Yerevan

Yerevan is a landlocked city high on a dry plateau, and in summer the swimming happens in hotel pools and the large outdoor pools of the city's parks. The real option is Lake Sevan, about an hour's drive to the north-east at almost 1,900m, where sandy and pebbly beaches line parts of the shore below the Sevanavank peninsula.

The lake is clear but cool, around 20°C at best in late July and August, and the season is short. Sevan is a pleasant day out or overnight stay, with fish restaurants and beach huts along the shore, but nobody should come to Yerevan expecting beach life.

Eating in Yerevan centres on the grill and the table spread. Khorovats, pork or lamb cooked over vine cuttings, comes with piles of herbs, fresh cheese, pickles and lavash, the thin flatbread baked against the walls of a tonir oven. Dolma in vine or cabbage leaves, khash on winter mornings, ghapama pumpkin and Western Armenian dishes from the diaspora add depth. The GUM market, the city's best-known food market, has stalls of dried fruit, sujukh walnut strings, spices, herbs and cheeses.

Drinking is the other half. Armenian brandy has a long tradition and tastings by the Hrazdan gorge are a classic visit, while wine bars in the centre pour local reds from the Areni grape and amber wines from clay karas. Coffee is boiled strong and thick in small cups, and café terraces fill every summer evening. Where it falls short is range and refinement: once you leave Armenian and Middle Eastern cooking, the choice thins quickly.

Yerevan claims to be older than Rome, with Erebuni fortress founded by the Urartians in 782 BC on a hill at the city's edge, yet the city a visitor walks through was largely built in the twentieth century. Alexander Tamanian's plan gave it Republic Square and broad avenues faced in pink, orange and grey volcanic tuff, a distinctive and handsome Soviet-era townscape.

The standouts are the Matenadaran, which holds one of the world's great collections of illuminated medieval manuscripts, the National History Museum and National Gallery on Republic Square, and the Genocide Memorial and museum at Tsitsernakaberd, a sober and essential visit. The Cascade's terraces of sculpture climb to views of Mount Ararat, and the Blue Mosque and a few small churches survive from older Yerevan. Two or three days cover it; the great monasteries are outside the city.

Going out in Yerevan mostly means wine bars, cocktail bars and terraces in the compact centre around Saryan Street, Northern Avenue and the streets near the Cascade. In summer the city lives outdoors, and families, couples and friends stay out on café terraces and in the squares until well past midnight, with the singing fountains of Republic Square as a meeting point.

There are a few clubs and some late electronic nights, but the club scene is small and much of the evening is built around long dinners and drinks rather than dancing. Winters are quieter. The centre feels easy and relaxed to walk at night.

Mount Ararat dominates the view from Yerevan on clear days, though it stands across a closed border and is scenery only. The landscape a visitor can actually use starts within an hour. Mount Aragats, at just over 4,000m, can be hiked from the high lake at Kari in summer, and the Garni gorge has a basalt cliff of hexagonal columns known as the Symphony of Stones.

The Khosrov Forest reserve, the Lake Sevan shore and the green, wooded hills around Dilijan, about an hour and a half away, give hiking country that feels very different from the arid Ararat plain. Long-distance routes such as the Transcaucasian Trail cross the region. Summers in the city are very hot and winters cold, so spring and autumn suit outdoor days best, and trail infrastructure is basic.

This is where Yerevan shines. Within about an hour lie the cathedral of Echmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Church, and the ruined seventh-century Zvartnots cathedral beside it, the Greco-Roman temple of Garni on its gorge edge and the rock-cut monastery of Geghard further up the valley. Khor Virap, under Mount Ararat, is under an hour south.

Further out, Sevanavank sits on its peninsula above Lake Sevan, the red-cliffed monastery of Noravank is about two hours away beyond the Areni wine villages, and Dilijan and its forest monasteries make another full day. Gyumri, with its black-stone old town, is about two hours by train. The variety is narrow, with churches and monasteries the common thread, and most trips need a driver, shared tour or hire car.

Children are welcomed warmly everywhere in Yerevan, and families with prams fill the squares and parks on summer evenings. The centre is safe and fairly compact, and the singing fountains, the Cascade's steps and sculptures, and the small amusement rides in the central parks keep younger children happy for an evening.

Beyond that there is little made for them: a modest zoo, a children's railway in the Hrazdan gorge and a few play centres. Hot summers, fast traffic, uneven pavements and long drives to the monasteries make longer days hard work with small children. Older children who enjoy castles and ruins get more from the day trips.

Central Yerevan is compact enough to walk: Republic Square, the Opera, the Cascade and the market are all within a short stroll of each other along tree-lined avenues. The city's single metro line is clean and simple but covers only part of what a visitor wants, and the buses and minibuses are hard to decode without Armenian or Russian.

Most visitors fill the gaps with taxis booked through ride-hailing apps, which are quick and inexpensive. Drivers are assertive and crossings can be stressful. Outside the city a car, a driver or a group tour is the practical way to reach monasteries and the mountains, though trains do run to Gyumri.

The one shopping experience not to miss is the Vernissage, a large open-air market near Republic Square that is busiest at weekends. It sells carved wood, backgammon boards, obsidian jewellery, embroidery, Soviet badges and cameras, and old and new carpets. Armenian brandy, wine, dried fruit and spices from the covered market make the most useful things to take home.

Northern Avenue and the streets around it have international chains and a few local designers, and there are large shopping malls on the edge of the centre. Beyond crafts and food, there is little that a visitor travels to buy.

Yerevan is an inexpensive city for most of what a visitor spends money on. Grills, bakeries and cafés cost little, local wine and brandy are cheap, ride-hailing taxis around the centre are a small expense, and museum tickets are low. Shared tours and drivers to the monasteries are also reasonable, especially split between a few people.

Accommodation is the main cost. Central hotels and well-placed apartments cost more than everything else would suggest, particularly in the summer peak, and imported goods and international-style restaurants are priced closer to European levels.

The round Opera and Ballet Theatre at the heart of the city is the anchor, with a season of opera and ballet that often includes Armenian works such as Khachaturian's Gayane and Spartacus. The Armenian Philharmonic plays in the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall inside the same building, and the Komitas Chamber Music Hall hosts recitals and chamber music. Tickets are easy to get.

Yerevan also has a long jazz tradition, with small clubs in the centre playing live most evenings, and folk ensembles with duduk and traditional dance perform in concert halls and at restaurants. Drama is lively but almost entirely in Armenian, so it is of limited use to most visitors.

Yerevan has no real bathing culture for a visitor to join. Wellness means hotel spas, a few saunas and traditional bathhouses used mostly by locals, and massage places of ordinary quality. Armenia's famous mineral-water spa town, Jermuk, is about three hours away and better treated as an overnight stay.

What the city offers instead is an unhurried rhythm: long coffees on shaded terraces, evening strolls in the ring of parks around the centre, and a sociable but unpressured pace. Summer heat and the traffic on the main avenues work against real rest.