Yerevan Transportation

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After landing and making my way to the arrival hall, I first had to change some money into Armenian Drams to pay for the Armenian visa. It cost AMD 3000 for a 21 day single entry visa. The form can be completed at the nearby desks, airport staff are there to help you. You then have to queue to get your visa and then queue at the nearby passport control. The whole procedure didn't take long, it was early morning though and not many arrivals.

On departing, check in and security was quite busy, it didn't take that long though to get to the departure lounges. Apart from a duty free shop and a small cafe, there wasn't much there. However, departures was clean & tidy and there were plenty of seats.

Under the steps of the Cascade are a series of escalators that take you up and down the monument. As you ride them you pass works of art that are on display.

To use them enter the door on the left hand side at the base of Cascade. They save you a steep climb of about 500 steps. A great help as the temperature was in the 30's when I visited. You are able to get off and look around at various levels on the Cascade

Taxis are cheap in Yerevan and the most convenient way to get around the city but before getting on make sure that the driver understands English ( which is least likely ) and agree on the fare !

Armenians are not harmful though they may talk loud so don`t hesitate to barge.

For flying to Yerevan and generally Armenia , you don`t have that much choices. Not all big Airlines fly to Armenia , unfortunately Armavia which is the biggest Armenian airline does not fly to many cities through out the world either ! Anyway, if Armavia comes to your city , it`s the cheapest way to get to Armenia but not the best !

Aircrafts are old and it kind of gives you bad feeling of insecurity, so if you are going to Armenia from big countries in Europe better check with airlines of your own country before Armavia though the fare is not even comparable.

Local taxis are a inexpensive and efficient way to get around Yerevan. At the time of writing, flagfall was 400 AMD for the first kilometer. Most Yerevan taxis are equipped with electronic taxi meters and are able to give you a receipt upon request.

A very reliable taxi service is Alex Taxi. Their contact information is below:

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The roads in Aremnia/Yerevan are actually in good for the most part but like in your home town accidents happen from time to time as this unlucky army truck driver found out. I don't know if anyone was hurt but be alert if you are driving. The one thing I did notice is that they will pass traffic here but not in the suicidal way they do in parts of Africa

I was supposed to take the overnight train that runs on the even days to Georgia but the locals said nyet.... I am glad I did not. There are mini buses or marshrutkas that go just about everywhere. Get there at 07:00 if you want a good seat and also since they leave when full (mine left at 07:40). It's about a 6 hour ride to Tbilisi which includes a 20 min coffee stop and separate boarder crossing. While most of the signs are in Armenian...there will be someone there that speaks enough english to help you out.

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The trip was less painful than what I excpected. I reached the Ortachalla bus station @ 8:30. When I arrived 2 buses have already departured the station. If you arrive early then you'll have the luxuray of choosing you seat. We waited for about an hour for the Marshutska to fill (around 15 passender). The bus station at Tbilisi had very clean Toillet facility (you have to pay .2 lary to use it) and it had few canteens and little shops. The Mershutska ticket cost 30 Lari. A bus left the station 1/2 before we did but these buses are incredibly slow. There was a room for bags @ the back.

We arrived @ the borders after 1:30 hour and I had my visa so I had little problem. There was a German gentelman who had to buy a visa. He paid 30 US $ for it and his ordeal was TOTALLY painless and very smooth. When finnished with our passport we went to the bus to find out that costoms were done checking our bags. I was surprized because mine was locked, I was told they just looked at it from the out side and then put back again in the bus. 2 hours later we stopped @ a little resturant by the river for an hour, where there was a toilet. I recommend that you bring your own food and drink because the resturant was very expensive. The entire trip with boarder crossing and the hour took about 6.5 hours.

Sorry I could not describe the Yerevan bus station because I was exhausted. I took a taxi to down town. I was charged 1000 Dram but i told later by friends that it should have costed me 700 Dram. I was also told that there was a bus between the the station and down town area, I was tired and wanted to get to the hotel as soon as I can