Dilijan

Dilijan is a mountain town in Tavush province, surrounded by the beech and oak forests of Dilijan National Park. Its clean air and mild summers made it a place of rest and recovery from the last century, and it is called Armenia's Switzerland.

At its centre is Sharambeyan Street, a restored old quarter of nineteenth-century stone houses with wooden balconies and craft workshops. In the nearby forest are Haghartsin Monastery, built between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, and little Lake Parz, reached on foot through the trees.

Dilijan is about an hour and a half from Yerevan and half an hour from Sevan, and suits one or two nights for nature lovers and walkers.