Meeting our Spotters in Yerevan & Tbilisi

Spotters meeting in Yerevan

It’s so great to be traveling again after quite a few months of hard work “in the office”. Last week, we visited our Spotters in Tbilisi & Yerevan. We had a fantastic time running around for 6 days from spot to spot – guided by our app of course!

A few of the many highlights of Yerevan (after meeting the Spotters of course!)

• Kond House – a (rumored) former gangster hangout turned into an amazing bar
• Children’s railway – one of the few surviving miniature-yet-fully-functioning railways in former Soviet Union. Sounds touristy? Absolutely a hidden spot!
• Anteb restaurant – we broke our own “visit every spot only once” rule for this amazing Armenian food…
• Chilling at Poplavok park with a beer from the shop (yes, it’s allowed in Armenia!)
• Seeing the stone makers in action in the middle of the city
• Eating “jungle bread” at Jengyalov Hac – probably the only place in the world outside the Republic of Artsakh (aka Republic of Nagarno-Karabakh) that serves this delicacy!
• Tsitsernakaberd (The Genocide Memorial) – not on Spotted by Locals (as it’s in all the tourist guides), but a once in a lifetime must-visit to learn about the horrors of genocide and the amazing resilience of the Armenian people
• Finally visiting the spots our Spotter Vahagn made us very curious about with his mystery stories & theories (alien artifacts (?), the bloody Madonna, the Lenin statue that isn’t there)
• The beautiful hidden achitecture of Hanrapetutyan Street
• Riding a random trolley bus around town – and seeing another side of the city

Posing at the amazing “Cascades” project

The Genocide Memorial

The amazing food at Anteb

And Tbilisi…

• Eating mkhali (and probably getting addicted for life…) with Georgian craft beer at Shava Lomi
• Doing some urban exploring around Hotel London – once the most happening hotel in Tbilisi, now a ruin. But they’re renovating!
• Cafe Gallery – an alternative bar / club with lovely people and an amazing vibe!
• Prospero’s books – having a coffee in a yard off the main street with freelancers and artists
• Amazing & very cheap wild mushroom khinkali at Maspindzelo
• Skola Coffee & Wine bar – the best coffee and one of the most happening places in the city
• Vino Underground – punk rock music & natural wines served by lovely people
• Puri from everywhere, like the Oldest bakery in Tbilisi
• Kachapuri from Coffee & tea Restaurants Sakhachapure №1 or Retro. We still don’t agree on which was more heavenly than the other.
• Cafe Littera – definitely one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever had a dinner

Tbilisi

A typical backyard… keeps amazing us!

mkhali at The Black Lion

Khachapuri from Sakhachapure №1

Meeting 2 of our Spotters (the other 2 were out of the country!)

We loved the Caucasus region very much, and have also seen the need for Spotted by Locals. Tourists are mostly concentrated around the tourist highlights only – while there’s so much more to see and learn from the spots locals visit! A big thanks to our awesome Spotters there for sharing!

We’d also love to expand to the “missing” Caucasus capital on our list: Baku Azerbaijan! Are you a local from Yerevan, Tbilisi or Baku and would you like to (or do you know locals who might like to) write about your favorite spots and join our community? Get in touch!