The best of Armenia in six minutes flat
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Direct flights from London Luton to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, begin on 8 June, and I am getting a preview of this fascinating nation. Today I have joined the outstanding tour guide Gevorg Rashoyan for a tour of Soviet Yerevan: Armenia was part of the USSR until 1991. Gevorg told me much more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder. |
| 0:06.0 | It is Monday the 18th of May. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm walking through a tunnel in Yerevan in Armenia with my guide Givord. |
| 0:15.0 | Givord, tell us what we are doing here. |
| 0:19.0 | We are doing the Soviet tour which is coming to an end. |
| 0:22.7 | We were in the Children's Railway just minutes ago, |
| 0:25.6 | and we're now going through the tunnel towards the central of Yerevan park, |
| 0:30.5 | beautiful fountains and everything. |
| 0:32.1 | We'll open up very soon. |
| 0:34.4 | And the Soviet tour is because Armenia was one of the constituent republics of the old USSR. |
| 0:41.3 | What's happened since 1991 when the whole thing fell apart? |
| 0:46.3 | When we became an independent republic since 1991, we have changed lots of stuff in the country. |
| 0:53.3 | We've grown. |
| 0:54.9 | The country's budget has changed. |
| 0:57.2 | People's perception has changed. |
| 0:59.0 | So the Armenia that we have today is nowhere close to the Armenia we had in 1990s. |
| 1:06.1 | What is the tourists going to find? |
| 1:08.0 | Let's start in the capital, Yerevan. |
| 1:17.6 | When the travelers come, they're interested to see the uniquely built old town or the center of Yerevan with a pinky or rosy stone called Tuft. |
| 1:21.6 | And most of the buildings in the center are like that. |
| 1:24.6 | That's what makes them very special and unique in the country. They do also |
| 1:29.0 | explore some modern parts of Yerevan, like the Northern Avenue or the Cascade, which is also |
... |
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