Airport Transport
The bus stop is located just a few dozen meters in front of the arrivals hall. Don’t let yourself be distracted by the ubiquitous, annoying taxi drivers who will pester you at any time of day, trying to convince you that there are no buses running and spouting similar nonsense.

Bus 100
In my opinion, this is the best way to get from the airport. It goes to the city center at French Square, and the trip takes about 30 minutes. From 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., it runs every 30 minutes; from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., it runs once an hour. A big advantage is that you can pay with a foreign card. A one-way trip costs 500 AMD.

Bus 201
It also runs to the city center, but only between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., with buses departing every 30 minutes. Payment is accepted in cash only, and the fare is 300 AMD.

Public Transport in the City
There have recently been changes to the ticket purchasing system in Yerevan. You can no longer buy regular paper tickets for standard public transit routes. As a tourist, you must first purchase a travel card from an orange Telcell machine for 500 AMD—this price already includes one single-ride ticket. You can then top up the card as needed.

A single ride costs 150 AMD and is valid for a limited period of three days after purchase. One-day and multi-day passes are also available, but they aren’t worth it unless you plan to take several rides a day. There are plenty of Telcell vending machines in the city. For my first purchase, I used the machine at a metro station, which is convenient if you need assistance—there’s usually staff on hand to help you. One employee was happy to assist me with purchasing the travel card and reloading it.

To top up your card, select the “replenish card” option on the machine’s screen and enter your phone number. This is where I ran into the only snag—the employee helped me without even asking for my number. I later realized that you can enter any random phone number at this step; it doesn’t matter at all. Then you insert your travel card, select the type of ticket you want to top up, and pay—either by card or in cash. Some machines only accept cash, but there’s usually at least one machine in each metro station that accepts cards.

One important thing to keep in mind is that public transportation in Yerevan does not have fixed schedules. The best way to find your way around and check the departure times of individual public transportation routes is to use the Yandex Maps mobile app, which you can easily download from Google Play, for example.

One more thing that confused me at first: I assumed that since you can pay for public transportation from the airport directly with a foreign credit card, the same would apply to city public transportation. However, that’s not the case—you can only pay by credit or debit card on the aforementioned Airport Bus No. 100.

A video from my visit to Yerevan