Rich and Ali's trip of perfection
Armenia
Couple
Beautiful, stunning countryside, amazing monasteries, delicious vegetarian food. Very comfortable B & Bs, Excellent guide. Would love to go back.
Very very good communications with Armine; she always replied quickly to respond to our queries.
Excellent, all excellent.
Best parts:
Oh my gosh .... it was all wonderful. Musher, our driver guide was excellent as a guide, a caring person and a good driver. All the accommodations were clean. comfortable and quiet. We met great people. The schedule was a perfect balance between travelling and hiking, visiting the points of interest and having 'free time'. Delicious food.
Worst parts:
There was nothing that was 'worst'. Maybe the last day was, for us, just a little too long in the car but it was broken up with about 4 visits to points of interest. We had arranged to visit a cheese maker to have a 'master class' but when we got there he'd finished. Never mind, we had a wonderful lunch and he told us a lot about beee keeping and cheeses making. He had a beautiful garden.
Evaneos
Dear Rich and Ali's trip of perfection,
Thank you for your feedback! We are more than happy that you enjoyed your trip to Armenia and we are looking forward to see you again soon!
Yours sincerely, Your Evaneos Team!
Paulh1883
Armenia
Family
Armenia is currently an excellent place to visit. It has diverse landscapes, beautiful flora, and interesting birdlife. The people are friendly, food delicious, and facilities are all good.
Best parts:
Visited a wide variety of landscapes and sites thus getting a great overview of the country. No excessively long road trips were involved. Really great guide who did her very best to ensure that we had an excellent tour. All of the accommodation and meals were fine, and of a high standard. Managed to see a reasonable selection of birdlife. Overall a really great trip, and your assistance in achieving this was much appreciated
Worst parts:
Our vehicle was designed in such a way that it was impossible to open the passenger doors from inside; the driver had to get out of the vehicle in order to open the doors (rather like a police car). Also, it was not possible to open any rear windows. This created a bit of a problem and was somewhat unsafe, and I strongly recommend that vehicles should have doors that can be opened from inside, also openable rear windows.
SM
Armenia
Couple
Well balanced and organised trip by the local agent in Armenia + flexibility of the guide and driver to adapt the program in function of the weather conditions or religious celebration. As the trip in Armenia went so well, we had high expectations when we arrived in Georgia but we were disappointed by the organisation of the trip.
Best parts:
Landscapes, visits, food (in particular lunch with locals in Armenia), our guide and driver, the people (especially in Armenia)
Worst parts:
Georgia: we realised once arrived that it was Easter (orthodox) and that some sites were close and that we had to cancel some visits. We are disappointed in the organisation as we feel that it could have been avoided (we planned this trip months ago and the local agent should have checked and told us what was possible/not possible to visit during Easter)
Accommodation: lack of information about the type of room booked (ie no window in Tbilissi)
map
Armenia
Couple
My husband and I have traveled to 69 countries now and I have always had to find a private tour and guide on my own. Then I discovered Evaneos. All of the trips on this site look to be amazing so we chose to travel to Georgia and Armenia. What an excellent choice that was.
Highlights included: seeing the glacier and the Black Sea In Georgia, visiting Tbilisi (a favorite city), seeing the many, many unique Monasteries, driving through the Caucasus Mts, learning the history of both countries and meeting so many warm and interesting people. It was a unique and amazing journey.
Best parts:
I loved the fact that though we were visiting two countries, Georgia & Armenia, the trip was seamless. We started in Georgia, then traveled to Armenia being passed off at the border with the next guide waiting for us. It was easy, quick, and so successful. There were so many highlights it would be difficult to list them all.
Nothing negative as it all flowed according to plan from the pick up to the drop off 16 days later.
Worst parts:
Nothing to note. Astghik did everything she could to make this trip amazing. We had amazing guides, drivers and weather. Rain just one day. Loved our Armenian guide/driver, Armen. He was the best of the best. He is funny, steady, a true tour guide. Do yourself a favor and have a guide besides a driver who speaks English. You will learn so much more with a personal guide. In Georgia we had a guide and driver and in Armenia, Armen was both wrapped up in one.
Steve T
Armenia
Couple
Exploring the historical sights of Armenia and Georgia
Best parts:
Nearly everything
Worst parts:
Very little
Jan & Karin
Armenia
Couple
Armenia is a very interesting country. Therefore we are happy that we visited different regions to experience the diversity of the country
Best parts:
We enjoyed everything, the beautiful landscape and the history and cultural heritage of Armenia
Worst parts:
Nothing to complain about
Happyclient
Armenia
Family
7 days in Armenia and 7 in Georgia. Self driving tour around both countries
Best parts:
My trip was a self driven tour including Armenia and Georgia. Mariana, the local travel agent, provided me with an extraordinary service, even beyond the expected. Just as an example, I have a small accident with my rented car, she help me with the car agency to have a quick response and a replacement car almost immediately.
I would happily recommend Mariana to organize your trip
Worst parts:
None
pjemh
Armenia
Couple
after arriving at night and spending two days in Yerevan we went to Geghard and Goris then down south to goris via Jermuk and an amazing walk to Spitakavor.Up over the Selim pass to Dlijan and Dzoraget and Debed valley. Across to Gyumri and then Aragats and Mount Arailer with its amazing flora.
Best parts:
the enormous variety-mountains, wild flowers, interesting food and welcoming people.
the help we received from Marianna in planning and delivering our trip along with excellent driver and local guides..
the sense of history.
enjoyable country hikes.
Worst parts:
coming home.
Evaneos
We are so happy to read your review and I hope we have the pleasure of helping you with another trip in the future for another destination on your travel list! :)
Joe trip
Armenia
Solo
Visited many sites, lake sevan, areni, garni, brandy factory so i wasbusy but enjoyed every aspect of trip
Best parts:
The trip was great. I really enjoyed the guide and country. I was very impressed and surprised. I wish i researched more and planned better but guide was helpful with tips and things i was not aware of. I wish i went earlier in year because weather was good on some days and not so good on others. Definitely going back.
Worst parts:
The weather was hazy so couldn’t see mountains clearly.
Oxbridge
Armenia
Private group
Armenia & Georgia provide a most interesting destination. History, current affairs, political interest in addition to religious sites, modern developments, spectacular geography. Roads are poor in some areas, but still worth the effort. Food and drink are different, interesting and good quality.
Best parts:
Guides / Drivers were high quality / well educated. Experiences were well varied, we were given good exposure to local food and drink, a good mix of quality hotels + smaller places. Lunches were of excellent quality on most days.
Worst parts:
On some days the travel was disproportionately long. Lunch venues were prebooked, so on occasions we arrived around 3pm...whereas if guides had had discretion on where to stop timings could have been improved. Original vehicle was good quality, but this was replaced after 3 days with an older vehicle which was older and less comfortable . (Drivers were excellent)
Roberto
Armenia
Couple
The best moment of my trip was the day of tracking around MESTIA .
Thanks to the Georgian Agency's flexibility, we could exchange the program of one day ( with bad wether) with the following one with sunshine
Best parts:
Everthing . The assistance by the local agency (I.e. In Armenia with Astghik),the drivers the hotels in Yerevan and TBILISI and the guest houses WITH PRIVATE BATHROOMS.
Worst parts:
Maybe... the difficult communication with the drivers.
The trip to Kaspegi (only one day with bad whether). Better to stay one or days more in only one maintain place ( Kasbegi or MESTIA)
gayraud
Armenia
Couple
The destinations were fine, the food during our travel was OKay, although I think the fruit that was served at times was not ripe enough so could not eat it, there were too many barbecues, sometimes the meat like (chicken) was overcooked so quite tough. The salads were very nice.
Best parts:
We liked everything about the trip.
But I think there could have been more free time in Yerevan to shop.
A late evening trip to Yerevan would have been good perhaps to see a show or something like that. After a holiday is not all about history.
Worst parts:
The journey time on the trips between one destination to another were very long so I think there should be more comfort stops, for example before lunch for coffee or a drink.
CSP
Armenia
Private group
We (my wife and two children and my sister) were met at the airport and wafted to a hotel to recover from the overnight flight. We had a busy schedule of visiting sites, mainly churches and monasteries, but with enough other interesting places (e.g. caravanserais, early stone layouts, cave dwellings) as well as some challenging interludes for those of us nervous about heights (rope bridge, cable car). Our guide adapted to our interests and gave us copious amounts of information on most sites and our driver was most careful and unfailingly helpful even if we didn't really have a common language. Of course the guide spoke in English, excellently. We really enjoyed the lunches arranged for us every day allowing us to sample not just restaurant food but also the cookery of the land and we were pleasantly surprised how far our money went in evening meals. The main feature of our tour was to view churches and monasteries and we were entranced by the architecture and stone carving we saw. In retrospect we knew, of course, about the history of Christianity in Armenia, but we had little idea of the quality and extent of the churches. Our guide was able to help us understand so much of the history and the construction of these monuments. Altogether we had a wonderful holiday.
Best parts:
Very relaxing because well organised hotels, meals at lunch and access to sites and well driven around and superb guide.
Worst parts:
Maybe seat belts for all passengers in minibus.
JudyU
Armenia
Private group
We all fell in love with Armenia. We really had a very happy time. Astghik arranged a wonderful and varied itinerary which took us to all parts of Armenia. She was very responsive to our request to take in as many of the monastic sites as possible, so that we visited some monastic sites that are rarely visited by other tour groups. Astghik took the trouble to call me on the phone a couple of times in advance of our trip to check that the itinerary, transport and accommodation she planned for us, met our needs.
The cultural heritage of Armenia was a revelation, and we found all our days there very rewarding and absorbing. The scenery was amazing, the monasteries absolutely wonderful.
We were extremely well looked after. Our meals and accommodation were all good to outstanding, and transport was also perfect for our needs. Our driver was very patient and safe so we had every confidence in him. Our guide, Janna Aharonyan, was very friendly, caring and knowledgeable and was willing to incorporate extra visits whenever we asked. We enjoyed her company.
We discovered that Armenia is a very safe and comfortable place to visit. Eating (and drinking) out is cheap by UK standards. Yerevan in particular is a delightful city – it was an easy place to walk about in, with many lovely cafes and restaurants. Women in our group felt quite comfortable and safe walking back to our hotel on their own late at night for example. Outside of our itinerary, we enjoyed our evenings. One evening we attended a symphony concert at the Opera House , another (weekend) evening we visited the Vernissage market and bought a couple of small carpets, for example.
Although none of us spoke Russian or Armenian, on the whole we managed to communicate enough to get by. In Yerevan, in most restaurants and museums, staff can be found who speak English well. In some more remote places like Dilijan, it was a little more difficult but we managed!
We all felt that our trip was very good value for money and have plans to book another holiday through Evaneos in future
Best parts:
The cultural heritage of Armenia was a revelation, and we found all our days there very rewarding and absorbing - the scenery was amazing, the monasteries absolutely wonderful.
Worst parts:
We cannot think of anything to improve - we enjoyed every moment.
