You might have recently watched the 5 Reasons Why You Should Visit ARMENIA Right Now video, where a female travel vlogger shows her week trip to Armenia. This popular travel vlogger is Eva zu Beck, who has visited over 60 countries and has more than 390,000 followers on Instagram, 470,000 followers on Facebook, and 341,000 YouTube channel subscribers. Eva mostly travels to the countries that are underrepresented by mainstream media. She has been a solo travel vlogger for almost 2 years, visiting places that aren’t seen as travel destinations like Pakistan, Yemen and Syria.

Eva was born in Poland and raised in England, and she graduated from Oxford University. She used to work as a manager for a travel media startup in London, but one day she got bored of the same narrative about popular destinations and decided to travel herself to discover the world’s most under-the-radar destinations.

Eva has spent a week in Armenia, which she thinks is absolutely not enough for this country, so she is already making plans to come back for three weeks next spring. Mediamax has talked with Eva zu Beck about this trip and the reasons why she wants to visit Armenia again.

On Armenian roots

I have always wanted to visit the Caucasus, because it is kind of on the border between Asia and Europe and it seems like it combines elements from both continents in a cultural and geographical way. Although, admittedly, Georgia was initially on my list, I saw that a lot of people had come over to Georgia and I just thought, maybe there is another place where fewer people visit, so I can showcase and explore for myself as well. That country was definitely Armenia, and coincidently, my great-grandmother is Armenian (on my father’s side). 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

Besides, I had simply not seen much about Armenia, social media always talks about the beauty of Georgia and Tbilisi. You rarely see Armenia, but Georgia pops up everywhere. I had also heard from a couple of traveler friends that Armenia is underrated natural gem, and when I went there it was exactly what I found: a country that not many people talk about, but it absolutely deserves a lot more attention. 

More than 5 reasons

There are a lot of reasons to visit Armenia and I outlined most of them in my “5 Reasons Why You Should Visit ARMENIA Right Now” video, but I think what captivated me the most is that I found Armenia to be very wholesome destination in the sense that it has a bit of everything. I found people in Armenia very genuine, it seems to me that people weren’t used to too many tourists. The people were extremely kind and very helpful. You could actually try to talk to people in a really nice and friendly way without them trying to sell you something – unfortunately, this is the case in many countries affected by too much tourism. 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

Another thing that I absolutely loved was the natural landscape of Armenia. It is a little bit wild, some of the places that I went to didn’t have proper roads, but that is part of the charm and natural beauty of it. Incredible landscapes, villages that are hidden away from the main roads, people living very beautiful and simple lives: it is like a pure majestic landscape. 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

Expectations vs. Reality 

I hadn’t expected this beauty from a country so small. This is a kind of place that a lot of tourists being into outdoors adventures would absolutely love it, because the landscape is very natural.

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

Honestly, I didn’t have too many expectations, but I think a lot of the time when people talk about Armenia, they probably imagine that it is kind of post-Soviet, grey and dull. That it is not at all what Armenia is, people are extremely warm, the whole country is very colorful and diverse.

So much food 

My “menu” was definitely recommendations from locals, who told me about all their personal favorite dishes. 

Ghapama was my favorite dish, it tasted like a party in my mouth, it is sweet and crunchy but soft, it is just such a happy dish. In particular, I love how Armenian food is just like a mashup of different flavors, I guess, different cultures from the area, because I recognized some of them. 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

I had so much food in Armenia - I think I put on 2kg during my trip to Armenia. I just didn’t have space to include everything in the video. I loved the barbeque (khorovats) as well, I know this kind of barbeque from a lot of different places around the world, but it was quite surprising to see that it is really delicious, it was really nice, high quality food coming from natural environment. We also tried fish in Sevan, it was super fresh and delicious. 

Small but mighty 

The main thing that differentiates Armenia from other places is that despite being so small and compact it seemed to me extremely varied in terms of what you can see. Everything is kind of squished in one region where you get really high mountains, hills, incredible lakes, changing climate, landscapes and historic beauty. It is a country where you can experience a lot of very different things within a very short period of time, as it is very small, drivable, you can do a road trip everywhere. 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

Traveling is for meeting people 

Traveling is the best education, the more you travel the more you realize how beautiful and amazing the world is and the more you begin to respect people of this planet. Travel has been my passion, my life, my education, I am happy to share all the stories with others. I feel I become a better person since I started traveling full-time. 

Photo: Eva zu Beck’s archive

The highlight of my trip to Armenia was definitely the people. The main reason why I want to come back is to meet people and spend more time in different parts of Armenia. I want to go climbing and hiking to see more of the nature and stay in villages in the mountains, hoping to make informative vlogs about the rural culture of Armenia. 

Amalie Khachatryan

Photos: Eva zu Beck’s archive