Dilijan

Dilijan is a town of forested slopes in Tavush, and its old quarter keeps the character of the nineteenth century: on Sharambeyan Street, restored houses lean wooden balconies over the lane, with craftsmen at work behind the doors. In the valleys nearby stand two of the great monastic houses of medieval Armenia, Haghartsin and Goshavank.

Come between July and September, when afternoons reach twenty-three to twenty-seven degrees and the showers of late spring have eased. Winters are cold and fairly dry, with highs close to freezing from December to February.

• Haghartsin Churches raised between the tenth and thirteenth centuries in white stone, travertine and basalt, with a refectory and a royal mausoleum.
• Goshavank Founded in the twelfth century by the lawgiver Mkhitar Gosh, and home to a finely carved thirteenth-century khachkar by master Poghos.
• Old Dilijan Sharambeyan Street, its nineteenth-century houses restored, with workshops for local crafts.