Dilijan National Park

Dilijan National Park is one of Armenia's few national parks and the reason the town is called "little Switzerland". Established in 2002 on the territory of an older reserve, it protects the forested slopes of the Pambak, Areguni and Miapor ranges — dense beech, oak and hornbeam woods, patches of ancient yew, alpine meadows above the treeline and dozens of springs.

You do not need to "enter" the park in any formal sense: Dilijan sits inside it, and almost every place in this guide — Parz Lake, Haghartsin, Goshavank, Jukhtak, Matosavank, Aghavnavank — lies within its borders. A network of marked trails links many of them, from easy lakeside loops to long day walks between villages. Wildlife is shy but present; you are far more likely to meet a cow than a bear, though both live here.