Garni Temple and Geghard
Or is it better to visit Lake Sevan?
Or maybe something else? What would you recommend?
Both 😄
We’ll only manage one option.
Which one is more interesting?
They’re completely different sights. There’s the pagan temple there, then the ancient Geghard monastery. Over there you have Lake Sevan with the monastery, and farther on Dilijan with beautiful nature and monasteries too)
What impressed me the most during a short trip was Garni. First, it’s the only example of Hellenistic architecture in the post-Soviet space, and second, nearby there’s the incredibly scenic “Symphony of Stones.”
I’d also recommend Noravank — a veeeery picturesque place.
But as I understand, your time is limited, and it takes quite a while to get there.
Unfortunately yes, time is limited (
Lake Sevan is about 70 km from Yerevan, Garni is 48 km away)
If you go to Sevan, then probably Sevanavank. But Garni, Geghard, the Symphony of Stones, and even Charents Arch along the way — that’s a lot more impressions packed together. If I had to choose just one, I’d pick Garni. Though Sevan is beautiful too). Honestly, it’s a crime to force someone to make such a choice 😅
Garni is beautiful, but on weekends there are a lot of people. Maybe on a weekday closer to evening it’s quieter.
I visited Sevan, and I understand it’s one of Armenia’s most important symbols, but forgive me for my opinion — for me it was, as someone above already said: “well, it’s a lake… just a lake” 🤷
As for the other monasteries: many of them look very similar to each other. Basically, if you’ve seen Geghard or Tatev — you’ve kind of seen them all.
I understand that for many people these are important sacred places, and I’m not trying to devalue them, I’m just speaking from the perspective of a tourist.
But Garni and Noravank genuinely impressed me personally.
Still, everyone has their own taste)
Could you please tell me, is it realistic to fit Garni – Geghard – Sevan – Dilijan into one day if we leave early in the morning? And still see everything properly, without rushing too much?
Because different websites say completely different things 🥹
I’d recommend starting with Garni and Geghard. They’re closer, you can get there by taxi for very reasonable money, and both places are more compact. You can see everything without rushing at all.
If you calculate just the driving time: Yerevan – Garni is 50 minutes, Garni – Geghard is 20 minutes. Geghard – Sevanavank is 1.5 hours. Sevanavank – Dilijan is 40 minutes.
Dilijan – Haghartsin is another 20 minutes.
So that’s almost 4 hours of pure driving one way! And that’s assuming you already have a rented car and aren’t trying to hitch rides or find transport.
From Dilijan back to Yerevan it’s another 2 hours. So overall it’s about 6 hours just on the road.
Got it, thank you so much!
If you spend about an hour at each place, then:
It’s possible, but definitely at a crazy pace... In one day I did Khor Virap, Azat Reservoir, Garni, Geghard, and Symphony of Stones. Since they’re all in the same direction, it wasn’t exhausting. We left at 10 a.m. and got back to Yerevan around 7 p.m.
In short, your route is realistic without Dilijan. With Dilijan it’ll already be dark and you won’t really see anything there.