Tsaghkadzor

What it is

Tsaghkadzor means valley of flowers, and it is Armenia's main mountain resort: a ropeway up Mount Teghenis, ski slopes in winter and walking the rest of the year. It was a Soviet training base for Olympic athletes because of the altitude, and some of that infrastructure is still in use.

Kecharis

The Kecharis monastery complex sits in the town itself rather than out on a hillside, a group of churches begun in the eleventh century and still the reason to walk the main street. Finding a monastery of that age inside a ski resort is a very Armenian arrangement.

Lake Sevan nearby

Sevan is around half an hour away, a high-altitude lake big enough to read as a sea, with the Sevanavank churches on a peninsula above it. Most trips that overnight here take the lake the same day, which is the argument for sleeping in Tsaghkadzor rather than driving back to Yerevan.

How long to give it

One or two nights, usually as a cooler base than the capital.

When to go

Average daytime high, night-time low and rain days for Tsaghkadzor, from five years of recorded observations rather than a forecast or a brochure.

Comfortable months: Jul to Sep.