Reserve a ten night monastery trip in southern Armenia for the May to October season

Four monasteries on four different edges

Tatev sits on a basalt spur with the Vorotan gorge on three sides of it. The main church went up between 895 and 906. In the courtyard stands a stone column about eight meters tall, on a hinged base that shifts when the ground moves. It has been put back up more than once after earthquakes.

Noravank works the other way. It sits at the closed head of a short canyon in Vayots Dzor, and the rock behind it is orange. Gndevank, dated 936, sits on the floor of the Jermuk canyon. A full wall goes around it, so you see nothing until you are through the gate. Vorotnavank stands on a cliff lip above the river, with a village directly beneath.

Four sites, four relationships to the drop. That is why they are grouped this way here, and not by date. You see them across five days, with driving in between.

Crossing the Vorotan gorge by cable

The ropeway between Halidzor and Tatev runs in a single span of 5,752 meters. Two cabins counterbalance each other on the line. The crossing takes about eleven minutes each way. At the deepest point it passes some 320 meters above the floor of the gorge. It opened in 2010.

The alternative is the road. It drops roughly 400 meters to the bridge over the Vorotan on hairpin turns. Then it climbs the far side again. In a van that is an hour, on a surface patched rather than rebuilt in stretches. Some travelers prefer it anyway. The gorge reads better from inside it than from above.

Your figure covers one crossing. Most groups ride one direction and drive the other, so they get both. If the wind is up, the operating company moves the visit to the next morning. Inside a ten night itinerary that is usually possible.

Wind shuts the ropeway without warning

The ropeway does not run in strong wind. The wind gets up in the afternoon more often than in the morning. It also closes for scheduled maintenance, sometimes for a full week, and those weeks are set late. Nobody can promise you a crossing on a given day. When it is shut, the day becomes the switchback road. That is slower, and it shakes.

Shaki waterfall, near Sisian, is on most southern itineraries, and it is often dry. The water above it is diverted to a small hydro station, and the fall runs only when the channel is opened. Ask before driving out there.

The Vardenyats pass, at 2,410 meters, can hold snow into the middle of May. After a storm the road over it is sometimes shut for a day. Add four hours in a vehicle on each of the two longest days. This trip has real driving in it, and the driving is not scenic the whole way.

How steep are the stairs at Noravank?

Very. Two short flights of stone slabs are set into the west front of the upper church, finished in 1339. The slabs project straight out of the wall. Each tread takes about the length of one foot and nothing more. There is no rail. They lift you six meters to the door of the chapel above the entrance.

Going up is a matter of leaning in. Coming down is harder. Most people turn around and descend facing the wall, and others sit and take it a step at a time. Some do not go up at all, which is a fair choice on a hot day.

Over the lower door is a carved panel by the master Momik, who also built the church. The stone is a warm gray that turns pink in low sun against the red cliffs behind. Late afternoon is when the front lights up, and when the fewest people are on the steps.

Where $2,875 else goes

This departure sits on the $2,875 rung, and it is not alone there. The office keeps every trip at that figure on one page so the number can be seen doing different work in different parts of the world. It does not rank them and will not tell you which is the better buy, because that is not a judgement a figure supports.

• The whole of the $2,875 rung
• All eight figures side by side
• Every departure in one table