lakes

Lakes worth the drive

Lake Sevan is the obvious starting point: at 1,900 m above sea level and roughly 70 km end to end, it is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in the world, and on a clear summer day the water is an improbable blue against the surrounding basalt. Sevanavank monastery juts into the water on what used to be a full island before Soviet-era irrigation projects lowered the water level by 20 metres. Sevan gets crowded in July and August — the beaches at Noratus and Tsaghkunk fill with Yerevan weekenders — but September is genuinely pleasant. Parz Lake in Dilijan National Park is smaller, forest-fringed, and walkable in an hour via an easy trail from the main road. Kari Lake on the Aragats plateau is a glacial tarn at 3,200 m, reachable by 4WD, where hikers staging an Aragats ascent camp overnight. Arpi Lake in Shirak province near the Georgian border is a Ramsar-listed wetland almost entirely unvisited by foreign tourists. These guides cover access logistics, swimming conditions, and what else to combine with each lake.