Envoy Hostel Armenia & Georgia represented at Gomio Conference in Israel 2012
20/11/2012
We too love to travel! So when the opportunity came to attend the Gomio Conference in Israel of course we had to go! Erik and Dan represented Envoy Hostel Armenia and Georgia held in Jerusalem. It was great to catch up with good friends of ours in the industry and also to make new friends too.
After travelling around Israel for a few days a stop over in Kiev allowed discovery of this city too! So join us below in our photo-tour of envoy hostel’s recent adventures .
We like to take this opportunity to thank our hosts in Jerusalem’ Abraham Hostel and in Kiev’ Dream House Hostel – both are excellent hostels and we highly recommend them to all our travelling friends!
We too love to travel! So when the opportunity came to attend the Gomio Conference in Israel of course we had to go! Erik and Dan represented Envoy Hostel Armenia and Georgia held in Jerusalem. It was great to catch up with good friends of ours in the industry and also to make new friends too.
After travelling around Israel for a few days a stop over in Kiev allowed discovery of this city too! So join us below in our photo-tour of envoy hostel’s recent adventures .
We like to take this opportunity to thank our hosts in Jerusalem’ Abraham Hostel and in Kiev’ Dream House Hostel – both are excellent hostels and we highly recommend them to all our travelling friends!
New Years Eve is always a special time of year. A celebration spent with close family and friends… Every culture celebrates differently but it is always a joyful event. But since our community shares the love of travel, we pose the question - what if you are travelling at that time??
Well, Envoy Tours is offering an opportunity to ‘adopt a family’ :D. You can be part of a typical Armenian family for 3 days and take part of how rural Armenia celebrate NYE and take part of all their traditions!
This is a unique experience to see life through the eyes of a local. Imagine helping and learning how to prepare traditional foods, enjoying a special dinner with ‘your’ family, visiting neighbours and friends as part of the celebrations! Being showered with Armenian hospitality will indeed be a memorable experience.
To top it off, the host family is based in Khor Virap, with a wonderful backdrop of the majetic Mt Ararat to greet you every day. The village is basic as is the accommodation but its the warmth and freindship of the host family which will leave the wonderful memories!
It doesn’t get any more authentic than this! Soooo if you are wondering how to spend NYE this year – this might be your chance to create some wonderful memories to cherish for years to come!! You'll be telling your grandkids about this!
Summer in Yerevan is delightful, but the weather can get a bit hot. Sure you can cool down in the comfort of air conditioning while staying with us, but we also suggest trying some of the following simple pleasures in life…
Fruit Smoothies
While walking around in Yerevan you will notice numerous fruit smoothie (frappe') stands. These are a real 'must try' experience! Nothing special about a fruit smoothie, bit of ice, some fresh fruit all mixed in a blender. But what does make it special is the local organic fruit - so delicious and tasty. There are many smoothie flavours to try (depending on season) - our favourites have to be berries as well as the good'ol traditional homemade lemonade - they are always refreshing on a hot summer day (and only around $1 a cup!).
By the way you can locate a particularly good smoothie stand at Sakharov Sq which is where this photo was taken.
Herbal Ice Teas
Herbal teas are big in Armenia, particularly teas like wild mountain Thyme tea. But have you tried the iced herbal tea versions? Now this is a real treat! There are a few cafe's and teahouses in central Yerevan that offer a variety of these, but the best we have had is at a place called Vistro (#1 Baghramyan St/ Cnr Mashtots Ave). Particular favourite is the purple basil ice tea - YUM!
Iced Coffee
Admittedly you can get a good iced coffee in many parts of the world... but there is something special about the iced coffee locally! Try one in any of the cafe's particularly around the Opera area and let us know what you think?
Jelly!
Jelly??!! Well, we mean the pre prepared jelly from the store - check them out at the pastry counter at any of the big supermarkets. They look so amazing decorated with different fruits - really a work of art in their own right! Go on - try one! :)
Sangria with an Armenian twist!
A delicious Spanish 'punch' brings on a new taste using the local wine. So if you are in the mood to do a bit of work, chop some fresh fruit, add a bit of soda water or flavoured soda and pour in some local red wine - try using pomegranate wine for a really special taste!
Why not get together with some other Envoy guests and try making some!
Who hasn’t heard of Tripadvisor? Its become an icon for travellers. Its where you go to find out what other fellow travellers say through reviews and forums, about places to go, see and of course stay!
Since Envoy Hostel and Tours’ inception in 2005, we have had a steady flow of traveller reviews, which we have always appreciated. All have consistently rated us as a great place to stay and would recommend us to others. This, to our delight, lead to us receiving recognition by Tripadvisor themselves! Including a Certificate of Excellence and a letter titled “Envoy Hostel and Tours is a winner”!
We want to thank our wonderful guests & Tripadvisor who have given this opportunity and recognition to us. It is indeed a privilege to receive such an award and it encourages us to stay focused in delivering excellence and making Envoy Hostel a great place to stay and Envoy Tours the best way to discover the region.
To find out what others have said about Envoy Hostel and Tours please visit these links: Yerevan & Tbilisi.
If you have stayed at Envoy Hostel and would like to leave a review you can do so using the following links:
Would you travel with children? Some people would consider it too difficult or challenging. But in fact travelling provides a fantastic learning opportunity for children to grow in many ways. They are also a delight to the people they meet, as we ourselves have experienced firsthand at Envoy Hostel.
Over the years we have had many families with children come and stay with us. Not so long ago we had the pleasure of hosting a wonderful French family, travelling with their 5 children (ages 12, 10, 8, 4 and 1). The children not only enjoyed the atmosphere of the hostel but also joined our Enlightened Armenia tour with much enthusiasm. Whether it was asking to write their names in Armenian or inquiring about the history of the churches that we visited, the kids showed that traveling with children is not only worthwhile but so much fun. They do not only learn, but teach as well. Their questions and comments can make you look at life from a different viewpoint that you otherwise wouldn’t consider.
Children of all ages benefit greatly from traveling. Travel is one of many things that parents can do for their children in order to broaden their perspective and worldview. Travel is an excellent teacher, and children learn about things they would otherwise see on TV or read about in books.
So next time, when you are planning a trip, make sure you bring your little ones with you! Traveling with kids is entertaining. They learn, they teach and together you have fun along the way…. And we will be delighted to host your families in our hostels in Yerevan and Tbilisi
International Children's day is celebrated on 1st of June in Armenia.
Held on the last Saturday of March, Earth Hour gives us the chance to do something good for our planet, even if it is just for one hour of one day.
It all started back in 2007 when more than 2,000 businesses and 2.2 million people in Australia turned out their lights for one hour to raise awareness about climate change.
This past weekend, on March 31, Envoy Hostel Yerevan delved into darkness as part of Earth Hour for the third time. The guests staying with us joined the initiative by switching off the lights in their rooms and gathering in our common room for an hour of fun in darkness.
At Envoy we love to have fun and had organized a number of events for Earth Hour 2012. During the day our guests and passers-by had the chance to take part in our “Be Green-Plant a Seed” initiative. As a result, now we have several pots and are impatiently waiting for the birth of beautiful flowers that the Envoy family planted.
We started our green night by watching a video about Earth Hour. This set the scene so that we could all have a better idea about the cause and see what global changes our small steps can lead to as every little initiative counts and we all have a responsibility to do what we can. As true “environmentally-friendly celebrities” our team members and guests went on playing celebrity heads:). The game became even more entertaining when we brought in the thermos with hot water (which had been heated before the Earth Hour). As Earth Hour traveled around the world, we had a nice chat around a table full of GREEN tea, coffee and lots of sweets:)!
But Envoy Hostel goes beyond the 60 minutes. Although we have taken many steps to be environmentally friendly we still have plans for more. For instance we have encouraged other in Yerevan to join this initiative and have already started to organise paper recycling in our new hostel’ Envoy Tbilisi. We’ve accepted the “I Will if You Will” challenge and “We will make the Earth Hour fun for you, if you join us next year”:).
It is with excitement and enthusiasm that we received our first guest at Envoy Hostel Tbilisi. “Dreams can come true, if we wish hard enough!” This was Nino’s reaction when she learned that our first guest will arrive at Envoy Tbilisi during her shift.
Yannick has become an unforgettable part of Envoy’s life and will always be a special memory for all of us.:) We still remember the time we received our first guests at our hostel in Yerevan back in 2005. So this too will equally be a cherished moment.
Though Yannick had explored the city by himself during the day, we were delighted to find out that he would like to join our first Free Walking Tour of Tbilisi. Starting the tour from Envoy Tbilisi, right in the heart of the old town, we ended up at Narikala fortress, where we were literally at the top of Tbilisi!
But great moments become even greater when there are surprises. When we arrived back at Envoy, one of our team members, Khatuna, was waiting for us with a yummy cake to celebrate the company of our special guest. We enjoyed the cake on our balcony overlooking the city, with a fascinating view of the illuminated city. What a great way of ending an amazing day! And thanks for the delicious chocolate Yannick, we enjoyed it today! :)
We look forward to many more wonderful moments together with our guests through years to come!
After taking part in the Hostelworld Conference in February and being given the “Best Hostel in Armenia” award, Envoy team members had the chance to explore ‘Dublin’s fair city’.
We started exploring the city with a Walking Tour. The tour was a good way to get to know the city for the first time. We could’ve walked around ourselves, but joining a big group of travelers and learning the stories behind every building and place that we saw was what made it absolutely unforgettable. The tour turned out to be a 3 hour Irish history lesson, delivered with a bit of Irish humour :)
We learned about Trinity College, the Trinity Ball, the Library of the College and about its most famous book (The Book of Kells). The tour also stopped at the Christchurch Cathedral and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. And of course, a tour of Dublin would have been incomplete without a visit to Dublin Castle. This was the place where we learned about the uprising against the British rule, and found out about the hidden meaning behind the 2 statues at the entrance.
What makes Dublin a special city, are its parks. Whether it is Europe’s largest urban park (Phoenix Park) where deer is grazing as if they do not care what’s going on in the city center just a couple of kilometers away, or the peaceful St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin is the city to be! Lucky for us, our hostel (The Times Hostel-Camden Place) was just a few minutes’ walk from this little green paradise.
To top it all, we ended the day in the Gravity Bar, on the top of the Guinness Storehouse. This number one tourist attraction should not be missed for the great 3600 amazing view of Dublin. All you need is some Irish luck to get nice weather and a clear panorama. The Hostelworld.com conference organizers had set it all up for us!
However, the greatest virtue of Dublin are its people, they are the ones who make Dublin a warm place. The Irish have succeeded in creating a city where sunshine is not the key to create a warm and nice atmosphere. While being in a modern cosmopolitan city, you feel like in a cozy village where people are really friendly and everybody seems to know each other. Having a nice dinner at a traditional Irish pub, accompanied by live music will not let you forget your Dublin experience so easily…
There’s a buzz in the air! We are in Dublin and although its cold outside, the excitement makes one forget about it all! It’s the Hostelworld February 2012 annual conference and HOSCAR awards ceremony. Throughout the entire day hostel staff from all around the world wait impatiently for the HOSCAR awards, arguably the most prestigious industry award for budget accommodation.
Everyone hopes to see their hostel recognised among the best. Based solely on guest reviews and being rated on six criteria (character, security, location, staff, fun and cleanliness) hostels compete under several categories, like Worldwide and Continent Winners, Most Popular Hostel, etc.
For the second year in a row Envoy was recognized a winner under the “Country Winners” category. Our team members were excited and speechless to be honored with our second HOSCAR award. The ‘Best Hostel in Armenia’ award has only been offered by Hostelworld for the past 2 years so to win this title for both years is a great encouragement to us, making us want to work harder and do even better.
And we realize that we couldn’t reach this great achievement without the support of our guests. We thank you all for your love and hope to see you back at Envoy soon!
What better way to enjoy a beautiful winter day than having a Snowball fight Championship!! Sure its a bit cold outside, but every adult who grew up with snow loves a snowball fight, no matter how young or young at heart!
Playing snowball is fun, but when played by the Envoy team, its epic! If you happen to be passing one of the central streets in Yerevan and you see us playing, dont wait for an invitation - just join in the fun!
Seeing the snow settle in front of our entrance was too much temptation for us to resist! So Envoy's team got all geared up in warm jacket, hats, scarves and gloves, to block out the cold and started up an impromptu snowball fight!
After a few rounds, it was obvious that Karine and Seda were the winners and they were rewarded with cups of hot tea. It was so much fun! Its great to appreciate the best each season brings - so what better way to enjoy the winter cold?
In fact we've had such a blast, next up might even be a Snowman making Championship! Bring it on! The Envoy Team is ready! Come, join the fun "Envoy Winter Olympic' games soon while we still have snow!!
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