Yerevan, Garni, Geghard & Lake Sevan, 4 Nights

Zvartnots airport is only a short drive west of the centre, so even after a night flight the city comes quickly. Rooms are normally ready by mid-afternoon. Yerevan is built largely of volcanic tuff in shades from apricot to rose, which is where the pink-city nickname comes from, and it is at its best in the early evening. Walk to Republic Square, then along the pedestrian Northern Avenue towards the Opera, where the cafés fill once the heat goes out of the day. Armenian bread, cheese and herb plates make an easy light supper for vegetarians.

A guided morning around the Soviet-era plan laid out by Alexander Tamanyan. Republic Square comes first, its government buildings faced in pink and yellow stone, then Northern Avenue and the round Opera and Ballet Theatre. At the Cascade, a long stairway of terraces and fountains dotted with modern sculpture, the climb earns a view over the rooftops to Ararat if the air is clear. The tour ends in Victory Park under Mother Armenia, the sword-bearing figure that replaced a statue of Stalin. The afternoon is free: the Matenadaran manuscript library or the Vernissage open-air market are the obvious choices.

East out of the city, with a halt at the Charents Arch, where the poet's stone frame on the roadside lines up Ararat across the plain. Garni is the one standing classical temple in the former Soviet world: an Ionic colonnade of the first century AD, shaken down by an earthquake in 1679 and rebuilt stone by stone in the 1970s. Below it, the gorge of the Azat is walled with hexagonal basalt columns known locally as the Symphony of Stones. A few kilometres further up the valley, Geghard monastery is partly cut into the cliff, with chapels carved straight out of the rock and a spring running through one of them. Back in Yerevan by mid-afternoon.

North into the hills to Tsaghkadzor, a ski resort in winter and a green, pine-scented town in summer. Kecharis monastery, a cluster of churches built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, stands at the edge of the town. The ropeway up Mount Teghenis is optional and runs subject to the weather. Then over to Lake Sevan, one of the largest high-altitude freshwater lakes in the world at about 1,900 metres. A stepped path climbs the peninsula to Sevanavank, founded in 874, whose two small churches look out over the water. Lunch at a lakeside restaurant is usually grilled fish; the drive back to Yerevan takes about an hour.

Breakfast, and the transfer back to Zvartnots for the flight home. Many departures from Yerevan leave in the early hours, so if yours is a late or overnight flight the day is free until pickup: a last coffee on Northern Avenue, a bottle of Armenian brandy from one of the city shops, or a slow walk through the gardens around the Opera before collecting the bags.