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Have you heard of a beautiful country called Armenia? If not, we hope that this article will convince you to visit one of our most favorite countries in the world. Five years ago we visited its neighboring country Georgia and we fell in love with post-Soviet republics. Since then we were dreaming of visiting this region again. While we were in Mexico we found insanely cheap flights from Vienna to Yerevan (about 55 euros return).. soo planning of our dream trip could begin! In this article we will tell you the best tips for visiting Armenia in 2023.
Cheap flights to Armenia
Until recently, cheap direct flights to Armenia could only be purchased departing from Vienna. But for this season, good news came for Prague as well! From July, you can fly to Yerevan (the capital of Armenia) on a direct flight with Wizz Air. Unfortunately, the prices are still way better if you fly from Vienna.
We purchased the tickets about two months in advance. We got a return ticket from Vienna to Yerevan for an incredible price of 55 EUR per person (about 60 USD). Direct flight from Vienna to Yerevan takes about 3,5 hours.
A minibus will take you from Zvartnots airport to the center of Yerevan for a friendly price of 0,77 USD. Tickets can be bought from the driver and the bus runs at frequent intervals.
Entry requirements
To travel to Armenia, you only need a valid passport, in which you will receive a stamp upon arrival. Everything went smoothly and we literally whizzed through airport control.
Prices in Armenia
Armenia is one of the few countries where people are fair and no one wants to overcharge. Therefore, right after your arrival, you can exchange money in the airport hall, because the exchange rate is the same as in the city. We brought euros with us, which we changed to Armenian drams.
Prices in Armenia are great even for central europeans. In general, everything is cheaper than in the Czech Republic, and you certainly don’t have to worry about going to the local restaurants either. You can find slightly higher prices in Yerevan, but it’s nothing dramatic… and if you search well, you’ll always find a good deal. We bought an excellent chicken shawarma for about 2 USD (note that it was huge). The wine tasting in the Areni region cost us less than 3 USD, as did a bottle of excellent local wine.
Armenian SIM card
Armenia is not a member of the EU, so you will probably have to deal with internet connection after your arrival. We needed a SIM for GPS and communication with hotels and airbnbs. You can solve everything right at the airport, literally in a few minutes. We paid about 7 USD for a tourist SIM from Viva – MTS and we didn’t even run out of data in a week.
Car rental
From what I’ve read, public transport doesn’t work as well here as in Georgia, and many places on our list would be difficult to get to. As always, we were looking for a car rental that did not require a deposit or a credit card. While searching, we came across “Caravan Rent a car” where they had good reviews and a pretty good rental price. If you pay extra for full insurance (which we recommend), they won’t ask you for any deposit, just your debit card number. Don’t forget to get your international driver’s license before you travel.
We paid about 45 USD per day (insurance included). We rented the car for 5 days and the rest of the time we spent in Yerevan. We didnt have any problems with the rental company, but later we understood why they have incredibly good review. When returning the car it was a bit awkward. A man from the company checked the car and then asked us “Do you want to pay for the cleaning of the car or save money ?” We confusingly looked at each other and said that of course we want to save money. Well, the gentleman took us to his office, where we had to write a positive google review and attach a photo. It was a bit weird, but it saved as an unknown extra amount of money.
Driving in Armenia
Well.. how to start this chapter. Driving in Armenia, specifically in Yerevan, is a really powerful experience. We had rented a car in various countries, including Jordan.. where people reverse even on the highway :D, but Armenia.. was another level.
Older drivers take really good care of their cars, which have no scratches and look asi if not single day hase passed since the days of the Soviet Union. Younger driver are something else – completely broken cars. No one respects speed limits, no rules.. complete jungle. Several times we ended up in absolutely terrifying and dangerous situations. Rush hour in Yerevan was also a terrifying experience. So we definitely recommend renting a car but only for experienced drivers.
In most areas, the main roads were in a surprisingly good condition.You can find gas stations in almost every small town – one liter of gasoline costs about 1 USD.
TIP: They have a lot of speed cameras – be careful.
Accommodation in Armenia
We found the cheapest deals in Armenia on Booking.com. We usually book all the accommodation last minute, but we had only a week in Armenia, so we decided to plan in advance. We were so happy we did it! We were sitting in the airport bus and found out that a room that we booked for 25 USD got twice as expensive when booking last minute.
Accommodation in Armenia is very cheap! To give you an idea, this is what we paid for both of us.
- 1 x night in Yerevan with rich breakfast – 25 USD
- 1 x night in the Areni with rich breakfast – 36 USD
- 2 x nights in Goris – 56 USD
- 1x night in Sevan with breakfast – 40 USD
- 2 x night in Yerevan – 77 USD
We always paid for accommodation in cash after our arrival. Most of the hosts gave us a discount.
Is Armenia safe?
One of the main “concerns” about visiting Armenia tends to be safety, mainly due to the recent and relatively fresh conflict with Azerbaijan. If you missed this information, in the fall of 2020, the second Nagorno-Karabakh war was taking place in the country. We’ve read quite a bit about the war, but we’re not experts… so I’m attaching a link to Wikipedia.
Armenia is perfectly safe (apart from the dangerous drivers) and Armenians are one of the warmest people we have ever met. However, signs of a recent war can be seen everywhere.. in some cities there are billboards of deceased soldiers by the road.
Itinerary for 8 days in Armenia
We will have another article about Armenia and our itinerary. However, if anyone is going to Armenia before we have time to write it down, we are attaching a map of interesting places that we visited during our stay. In those 5 days, we managed to drive about 1,300 kilometers around Armenia in a rented car.
