Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with our self-drive road trip, complete with a decked-out 2017 Lada Niva named Gazan, 24/7 assistance, highly curated road trip itineraries, a snack box filled with local goodies, and a playlist packed with Armenian bangers to give you the very best road trip experience. No groups. No tour guides. No boundaries. Just you, your ride, and the open road. Welcome to the Great Armenian Road Trip

Soviet Time Machine

Journey back in time to a land of brutalist buildings, fantastical metallic sculptures, and the rusted remnants of a once-sprawling socialist empire, as you explore the storied cities and awe-inspiring nature of Armenia’s northern regions. 

On the first day of your journey through time, you’ll head west from Yerevan for the slopes of Mt. Aragats, where a giant telescope and observatory sit, looking to the stars just as the Soviets who built them once did. After an early morning spent in space, come back down to Earth for a theater outing at an abandoned House of Culture, one of many centers built in Soviet times to host theater performances and concerts while facilitating community engagement in art and public discourse. In a little town on the edge of a nuclear power plant, visit another House of Culture and a Sports Complex. Still in use today, these complexes once hosted artists and athletes from all over the world. Next, hear the ringing bells of the Sardarapat Memorial Complex, a symbol of Armenian pride and survival against all odds. Stop by a mining town near the Turkish-Armenian border, which has stories both Soviet and ancient to tell, before ending your day with delicious local eats and Soviet-style bars in the city of Gyumri, Armenia’s cultural capital. 

Your second day starts with Gyumri, whose Soviet spirit is preserved in monuments like the Iron Fountain and the Mother Armenia Complex. Stop to snap a photo by one of the city’s many intricately decorated doors, and hit up Central Park for a quick ride on the little old rollercoaster to get in touch with your inner Soviet child. Take a look inside the oldest operational barbershop in Armenia before journeying into the countryside, where an abandoned Soviet Pioneer Camp, complete with remarkably preserved mosaiced murals and imaginative structures, lies hidden. Next, hit the bustling streets of the industrial capital of Vanadzor, where you’ll find a graveyard of factories and plants of the Armenian SSR. Drive through lovely Lori Province to a Molokan village – a small pocket of old Russia – where you can have a traditional Russian dinner at the quaint cottage of an elderly Molokan couple. End your day either there, or drive on to the town of Dilijan for the night. 

On your third and final day, wake up to the clean air and calm of Dilijan’s forested hills and set out for a hike past lakes and monasteries before setting off towards the jewel of Armenia, Lake Sevan. Gaze out across the lake on the balcony of a modernist Writers’ House, and imagine yourself a mid-20th century writer searching for inspiration for your next book. The rest of this day’s drive will take you through Soviet-born towns that now stand as little-populated vestiges of the industrial hubs they once were. Allow yourself to be transported to a time of imaginative creation as you gaze up at Soviet monuments like the Silver Woman, emerging from metal sheets as if from the reservoir in which she stands. As the day grows old, mingle with ghosts at an abandoned sanatorium and wonder at what might have brought them there.