Winter excursion in North Armenia for 7 days

Despite the fact that Sevan is a freshwater lake- it is the largest in the region, in winter it doesn't always freeze(on average every 4-5 years). But, anyway, frozen or not, Sevan is very beautiful in winter, especially when it is surrounded by volcanoes covered with white snow. After seeing Sevan, we'll continue our way to snowy Dilijan, surrounded by dense forests. Snowy forests and beautiful houses give a special atmosphere to the city.

We'll spend the night exactly here.

On this and next days of winter tour around Armenia, we'll visit the most important and famous monasteries of North Armenia. On this day, we've planned to go to the monasteries of Haghartsin, Goshavank, and Aghtala.

Many medieval Armenian monasteries were built far from noisy cities and roads, on the slopes, on the edge of gorges, in the forests.

Both Haghratsin and Goshavank were built in high places- in areas that are surrounded by dense forests.

Aghtala monastery is situated inside the fortress, and the fortress stands on a high headland surrounded by deep gorges.
On this day, we'll spend the night in Haghpat.

On this day, we'll continue our monastery tour. We'll start with Haghpat monastery. Unlike the monasteries that we've mentioned above, Haghpat monastery stands in an old village that has the same name as the monastery.  The monastery was and is an important spiritual centre of Armenia.

And here's the monastery of Sanahin, where we'll go next, it stands in a high place, by the riverbank.

Next, we'll go to Odzun- an old village, where the monastery of Odzun(built in the V century)stands. After visiting many monasteries, we'll go to a picturesque gorge, where one of the most important fortifications of this region- Lori Bird stands.

The overnight stay will be in a beautiful place- in a sanatorium or hotel near the arboretum(dendropark).

This is a free day and you can have a walk through the arboretum. In dendropark, next to the natural forest, a lot of trees that were brought here from different countries of the world grow. Even Californian sequoia grows here.

Winter excursion tour in North Armenia continues with a trip to Marmashen, and also to another Christian monastery, situated in North Armenia.  Besides the fact that Marmashen is a medieval architecture monument, it is located in the territory, where the ancient inhabitants of these places had left their mark long before that.

Gyumri with its interesting architecture and witty people is one of the most colorful cities of Armenia.

In the end, we'll go to another medieval monastery- to Aruchavank.

Then, we'll return to Yerevan.

You can spend your free time before departure in interesting places of Yerevan and its surroundings.