At the departure gate for the inaugural service from Luton to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, Wizz Air staff are distributing pieces of nazook, a spiral-patterned Armenian pastry.The red, blue and apricot-coloured Armenian flag has been draped by the passport scanner and there’s a buzz of anticipation about what will be Britain’s only direct flight to this south Caucasus nation. Rather than eight hours via a connection costing about £500, the new service is half the price and just five hours 25 minutes.The Armenian diaspora in the departure lounge is delighted. This is a big deal. Once we have boarded, Varuzhan Nersesyan, the UK’s Armenian ambassador no less, is on hand to address passengers. ‘I am so happy this flight is happening,’ he says. ‘Armenia is diverse [with] leisure, culture and good food,’ he adds, before mentioning that Winston Churchill enjoyed Armenian brandy, seemingly to demonstrate historic Anglo-Armenian closeness.The 217 passengers (there’s a 239 capacity on this Airbus A321neo) give a round of applause. Daily Mail travel writer Tom Chesshyre recently boarded Wizz Air’s new £250 direct flight to Armenia, Britain’s only non-stop connection to the South Caucasus Pictured: Ruins of the Temple of Zvartnots with the Mount Ararat, Yerevan, Armenia Pictured: A woman chooses a bag with a traditional Armenian pattern at the Vernissage souvenir flea market in YerevanLow-cost airlines revolutionised how we travelled in the 1990s, when Easyjet and Ryanair took on the big-boy national carriers. Each year this revolution rolls on. Round trips to Armenia – population 2.9 million and roughly the size of Belgium – are from £250, about 18p a mile. Is this 2026’s most exciting new budget route?The answer is a resounding ‘yes’, as I find on a four-day stay in the country. No visa is required, and it’s safe provided that you do not stray within three miles of its Azerbaijan border, where tensions exist, says the Foreign Office. There are ongoing issues over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.Roughly half of Armenia’s population resides far away from these potential flare-up zones, in Yerevan (3,000ft above sea level), which has a cosmopolitan feel, especially in the tangle of streets emanating from its central Republic Square. This was formerly Lenin Square, until Armenia broke free from Soviet control in 1991.Now, musical fountain shows are put on each evening from 9pm, close to a stylish Marriott hotel in a striking pink-stoned building with archways and colonnades, originally opened in 1958 as a Soviet Intourist hotel. Around the corner is the swish new mirrored-glass Movenpick hotel (where I’m staying), while on Abovyan Street off Republic Square you come to the super-slick, five-star Alexander Hotel.All around are Swarovski, Emporio Armani and Hugo Boss shops, while Rolls-Royces, Mercs and Jags purr along narrow streets with alluring wine bars and restaurants.Some are fitted out in glammed-up, 1970s Soviet-era style. At one of these, Sirelis, I tuck in to slices of beetroot, houmous, tender chicken and lavash (a thin flatbread) while a band plays jazzy numbers.Fashionable, almost always neatly bearded, men in crisp designer shirts liaise with glamorous women in flowery dresses, mini-skirts and high heels. In Yerevan, Tom dines among fashionable men in crisp designer shirts and glamorous women in flowery dresses and high heels in the city’s 1970s Soviet-style bars and restuarants The Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Yerevan is currently the largest cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the world Yerevan is an affordable city to visit, with glasses of local wine costing £4, while a main course is around £8The ambience is both vibrant and chic. And the city is cheap. The cost of a glass of local wine is £4, while a main course is around £8, although at less upmarket spots the prices can be half this.Things have clearly moved on since hardships under the likes of Stalin and Brezhnev. Wealth comes from a strong IT industry, sales of brandy/wine as well as cash that has been gifted from the ten-million-strong Armenian diaspora (many in America), which has helped to fund hotel and modern apartment projects.Art installations at the extraordinary Cascade complex, which dates from 1920 during the influence of Yerevan’s important town planner Alexander Tamanian, are the result of funding from the philanthropic Armenian American Gerard Cafesjian. Great fountains flow, there’s a brilliant small sculpture park and escalators whisk you to terraces with lovely views of the snow-capped Mount Ararat’s twin peaks.This is a symbol of Armenia, featuring on the national coat of arms despite being in neighbouring Turkey (thanks to a long-ago deal between Vladimir Lenin and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk). The higher peak of Mount Ararat (16,854ft) is where Noah is said to have landed his ark.This is a country with many stories and legends. At the History Museum of Armenia the centuries are laid bare, from Neolithic and Bronze ages through to many outside influences from Alexander the Great to the Romans, Persians and Ottomans. Many bloody battles have been fought in Armenia, being at Christianity and Islam’s frontier – the nation borders Iran, for 27 miles, in the south.The museum’s section on the Armenian genocide under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is shocking. Between 600,000 to 1.5 million people are believed to have died. This is one of the reasons why the Armenian diaspora is so large, as many fled the slaughter.On my visit I venture beyond Yerevan on several eye-opening exploration trips in the company of Roseanna, a knowledgeable local guide.The first is to the beautiful monastery at Khor Virap, reached via a highway tracing the Silk Road to China and where you get the best look at Mount Ararat. It is here that Gregory the Illuminator was held prisoner for 13 years before being released and converting Armenia to Christianity from Zoroastrianism in 301AD. Armenia is the world’s longest-serving Christian state. Pictured: The 14th-century Surp Astvatsatsin Church in Areni Pictured: Traditional breadmaker rolling lavash bread before placing into clay oven to bake, (smaller bread is bokon) in YerevanWe travel south to the wine-producing settlement of Areni, where at the Areni-1 cave, location of the world’s oldest winery from 6,100 years ago, you can see where grapes were squashed and stored in vats.This cave was also where the world’s most ancient shoe was discovered, a 5,500-year-old crumpled leathery object in remarkably good condition.Near Areni, home to many top-class modern-day wineries, we stop at the 13th century Noravank monastery, on a mountainside at 5,000ft. Pink-stone cliffs rise. Incense hangs in the hot, dry air. It’s a soul-calming setting.On another day we go to Zvartnots Cathedral, dating from 652AD and in partial ruins. It’s a tranquil spot. Roseanna and I admire the Armenian Ionic columns and pluck sweet mulberries and cherries from trees beside the crumbling stones.It is not far from Zvartnots to the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, home of the Armenian Apostolic Church and where its Catholicos (head of the Church) sits – on a grand throne in the high-ceilinged cathedral, when he is in attendance. Bearded monks in black robes intone a liturgy, after which we enter a chamber with relics billed as being the right hand of St Bartholomew, a piece of Noah’s Ark and the holy lance of Geghard, used in the killing of Christ.A church guide says this is the ‘first Christian cathedral in the world’, built by Gregory the Illuminator in its original form in 303AD.Further excursions include a visit to a beguiling 9th-century monastery above Lake Sevan. Then we stop at the 1st century Hellenistic pagan temple at Garni, where walnut, plum and apricot trees grow and Russian and Iranian tourists, of whom there are many, take snaps and selfies.We go to the sublime Geghard monastery, where the holy lance was kept until the 4th century.The monastery is partially comprised of caves, and in a prayer chamber above the vestry Russian tourists are singing Silent Night, the sound reverberating amid ancient walls. Pictured: Noravank Monastery (S. Astvatsatsin, Surb Karapet Churchs) in Armenia Pictured: Armenian traditional pastry nazook, coffee and pumpkin dessert for breakfastWe return to Yerevan. The capital makes a great base for these jaunts – and it’s superb value.One night I eat dinner at the wonderful, old-fashioned Dolmama restaurant, where King Charles dined in 2013 and other guests have included Kim Kardashian (of Armenian descent), George and Amal Clooney, Michael Caine and Nicolas Sarkozy. An enormous beef stew with quince, plum sauce, sweet peppers and lavash, plus wine, comes to a reasonable £30.I attend the Armenian National Opera for a heart-moving performance of Madama Butterfly in a vast gilded space illuminated by chandeliers. Ticket price? £9. Glasses of bubbly during the intervals? £2.I go to the Vernissage market, where Soviet knick-knacks are for sale, as are chess boards (Armenians love chess) and exceptional carpets, from about £300 for a decent one (for a more expensive one, the place to go is Megerian Carpet Cultural Complex, on the outskirts of town).Armenia has stepped on to the tourist map, thanks to Wizz Air. On my return flight I come across yet another ambassador: Alex Cole, the UK’s local representative, in the queue when boarding. She’s delighted about the new service. ‘It’s going to make my life a whole lot easier,’ she says.One of the most interesting spots you could possibly visit on a budget airline has just opened up. Time to whizz off to Armenia.Tom Chesshyre is the author of How Low Can You Go: Round Europe for 1p Each Way (Plus Tax).