An Israeli traveler recently contacted me and asked could I give an advice on traveling to Yerevan (Armenia) from Telaviv (Israel).
As this is a pretty broad topic to answer in one single reply I decided to wrap up longer answer in this blog post. Hopefully other Israeli / Armenian travelers will find some helpful thought in this article as well.
Now, I must inform that I have never traveled directly route Telaviv - Yerevan, Thus I have done route Istanbul - Telaviv (once), Istanbul - Tbilisi (dozen of times) and Tbilisi - Yerevan (dozen of times). The further written is just my assumption on how I would most probably did a Telaviv - Yerevan trip.
Message from an Israeli traveller
travelling from TLV Israel to Yerevan.
Was told best way is to fly to Georgia and drive to Yerevan. Can you advise ?
How is the driving conditions ?
My first guest would be for a direct flight - doing a quick Google search, I didn't find any direct flights from Telaviv to Istanbul, instead there are plenty of connected flights with connections in Tbilisi, Athens, Krasnodar, Kiev and so on. Flights are performed by following companies: Georgian airlines, Aegan, Ural Airlines, El Al, Ukraine airlines
I have never used any of above listed airlines, so I cannot actually give a review of their services, thus recently I planned a trip to Telaviv from Tbilisi and then I took a look on Georgian Airlines and El Al companies, both seemed way too expensive at that time. I canceled my travel plans to Israel this time, thus (and this is the funny part) booked a Tbilisi - Kiev - New York flight with Ukrainian airlines. Soon I will have a chance to write a review of Ukrainian Airlines services.
Now, next time I will plan Telaviv trip from Tbilisi I will choose connected flight via Istanbul using Turkish Airlines or Pegasus.
Flying in this region (Turkey, Georgia) I have used following companies: Turkish Airlines, Pegassus, AirBaltic, Wizzair, Lot. With Turkish Airlines you can fly literally to every corner of the world (except Armenia, as there is a political reason for that).
Returning to topic - depending on your budget and travel plans - I would rather then stay with Georgian Airlines connected flight via Tbilisi (the shortest connected flight - about 4h 15m), or connected flight via Istanbul to Tbilisi with Turkish airlines and then traveled to Yerevan either with rail or private taxi. I have a separate article on Tbilisi - Yerevan transfers by car. Road to Yerevan from Tbilisi is pretty fair and such ride should take you about four and half to six hours. Last time I did such transfer (March 2016), the cost per person was about 50GEL (25USD). See: Georgia/Armenia border crossing.
If you would prefer a rental car, your best bet most probably is to rent a car at Tbilisi airport or choose one at Tbilisi old town, there is a Sixt office near Abanotubani. Rentals should start at about 50 USD per day.
Have you done Telaviv - Yerevan route? Leave any suggestions! Readers and me would love to hear!