the places. And people.

Me and the most stylish taxi driver in Yerevan

Yes, yes, the most stylish

Well, I can’t help but mention those really cool cafes that Sophia rented out to me. It’s hard to imagine how much time I would have had to spend to find a normal business lunch in the city center without Sofa’s timely advice. Once again my huge thanks to her!

You can find Sofia on Tripster. The walk described above is her excursion " ".

Now I would be very happy to go on a tour with a friendly and intelligent Yerevan named Levon. Reviews about it are some of the best, and the rating based on almost twenty reviews is 5 out of 5! If you want to visit the legendary Ararat cognac factory, then a tour with Levon is exactly what you need.

Excursions around Armenia - where to go?

Khor Virap. Armenia is the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion. This happened largely thanks to Gregory the Illuminator. Khor Virap is the monastery in which Gregory was imprisoned. Absolutely anyone can visit the dungeon and go down inside. You can do this on a tour of Armenia with guide Lada. " " is the name of the corresponding excursion.

Noravank. No less sacred place. You can also get here with a budget ticket, which is organized by Tigran. True, there aren’t too many reviews about the excursion itself yet. I advise you to check the latest ones before booking anything.

Lake Sevan and Sevanavank Temple. A place of stunning beauty. If you come here at the right time and with the right guide, then a flurry of positive emotions is 100% guaranteed. The best choice is a tour with a guide named Ararat. Just read and you will understand everything yourself.

If you want to get involved and learn the intricacies of the national cuisine of Armenia, then the best way to learn Armenian cuisine will be. Everything is serious here: first, for farm products, to a real Yerevan food market, where along the way you can try unleavened Armenian cheeses, aromatic pickles and spices, and then - a master class on preparing signature dishes, without which not a single Armenian feast is complete. I just warn you right away - you are unlikely to be able to leave sober.

Noravank Monastery

Khachkars on the territory of the monastery

Khor Virap Monastery

Lada conducts a master class on making baklava

I went on an excursion with Lada not alone, but teamed up with a family I had met the day before. I advise you to do the same. This is a great way to meet new people and save a lot by splitting the costs equally.

Why book online?

Firstly, You can’t find reviews about local agencies and their excursions anywhere. The analogy of Airbnb vs a private realtor is very suitable here: a popular site has reviews, but the second one has to take their word for it (and often regret it). Realtors have deceived me, and I think precisely because they knew about their impunity. It is also worth remembering that the people who sold the excursion to the agency and the tour guides are often completely different people. Having believed one, it is not a fact that the other will pick up the baton of hospitality and give their all 100%.

Secondly, For local tour agencies, a tourist on the street is a one-time client. It's unlikely that anyone really cares about his impressions. At the same time, I know a couple of people from Tripster who have had negative reviews written about them. Their bookings have decreased significantly (or even disappeared completely). I won’t give a link here so as not to offend anyone, but you can go and look for them yourself. In short, you can’t cheat!

Third, Booking in advance is always safer. You know that on a particular day you will have something to do. By the way, I noticed that people go on excursions during the first days in a new city. In principle, this is how it should be if we are talking about an introductory walk. They will show and tell you everything, and then you will return on your own to the place where you wanted to stay longer. In general, I don’t know about you, but I like to plan these things in advance. I don’t really want to waste time looking for an agency on the spot.

Fourthly, Personally, I like the idea of ​​choosing an educated person on the site with whom it will be interesting to communicate and from whom you can ask everything in detail. For example, you can meet with a journalist or historian, whose opinion or full story about the country, its customs and traditions will be incredibly interesting to listen to!

Lada (Tripster guide) tells us about Noravank Monastery

Where do I book?

Now the question of where to book excursions in Yerevan and around Armenia has become better and there is even a decent choice (which means competition and fight for your traveler).

P.S.

Friends, thank you for reading the article to the end. If you found it useful, you can thank me by sharing this post on social networks.

I wish you unforgettable impressions from Yerevan!
Copyright © Sergey Prokhorov