Parz Lake

Parz Lich — "clear lake" in Armenian — sits in a fold of beech and oak forest a short drive east of Dilijan. It is not large: you can walk the whole shoreline at an easy pace, which is exactly what most visitors come to do. In the morning the water usually holds a perfect reflection of the trees; by midday on a summer weekend it fills with families from Yerevan, rowing boats and the sound of a ropes course on the slope above.

The lake is also a trailhead. The marked route to Gosh village starts here, and shorter forest loops leave from the car park. Come in late October and the surrounding hills turn copper and gold — the single best week of the year for this spot, and the reason it appears on so many postcards.