Armenia Marriott Hotel Yerevan

No hotel in Armenia can compete with this address, because the Armenia Marriott is not merely near Republic Square—it is part of it. The long pink-tuff building, raised in the 1950s as the Intourist-era Hotel Armenia, forms one entire side of Tamanyan's great oval plaza, and its arcaded facade belongs to the same architectural ensemble as the ministries and museum that complete the square. Rooms at the front look directly onto the fountains, which sing and glow through summer evenings.

Inside, the hotel is a reliable international operation rather than a showpiece: rooms are comfortable and conservatively styled, corridors are wide and the breakfast is generous. The square-view rooms are the reason to book, and worth insisting upon; garden-side rooms are quieter but surrender the spectacle. The café terrace on the square is one of Yerevan's classic meeting places, busy from morning espresso to midnight.

What the Marriott offers over its newer rivals is atmosphere and position at a sensible price. Everything central is on foot—Vernissage market, the History Museum across the square, Northern Avenue's shops—and staff are practised with tour departures to Garni, Geghard and Khor Virap. It shows its age in places, but as a base camp on the nation's front square, it remains the sentimental and practical favourite.