Yerevan rolled out a colour-zone parking system at the start of 2024, and most central streets are now paid by app or meter. If you've picked up a rental in Yerevan and you're heading into the centre, here's how to park without paying twice — once to the city, once to a stranger with cardboard boxes.

The colour zones

Look at the kerb line, not the sign.

  • Red — Zone A. Around 40 streets near Republic Square, the Cascade and Northern Avenue. 300 drams an hour, 2,000 a day, 5,000 a week.
  • Blue — Zone B. Arabkir and a few outer districts. 200 drams an hour.
  • White. Service vehicles only. Not for you.
  • Green. Electric cars only.

The first 15 minutes are free everywhere — useful for a quick stop. From 22:00 to 10:00 parking is free in every zone.

How you pay

Two apps cover most cases: Telcell and IDRAM. Both have an English option, both accept foreign Visa and Mastercard, and both let you start a session by typing the kerb-side zone code and your plate. MegaPay, Mobidram and EasyPay also work — pick whichever the partner handing you the car already has on their phone.

The metal-box meters on the kerb take cash with a small commission, usually around 200 drams. Useful when your card doesn't go through, less useful when you're digging coins out of a bag at midnight.

A guest from Vancouver last May spent half an hour walking around Republic Square looking for the kerb meter she'd seen on Google. There isn't one — she paid it on Telcell in twenty seconds at a café table.

The man with the boxes

This is the bit no one will warn you about at the desk. Sometimes a stranger in the centre will set chairs or cardboard boxes on a free kerb space and ask 200–500 drams to shift them. He has no badge, no receipt, and no permission from the city. If you pay, you've paid him — not for the parking. The legal parking on that space, if any, still has to be paid through the app.

The rule is simple. Real parking goes via app or meter. Hand cash to a passer-by once, and you'll see four of his cousins waiting around the corner the next morning.

Covered parking near the centre

The big one is the underground garage beneath Freedom Square — 600 spaces, from 200 drams an hour, paid on exit, secured, open 24/7. A second garage sits at 15A Pushkin Street. Several central hotels run their own car parks, and if you've named your hotel at booking, the address is on the contract.

Bottom line

In central Yerevan, two apps and one big garage cover almost everything. The colour on the kerb tells you the rate. Anyone asking for parking money in cash, in person, is not the parking system.