Armenia - Nov 2025

 

Georgia to Armenia border crossing
Bagratashen - Sadakhlo

We took a marshrutka from Tbilisi to Lake Sevan in Armenia.  The border crossing was fuss free and quick.  The Italian/Danish guy sitting next to us copped a bit of greif on the Armenian side for having been to Azerbaijan.  There's a lot of unrest between countries which border each other around these parts!  

SCENERY

The thing that first hit us was the beauty of the countryside.  It is like night and day from Georgia and it starts right from the border.

We were enthralled by the many views of Mt Ararat upon discovering it's beauty from our hostel in Yerevan.  It really is a thing of beauty.  And once you notice it, you see it everywhere.

Lake Sevan is also a wee treasure of a place.  There is not a lot there, and one two nights would probably sufficed, but the lake is definitely work a visit.  We took a trip up to the Sevanavank Monestry, not so much for the monestry itself, but for the views.

HISTORY

We resonated quite quickly with Armenia in terms of it being the underdog country of the region.  Everyone seems to want a piece of it - Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan - and they are trying to hold on desparately to what they have been left with.  Large swathes of what is now Turkey, to the west, used to belong to Armenia. 

Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion, doing so in 301 AD.

They suffered a genocide in 1915/16 by the Turks (although Turks will dispute this even to this day) killing two thirds of the 1.5 million population.  In spite of their sad history, we found the Armenian people to be charming and friendly.

The history of Armenia smacks you in the face in so many ways.

Oldest shoe in the world found in Armenia
dating 3500 BC found in a cave in 2008

Bronze age

Lecturn dated 10th century

We visited Hayravank Monestry on the shores of Lake Sevan, built between the 9th and 12th Centuries.

James took to lighting candles

The front of the steps

Side view of steps

How long have these crosses been here???

HOUSE KEEPING

Armenia feels a lot more Cosmopolitan, cleaner and somehow more polished than Georgia.

This very modern and very long
underground mall running the length of
the boardwalk

The boardwalk with an entrance to the
mall to the right

These rubbish and recycling stations are common

These machines are common, even in small towns.  You can pay your bills, top up your phone and doubtless many other things we failed to understand.

Our favouite thing, was discovering these coffee machines that grind the coffee freshly and make an awesome cup for 30p/NZ70c.  We first discovered one at the border crossing and we were delighted to discover they are everywhere in Armenia.

The overground gas lines shocked and horrorfied us!

These outdoor gyms are freely available all over
Armenia and Georgia.

We noticed this habit in both Armenia and Georgia.  People hang bread in plastic bags on the rubbish skips.  We can only imagine it is for the street dogs or maybe the homeless, although we never saw a dog or human take it.

And yes, there were plenty of stray dogs in Armenia too

This mama still had six of her pups surviving.
Quite a mean feat under the circumstances.

FOOD

The food in Armenia is fairly similar to that in Georgia.  Although you notice the staple bread change to Lavash.  Although we definitely preferred the bread offerings in Georgia, we ate a ton of this lavash!

We bought a smoked fish from Lake Sevan.
It was very average so we ended up giving most
of it to our cats at the hostel

The happy recipients

Every opportunity we got we cooked our own food ... as usual

James trying to catch dinner

Baklava! Yummmm

TRANSPORTATION 

Getting around Armenia, from town to town, is the same as Georgia.  Marshrutka all the way!  Cheap as chips too, with a variety of vans from a bit rough to very comfortable.

We got unceremoniously dumped outside Sevan village and had to get the Yandex Go app to work so that we could order a taxi.  Usually we are happy to walk but this was just a step too far.  Thank goodness for technology!  James does a lot of research into which apps work in what country etc and it is at times like this that it pays dividends.

We saw by far the most modern vehicle we have ever encountered on the street in Yerevan.

Tesla cyber truck

COOL BUILDINGS & THINGS

A typical Armenian church

Opera House, Yerevan

Armenian History Museum, Republic Square, Yerevan

Etchmiadzen Cathedral, widely  believed to be the oldest
Christian cathedral in the world. 4th century.

Only remaining Iranian mosque in Armenia
Blue Mosque, Yerevan

Marmashen Monastry, circa 10th Century
Near Gyumri

Holy saviours church, Gyumri Square

A very old tomb in the cemetery

Glamping pods across the river near Gyumri

When it came time to cross the border back to Georgia, because we needed to get to Turkey but the Armenia/Turkey border has been closed forever, we made our way to Gyumri.  From there we took a taxi to the border at Bavra.  We were looking at having to hitchhike from the border to the nearest town in Georgia as there are no buses that go through the border.  

When we asked the taxi driver to take us to the border, he stopped off on the way to get his passport??  All good. The journey of approx 40mins cost virtually nothing!  It was only after we had exited Armenia and were walking through no-mans-land to enter Georgia that we saw him again.  It seems a lot of the locals use this border crossing to purchase cheap tobacco and alcohol at Duty Free.

We walked on through and were able to ask the hostel we had booked at the closest village, Ninotsminda, to send a taxi for us.  A cheap 20min ride and we were in our room.  This is not a route that many tourists take.  Most will double back to Yerevan or take the bus from Gyumri to Tbilisi.  Neither option suited us so we chose the road less travelled.  As usual.

We loved absolutely everything about Armenia.

Bavra border

Georgia - Oct/Nov 2025

 

Anti Russia protestor on the steps of parliament Tbilisi

We arrived in Georgie extremely early on a Monday morning having no expectations of a country we know little about.  In fact, we weren't even meant to explore it.  Our original plan was to use it as a stepping stone to get to Iran which was our main objective for this journey.  But while we were in the UK, Iran closed it's borders to Western tourists, unless you come on an organised tour, after the Israeli bombings in June.  We didn't blame them at all, it just happened to be poor timing for us.  We considered changing our plans altogether, our lifestyle is a charm like that, nothing set in concrete.  But as we already had flights booked to Georgia, we decided to use them to discover both Georgia and Armenia.  And boy, are we glad we did!

Our first view of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, was a wet drisly one.  We took a bus into town at six am to arrive at our hostel.

From this vantage point we were all set to discover what Georgia and the Georgian people are all about.

Population: 4million; Location: in the middle of the Caucasus on the Black Sea

Former Soviel Republic gaining independence 1991

Our first view of the Causus Mountains from Telavi.  Russia is on the other side.

Google says it better than we can, so if you are interested here is a good link

A short history of Georgia

The country itself is a game of two halves.  It has a very old, almost tired feel about it.  Especially the capital, Tbilisi.  The roads and pavements are one big trip hazard.  Then you happen upon a very modern sky scraper in the midst of it all.

Typical old style apartment buildings

More modern highrise

Then these old Georgian buildings hold all the charm.

Most people in the cities live in compounds such as this.  You drive into a central courtyard surrounded on all sides by high rise appartments.

This was the courtyard entry of our first hostel

One of the main historical features of Georgia is the churches and cathedrals.  We happened upon most by accident, whilst just out on a recce.  The history behind these buildings is certainly something to pause one's thoughts.

A small local church - Tbilisi

The Cathedral - Tbilisi

THE PEOPLE

The people of Georgia are super friendly and delighted to have us visit their country.  Although Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, there is a very definite Soviet feel about the place and the people.  They are very loud and gruff.  As we are not ever able to understand what is really going on, it can seem like they are arguing with each other when in fact, they are just having a conversation.  And don't ever expect any level of friendly customer service.  They ALL appear to be  grumpy, making you feel that you are just an inconvience in their day.  Not only us (as foreigners) but everyone is treated the same.  Oh, and they don't do queues.  It is always our experience though, that if you can master the basic words for Hello (Garmajoba) and Thank you (Madloba) you will be treated with more respect.  The same applies to everywhere in the world really,

A typical older woman

Current fashion trend of the younger girls

It also amused us to see groups of middle aged to older men on the streets, smoking, talking, playing backgammon, drinking and generally wasting time.  Seems they get kicked out of the house for the day with nothing useful to do.

GETTING AROUND

The way we got from town to town in Georgia - we went from Tbilisi to Telavi to Lagodheki and back to Tbilisi - is by Marshrutka.  This is basically a minivan, anything from 7 to 15 seats.  They are usually a Ford Transit minivans and are of very varying quality.  You can find out online where to catch the right one to where you are going, but this is never a sure things.  As we arrived in Georgia at the very end of the summer season, many of the services had closed due to lack of numbers.  We experienced this very thing on our journey from Telavi to Lagodekhi.  In the summer time there is a direct marshrutka but we were too late for this so the guy at the station in Telavi put us on a van to a village in the middle of nowhere and we waited quite a while for a van to pick us up and take us the rest of the way.  Luckily our lifestyle requires us to be flexible and we also have all the time in the world. We always managed for find out how to get to where we wanted to go even if it was sometimes a bit convoluted.  The locals were very accommodating and helpful.  The journeys were really cost effective and comfortable enough.  There is never any seatbelts available.

James google translating with the driver of our marshrutka to Telavi

The Bolt app (ride share) also worked well in Georgia, allowing us to take shorter rides around the city with the piece of mind of being able to book and pay online before taking the ride.  This has the advantage of taking out the 'lost in translation' factor.

We also took the odd city bus which was extremely cheap and varied from plenty of seats to this one that we were so packed into that we lost each other for a good part of the ride and never got near the machine to pay for our ride ... you can swipe on with paywave.  One price no matter your destination.

We sometimes took the underground which is equally cost effective and not usually too packed. 

We also took a couple of rides in a cable car in Tbilisi to get up to an elevated site.  These were cheap and the one from Rike Park to Turtle Lake was the same age as us - born in 1965!

We were often bemused by the vast difference between the quality of many of the vehicles in Georgia.  There is anything from the cheapest oldest Lada to new Range Rovers and even Aston Martins!

A loaded Lada

Aston Martin

And so many of the vehicles on the road where missing great chunks of bodywork!  It seems as long as it goes, anything goes.

Some other forms of transport that amused us are as pictured.

No unusual to see people in town on their rotovator

Lada corner

Oh, and don't worry if there isn't enough room to park. This is perfectly acceptable!

OUR ACCOMMODATION

Booked mostly through Booking.com our accommodation varied from a room in someones house to a room in a hostel with shared bathroom to an apartment with kitchen all to ourselves.  The average cost was approx £20/NZ$46.  WiFi is fast and free.  Although we did purchase a Yoho eSim.  You can choose whichever countries you want and then can choose which plan to cover them.  It's a very convenient and clever system.  

Our hosts were all super friendly and accommodating, although we are certainly not demanding guests.  Our last destination in Georgia was Batumi where we 'rented' an apartment on the 16th floor.  We thoroughly enjoyed living like locals for a week.  

View from the 16th floor

THE FOOD

  Our first impression was that they do bread - or Puri - very, very well!  It is a huge part of their diet and we were not disappointed.  The plain loaves are to die for.  You often can buy them hot and you have eaten half of it by the time you get home.

Another huge part of the bread culture is their rather delicious stuff breads.  Our favouite being Khachapuri - cheese stuffed bread. You can also have your bread stuffed with potato (another of our favourites) and beans and any number of other additions, it would seem.

Red bean stuffing

After stuffing ourselves with so much bread in the first week of being here we had to take ourselves off to a rather posh supermarket in search of a wholesome salad.  What a releif!  

Another of Georgies famous and traditional dishes it Khinkali.  Basically a giant, juicy, meat filled dumpling.  We sampled a couple of different times and declared that although we liked them, one definitely didn't need to eat them again.

The idea is to use the handle bit for holding it but you don't eat it.

Other Georgian dishes of note that we enjoyed and also attempted our own versions of ...

Ojakhuri (pork and potatoes and Kharcha (beef soup)

Homemade Ojukhuri in our apartment in Batumi

During one of our 'homestays' we asked our hostess, Nana, to prepare us a typical Georgian feast.  It was one of the add-on services she offered and as we were the only guests and figured she would appreciate the extra income, we were happy to partake.

Lots of vegetarian treats including aubergines done many ways.

One of our favouite ways to experience a new county is through the local market.  

The entrance to Telavi Bazaar

Georgia did not disappoint.  We happened to arrive in autumn when the pommegranates, the national fruit of Georgia, and persimmons were in season.  

The pommegranates were delicious.  However, through much trial and error we discovered that they only grow the astringent persimmons.  Not our jam at all - pardon the pun.  We noticed immediately that the tomatoes and potatoes here were far superior to our own countries in quality, taste and price!  Less than £1 a kilo for tomatoes. Potatoes on 30p a kilo.

Nuts and dried fruit

Churchkhela - walnuts or hazelnuts wrapped in fruit leather, traditionally grape juice leather. A very popular sweet.

Dried chillies, dried persimmons,  rosehips and berries

The pork store

Herbs and greens

Fish galore

How many onions do you need?

Potatoes out of the back of the van

Tomatoes everywhere

Offal anyone?

We did buy some brawn at the market a couple of times and enjoyed it.

We also use the markets as our shopping centre if we happen to have access to cooking facilities and enjoy some homemade food for a change. One of our favourites is chicken soup/stew with a ton of fresh vegetables and herbs.  Just like this one made at our hostel in Telavi.

Georgia is very proud of it's wine industry and at one of the hostels we stayed at we met an Italian sommelier who was traveling in Georgia for just that reason.  She was also very complimentary and knowledgeable of the NZ wine industry.  We didn't try much of the wine, but those that we did we really enjoyed.

Beer is cheap but of limited quality

Fill ya boots!  Vodka is popular

They also enjoy their chacha, or grape vodka which is made of grape pomice and can be bought from the market in a used water bottle, not the most hygienic of practices.  I tried some offered by another couple in a hostel.  It was strong but relatively inoffensive.

STREET DOGS OF GEORGIA

Stray dogs are EVERYWHERE.  It's enough to break ones heart.  On the plus side, we never saw anyone abuse or otherwise ill treat them.  We witnessed quite a few people feeding them and we took to buying sausages from the supermarket to feed them also.  They were mostly in really good condition, if not a little overweight, although we rather suspect they exist mostly on a bread diet.  Nevertheless, dogs need love too and they don't get that very often.

The municipality claims to catch them, vaccinate and desex them before releasing them again with an ear tag.  Many of the dogs we saw had ear tags but doubt that they are able to keep up with the numbers.  We also didn't encounter an aggression from the dogs at all.  

Fun fact:  they call their pet shops Zoo Stores.  There is often a few street dogs hanging around outside ... for obvious reasons!

Three legged guy - had obviously received treatment for his injury

One charity places these kennels in public spaces.  First in first served.

Waiting outside the supermarket

This gorgeous boy followed us around for a couple of hours at the National Park in Lagodekhi before seeing us off at the gate.  What a happy-go-lucky wee chap he was too!

Finally, we made it to the Black Sea in the coastal town of Batumi. Neither of us had ever been to the black sea before! How cool is that.

In conclusion, we found Georgia a very cost effective place to eat and stay.  At no time did we feel we were being charged 'tourist prices', but we do tend to stick to the non-tourist areas in most countries we travel to.  It also felt very safe.  We didn't feel at all like we had to watch our wallets or bags.  In fact, a few times we noticed other people had left their shopping on the street while they dashed over the road for something else.  English is not spoken or understead almost anywhere.  Google translate is your friend.

What did we enjoy most about Georgia: the bread