Dilijan sits in a forest bowl in the hills of Tavush Marz, a small town that has served as a retreat for artists, composers, and cinematographers since Soviet times. The Cinematographers House — a grand sanatorium-style building where the most celebrated directors of the Soviet era came to think and work — is still standing. The town itself has a restored nineteenth-century quarter of wooden houses on Sharambeyan Street, where artisans sell handicrafts and musical instruments from their ground-floor workshops.
Armenians love Dilijan. It is their go-to weekend escape, prized for clean air, green hills, and a pace of life that is a world away from Yerevan. Dilijan National Park wraps around the town with beech and oak forest that turns gold in autumn. In summer the guesthouses fill up with families; trails lead into the park from the edge of town.
The two monasteries near Dilijan are among the finest in Armenia. Haghartsin, a few kilometres north along a beautiful forest road, is a complex of three churches with a 13th-century royal dining hall and extraordinary khachkars. Goshavank, a little further, was founded by the twelfth-century scholar Mkhitar Gosh and includes what many consider the finest khachkar in existence. Most visitors see both in a single half-day loop. Parz Lake, a clear mountain lake in the national park, is a pleasant afternoon excursion.