Getting around Armenia
Marshrutkas, shared taxis and a hire car - on roads that are worse than the distances suggest.
In Yerevan
- Yandex Go and GG are the ride-hailing apps and are absurdly cheap. This is how visitors move around.
- The metro is a single Soviet line, clean and fast, and covers less of the city than you would want.
- Yerevan is walkable in the centre, which is where almost everything is.
Around the country
- Marshrutkas - minibuses - run everywhere from the Yerevan terminals. Cheap, crowded, and departing when full rather than on a timetable.
- Shared taxis cover the same routes faster for a little more.
- Hiring a driver for a day is a normal and affordable way to see three monasteries in one go, and is what most visitors end up doing.
- The Tatev cable car - the longest reversible aerial tramway in the world - is the way to reach Tatev monastery, and is worth planning a day around.
Driving yourself
- You need an International Driving Permit as well as your own licence.
- The FCDO describes the standard of driving as poor, with drivers ignoring traffic laws. That is accurate.
- Roads deteriorate significantly from November to February, and mountain passes close.
- Do not drive at night outside towns - poor road surfaces, inadequate lighting, and livestock.
- Check your route against the border advice. Stay 5 km clear of the eastern border with Azerbaijan and avoid the M16/H26 between Ijevan and Noyemberyan. A satnav will not know this.
Apps and platforms
Two ride-hailing apps, offline maps, and a translation tool for the alphabet.
Worth having
- Yandex Go and GG - the two ride-hailing apps. Both work in Yerevan and both are cheap enough that taking a car everywhere is affordable.
- Offline maps. The monastery valleys have no signal.
- A translation app with camera input. The Armenian alphabet is unique - it shares nothing with Latin or Cyrillic - so a menu or a road sign is genuinely unreadable without help. Russian is widely understood and often signposted alongside.
What does not exist
- No Uber, no Bolt.
- Few things book online outside Yerevan hotels. Tours, drivers and guesthouses are arranged by phone or WhatsApp.
A practical habit
- Carry a copy of your passport rather than the original, which is the FCDO's advice, and keep the original somewhere secure.
- Armenian addresses often use the old Russian conventions, so a pin is more reliable than a written address.
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