Dilijan is the town the Armenians call their Little Switzerland, which is a generous description of what is really a small spa town buried in the forest. It sits in the Tavush province, in a green valley of the Lesser Caucasus, at roughly 1,400 metres, with beech and oak woods climbing the slopes all round. It is wetter and cooler than the rest of the country, which is mostly dry plateau, and the sudden greenery after the bare hills of the Armenian highlands is a shock. The air carries a smell of wet leaves and wood smoke.
The old quarter, a short street of restored houses with carved wooden balconies, gives a sense of what a nineteenth-century Armenian town looked like. Craftsmen sell ceramics, carpets and metalwork from the workshops, and the town has long attracted artists, composers and writers who came for the clean air. Mineral water from Dilijan is bottled and sold across the country. The town also has a modern face, with an international school and a growing number of guesthouses, cafes and restaurants.
Nearby are two of the finest medieval monasteries in the Caucasus. Haghartsin, about ten kilometres to the north-east, sits in a forest clearing with a group of stone churches and a refectory dating from the thirteenth century, and Goshavank, at the village of Gosh, is known for its delicate carved cross-stones, called khachkars. Both are beautiful places in a quiet landscape, and bring a sense of centuries of prayer.
The roads around Dilijan are a pleasure. The old road over the mountain toward Lake Sevan climbs through forest in hairpins, and the new highway runs through a long tunnel under the Sevan range. Surfaces are mixed, with good stretches and potholed ones, and Armenian drivers can be unpredictable, so keep your eyes open. Cows, dogs and the occasional herd of sheep take their share of the road. Fog is common in the mornings, and in winter, snow and ice make the roads treacherous.
Dilijan has fuel stations, shops and restaurants, so it is an easy place to stop. Try the local cooking, which includes kebab, fresh vegetables, herbs and the flatbread called lavash, and ask for a cup of strong Armenian coffee. Autumn colours in October can be superb.