Armenia

Days 1 to 3: Yerevan

Zvartnots International Airport (EVN) is 12 km west of the city centre. GG Taxi is the standard ride-hailing app in Yerevan; download it before landing and use it for all city transport. Always use GG or Yandex for a transparent fare. The city metro runs from the airport toward the centre; useful but limited in coverage.

Yerevan's street grid is organised around Republic Square, the broad Soviet-era centrepiece flanked by the History Museum and the government buildings, and the Cascade, the monumental outdoor staircase that connects the lower city to the residential Kanaker district above. Both are within walking distance of each other and within walking distance of most central accommodation.

The Cascade and Cafesjian Museum: The Cascade is simultaneously an outdoor sculpture park, a contemporary art museum and the city's most significant public space. The staircase itself is lined with works by internationally significant sculptors including Fernando Botero (whose characteristic bronze figures appear at intervals), and the internal escalators pass through gallery levels of the Cafesjian Museum of Art. At the top, the view over the city and toward Mount Ararat on a clear day is the most reproduced Yerevan image.

Republic Square in the evening is where the city congregates: the singing fountains that run between the History Museum and the Marriott, the outdoor café terraces, and the particular evening light on the pink-tuff government buildings. Sit at one of the square-facing cafés after dinner and watch the city's social ritual.

Saryan Street: The central wine and food street of Yerevan, named for the Armenian painter Martiros Saryan. Saryan Street and its immediate vicinity have the best concentration of independent restaurants, wine bars and cafés in the city. In Vino wine bar, Lavash, Sherep and Single Origin Coffee Roasters are all on or immediately adjacent to it. The street is also the correct place for an evening walk.

Museums: The source material lists seven: the National Gallery, the Saryan Museum, the Parajanov Museum, the Aram Khachaturian Museum, the Komitas Museum, the History Museum and the Matenadaran. Three days gives you enough time to visit most of them.

The Matenadaran, the repository of ancient Armenian manuscripts at the top of Mashtots Avenue, is the non-negotiable. It holds over 23,000 manuscripts ranging from 5th-century Gospel books to medieval scientific treatises; the permanent collection covers illuminated manuscripts, historical documents and examples of the Armenian script invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD. The building itself, a 1959 Soviet neoclassical structure by architect Mark Grigoryan, sits above the city with a monumental front staircase and statues of Mashtots and the historian Koryun.

The Sergei Parajanov Museum covers the life and work of the Armenian-Georgian film director whose films, particularly The Colour of Pomegranates (1969), are among the most significant in Soviet cinema history; the collages and assemblages in the museum give a more direct sense of Parajanov's artistic sensibility than even his films.

Evenings: The source material identifies a specific jazz scene with multiple dedicated venues: Ulikhanyan Club, Pulpulak, Malkhas Jazz Club, Varpet, Vidi and Camilla. Malkhas is the oldest and most established, named for jazz pianist Levon Malkhasyan and still operating under his legacy; the club consistently books live acts and the quality of musicianship is high. Varpet is a more mixed venue that covers jazz alongside cocktails and food.

For classical music: the source material lists the National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the National Symphonic Orchestra, the National Philharmonic and the Komitas Chamber Music Hall. Check the current programme at each before arriving; the season runs October to June and the ticket prices are among the lowest of any major performing arts venue in Europe.

Abovyan Street is the pedestrianised commercial street running north from Republic Square; worth a walk for the bookshops, cafés and the transition from the formal Soviet-era centre into the older residential areas behind it.

Seasons Park (Yeghaniots Park) on the Hrazdan Gorge edge is the best green space in the city, a recent landscaping project above the gorge with walking paths, lookout points and a more relaxed character than the formal parks closer to the centre.