Weekend Travel Within Four Hours of Yerevan, Armenia: Your Options Beyond the City
Armenia feels small until you leave Yerevan. Then it feels impossibly rich. Within a four-hour drive, you can reach medieval monasteries carved into rock faces, mountain peaks that are snowy half the year, crater lakes surrounded by forest, and gorges so distinctive they look like another planet. The distance is manageable. The variety is what surprises you. And unlike bigger countries where weekend trips mean logistics, here you can pack a day bag on Friday and be in a 10th-century monastery by Saturday morning.
I've taught at QSI Yerevan and watched colleagues discover the same thing: the real adventure in Armenia isn't in the capital. It's in the places you can reach before lunch. The infrastructure is basic, roads can be rough, but that's part of why the sites feel untouched. You're not queuing behind tour groups. You're walking through history with a handful of other people.
Khor Virap: The Closest and Most Historically Loaded
Khor Virap sits 40 minutes south of Yerevan, near the Turkish border. It's so close you could do it as a weekend afternoon trip if you had the time. What makes it worth a full morning is the location and the history layered into it.
The monastery marks where Saint Gregory the Illuminator spent 14 years in a pit (the name "Khor Virap" means "deep pit"). After he escaped and cured the king of a disease, Armenia became the world's first Christian nation. The structure itself dates to the 7th century, though parts are much older. What captures you isn't the architecture—it's the view. You can see Mount Ararat from the monastery grounds. On clear days, it dominates the landscape. Armenians see that mountain every day and it's not even in Armenia anymore (it's in Turkey). That detail says something about the relationship between geography and history here.
Getting there is straightforward. Marshrutkas (shared vans) leave from Yerevan's Sasuntsi David metro station at 9am, 11am, and 2pm. The cost is around 400 AMD ($1). You can spend two hours at the site, grab lunch in Ararat village, and be back in the city by afternoon.
Garni Gorge and Geghard Monastery: Architecture and Geology Combined
This is the more popular day trip, and there's a reason. Garni Temple sits at the mouth of a dramatic gorge filled with hexagonal basalt columns so uniform they look engineered. They're not. Volcanic activity created them thousands of years ago. Walk from the temple down into the gorge and you're moving through geology as much as landscape.
Geghard Monastery, about 20 minutes away, is built partially into the rock face. It's a 13th-century site that UNESCO recognized as a World Heritage site. The carved portions of the structure feel genuinely ancient in a way that pure stone-built monasteries sometimes don't. You can reach it via marshrutka from Masiv Market bus station (300 AMD, one hour). Combined with Garni, this makes a full morning or early afternoon.
The appeal here is texture. The basalt columns in Garni look like an alien landscape. Geghard shows medieval Armenian engineering at a level that surprises people who haven't seen Armenian architecture before. Together they give you a sense of Armenia's long occupation of this specific geography.
Dilijan National Park and Haghartsin Monastery: Hiking and Forest
Dilijan sits about 90 minutes northeast. It's called "Armenian Switzerland" partly because of the mountains and partly because it's the place Armenians escape to when Yerevan feels crowded. The park is dense forest—not the alpine meadows of higher mountains, but actual forest with trails that feel European in their maintenance and difficulty.
Haghartsin Monastery sits inside the park, built in the 10th and 13th centuries, surrounded by trees rather than open landscape. If you hike there (most people do), you're moving through the forest for an hour before you encounter the monastery. The approach matters. You arrive at the site already acclimated to the environment rather than walking straight to a landmark.
The marshrutka system from Yerevan gets you as far as Dilijan town. From there, you'll need a taxi or to arrange transport with a tour operator. Many teachers rent cars for the day (roughly $35-50 with driver, less if you drive yourself) and make this work.
Mount Aragats: For Serious Hikers
At 4,090 meters, Aragats is Armenia's highest peak. It's an extinct volcano with four distinct summits and a crater. The hike is serious but not technical. Most people drive to a parking area around 3,000 meters and hike from there, reaching the crater in 3-4 hours.
The summit views are extraordinary. You can see Ararat to the south, Turkey to the west, and the entire Armenian landscape stretching in every direction. But the hike is also a commitment. You need full day, proper footwear, and water. Weather changes quickly at elevation. The best time is June through October when the snow has cleared. Start early. Plan to be down by afternoon.
Art and Meghradzor Waterfall: Shorter Hikes for Recovery Days
Artavaz Peak (2,929 meters) sits much closer to Yerevan than Aragats. The drive is about 45 minutes, and you can be on the trail within an hour. The hike to Artavaz takes 3-4 hours depending on fitness, but the payoff is wildflowers in late spring and early summer. The peak offers views back toward Yerevan and across the valleys.
Meghradzor is even closer and easier. Drive to Meghradzor village (about 30 minutes) and hike to the waterfall. It's a 45-minute walk through the gorge. Water levels depend on season, so spring is best. It's a recovering-from-work kind of hike, not a summit push.
Lake Sevan: Cultural Site and Swimming
Sevan sits about an hour northeast. The lake is Armenia's largest body of water, and the Sevanavank monastery sits on a peninsula. The monastery is worth seeing (built in the 9th century), but many teachers go to Sevan for swimming more than sightseeing. In summer, the water is warm enough. Bring sunscreen and respect the sun at that elevation.
The town of Sevan has basic infrastructure—restaurants, shops, changing facilities. It's less remote than other day-trip destinations and more developed. But that accessibility also means it's busy on weekends during summer.
The Practical Side: Transportation and Planning
Most weekend trips work like this: rent a car and driver (cheaper if you go with colleagues), or take marshrutkas where available and fill gaps with taxis. One teacher I know coordinates with colleagues at CIS Armenia and QSI to split car rental costs. At $35-50 for a car with driver, split four ways, the per-person cost is manageable.
Roads are improving but remain variable in quality. Budget extra time. Assume washboard surfaces and occasional potholes. Most sites don't require permits or reservations. Bring water, snacks, and a map (or offline maps on your phone). Cell service is unreliable outside Yerevan.
The international school community in Yerevan (at QSI, CIS, the European School, and others) shares knowledge about these trips. Ask around. You'll find people who've done every hike and know the best routes, timing, and local restaurants. That network is one of the real advantages of teaching in Armenia.
Why These Trips Matter
Armenia teaches you something about living abroad: sometimes the best part of the location isn't the city where you work. It's the landscape you didn't expect to have accessible on a weekend. The distance from Yerevan to Garni Gorge is only 30 kilometers, but culturally and visually it feels like another country. That accessibility is what makes teaching here bearable for people who came for a year and stayed five.
