So as a UK national, like most nationalities wishing to visit Algeria, I needed a visa. The visa requirements for Algeria are notoriously strict; you need to apply from the consulate in your own country, pay quite a lot, and provide a long list of information. I did all of this, and had to wait an astonishing 7 weeks to get my visa. I think I was lucky that I even got one at all and I truly sympathise with people with lower index passports who have to go through this process more frequently when trying to visit the UK or Schengen.

Anyway, this delayed my trip and thus reduced my time in Algeria, talk about shooting yourself in the foot in terms of tourist monies. I therefore had about 10 – 11 days to play with, and once I got my visa everything happened last minute. Not only this, but now my trip to Algeria was occurring over the islamic Eid holiday, where apparently tour companies don’t operate and basically everything shuts down due to people being with their families etc. I was now days away from going to Algeria without a tour and without a solid plan or accommodation (I had to cancel my previous accommodation as the visa took longer than expected and ran into my initial start of the trip).

In the end I just booked a flight from Paris to Algiers as they are cheap and regular, and thought I would take the first day to plan and ask around how to do things, and surprisingly this worked pretty well! I took the bus from London to Paris (highly recommended btw!), and while I was in Paris I got out about €900 in cash, as I heard that ATMs in Algeria don’t work. I also had about US$500 on me, and hoped that this would be enough, and incredibly it just about was. I didn’t want to get much more as I didn’t like the idea of carrying around thousands of Euros in Paris. So, my flight day came, I was asked for my visa at the airport, and I was free to explore Algeria!

ATMs indeed, mostly, do not work with foreign cards in Algeria, and good luck if you need dollars or euros. I did manage to find a few ATM which worked, one of which was located in the lobby of Hotel Hydra, but the maximum withdrawal was 10,000 dinar ($75) and it charged a 1,000 dinar fee each time. Now remember, the official conversion rate is very different to the black market rate in Algeria. For euros (the currency most people prefer), the bank rate is 1 = 144 (at time of writing this), but the black market rate is 1 = 240. This is an insane difference, and you get really screwed if you have Algerian dinar and need to pay for a tour, as most tour companies take cash in euros, or dinar at the black market rate, which I learned the hard way. 

I got a SIM card on day one which was luckily easy enough and you need your passport. However, for that entire first week that I was in Algeria, the internet shut off in the entire country due to high school exams for the exam duration (between 8am and 5pm). People were telling me this as if it was normal, and that there are no other ways of stopping students from cheating. This, on day 1, gave me quite an insight into how Algeria works (or doesn’t work). As you can imagine this was quite the inconvenience.

Days 1 – 3 / Arrival & Algiers

I was a bit worried about not having accommodation or a tour booked for the entirety of my trip in Algeria, although I had some itineraries from tour companies sent via email but I had not accepted any of them yet, plus I had a place to stay in Hydra for the first night while I got my bearings. Upon arriving into Algiers, they didn’t ask me a single question, albeit they took absolutely ages with my passport – almost longer than it took to get into Libya, and I had a visa in it! Anyway I got into arrivals, changed some of my euros straight away and got a taxi to Hydra from the airport taxi stand. Taxis here usually charge about 2000 dinars to downtown or Hydra but you can get them for 1000 and even less on the YASSIR app. I was charged 3000 for my first trip as I didn’t know, classic.

I stayed in the Sidi Yahia Hotel in Hydra which was excellent but very expensive for one person, about £90 a night. I spent the next day finding another place to stay and planning the rest of my trip. I managed to arrange a trip to Djanet in the deep Sahara (I was deciding between this or Timimoun/Ghardaia), but I hear the best Sahara experience is from Djanet. I did this with a company called Targi Tours and they were excellent, and even worked over the first day of Eid! I wrote a review for these guys on Tripadvisor with some nice piccies which I linked below!

My Tripadvisor Targi Tours Review

Hydra is a great place to relax although there is nothing particular to see there as it is mostly full of upper end housing and cafes and embassies. I moved to the Hydra Hotel which I really don’t recommend, it was quite unfriendly, dark and with dirty bedding. The breakfast was really not fresh and this all still cost £50 a night. 

For my second day in Algiers I headed straight to the Casbah area and stayed in the Hotel Afric, which I heard bad things from but I actually enjoyed it there. The staff were so nice and friendly, the building itself is super charming and stylish with its nice spiral staircase with empty lift space in the middle, and even a nice rooftop terrace view! The location is quite chaotic I admit, but it is fine for 1 – 2 nights and you can walk to all the central old Algiers sights like the Casbah, and it is right on a metro stop to get to Martyrs Square.

While heading to the Casbah I stopped at Martyrs’ Square and was approached by a young local, Tommy, who speaks great English and offers private tours around the Casbah and Algiers in general, so I accepted! Tommy was great and ran me around the whole labyrinth that was the Casbah steps and alleyways, where we saw live music and rooftop views.

We then took the metro to the Martyrs monument where he showed me around the museum inside. Tommy and his friend run these tours frequently via their instagram account casbah.tours16 if you want to check them out. He said it was free and he wanted to help foreigners and practice English, but I gave him around US$25 for the roughly 2-3 hour tour. I was being very conscious with my money due to the ATM situation.

I booked a last-minute day tour for the following day with Fancyellow Tours to Cherchell, Tipaza and the Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania, which is quite a standard day tour. This cost €120, but was worth every cent!

Day 4 / Cherchell, Tipaza & Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania

I booked a day tour to the ancient Roman cities in Cherchell and Tipaza, as well as the Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania with Fancyellow Tours Algeria. This tour was great and I totally recommend it. We had a driver and a guide who were both great and friendly and spoke English. I wouldn’t miss these places either as they are proper beautiful and make a nice change from Algiers. Cherchell is such a nice town with a great museum and random amphitheatre in the middle, apparently only guarded by the janitor who lives there and calls the amphitheatre his garden.

Tipaza is an amazing Roman city complex surrounded by a lush forest yet with a turquoise mediterranean sea backdrop. Perhaps my favourite, however, was the mausoleum, which is incredibly striking and unique with its solid block construction and secret inner passageway. Built for Cleopatra’s daughter by Juba II, this amazing unmissable structure really brings ancient Egyptian history to Algeria.

Once we got back to the hotel I went to pay for the tour in Algerian dinar, as I needed all of my euros for the Djanet tour which I booked, and unfortunately the company either only accept euros or dinar in the black market rate (which I did not get my dinar for in the first place). Luckily they accept payment online so I was able to do that, even after I left the tour and was in my hotel. Please enjoy some of the best kept artefacts from antiquity below from the Archaeological Museum of Cherchell.

Days 5 – 8 / Djanet

I booked a 4 night tour in Djanet due to time limitations and the flights to and from Algiers (there are daily flights but they do sell out within days of departure usually). I mostly wrote about this in my Tripadvisor review so I won’t repeat myself here, but it was an incredible once in a lifetime kind of experience. It was harsh and challenging, but very rewarding and out of this world. Some of the landscapes were unbelievable, and then you add the sunsets and night sky.

It was quite a mindful experience as I was essentially on my own with the 3 local Tuareg people, only one of whom spoke English, so you have a lot of time to think and calm your mind, while joining in their lifestyle. Hugely recommended and Targi Tours were brilliant and responsive, and I even got to celebrate the first day of Eid with Selim’s family at the end of the tour.

This tour cost €810 in cash, as they do not have the possibility to accept foreign currency online yet apparently. I’m not sure how good this price is but Fancyellow were quoting around €650 but they did not work during Eid, and I also heard of tours costing more than this so I am unsure. Either way, it was of course worth it for such a unique experience, especially if you are travelling all the way to Algeria.

I got a late night flight to Algiers from Djanet, which departed almost an hour early so make sure you get to the airport with plenty of time! Selim from Targi Tours seemed to know everyone at the airport so everything was a breeze. I then stayed in Algiers airport through the early hours to catch a 7am flight to Constantine – desperate times.

Day 9 / Constantine

So after 4 nights in the Sahara without a shower I made it to Constantine quite battered, luckily the Novotel checked me in immediately at around 9am which was nice. I took a much needed freshening up, slept, met up with Raoul and hit the city of bridges! Constantine is well worth the trip, such a nice city set on cliffsides with really nice old and new styled bridges everywhere. It was now the second day of Eid which was actually a great day to stroll the streets as we had them all to ourselves!

We then asked reception to book us a taxi to take us to the Archaeological site of Timgad for the next day, which cost a total of 8,000 dinar (around $40 black market rates).

Day 10 / Timgad

Timgad is amazing and also a fairly small complex so it is easily doable within the day. It is about 2 hours from Constantine, and took us about 2 hours strolling around to see well. So a total of a 6 hour day there and back was well worth it! The site itself has many ruins condensed into a small space in a grid system, plus the lovely arch standing above the rest makes it quite a unique city to visit, make sure not to miss especially if you are into history! After Timgad we flew back to Algiers.

Day 11 / Algiers & Departure

We arrived back to Algiers for one final night, where we stayed in the ABC hotel, which is actually in a great location – not too far from the downtown area with the Casbah but avoid the chaos of that area. I basically caught up on sleep before our early afternoon flight the next morning, and that concludes my time in Algeria!

Final Thoughts

I will start with the obvious; while the people of Algeria are super friendly, it is clearly far away from appearing tourist friendly and I can see why this puts many people off of coming here. The ATM and money situation in general is a nightmare, the visa rules (even for France) seem unnecessarily strict still and the infrastructure is difficult if you don’t want to fly everywhere (I couldn’t book a train on the website and tour companies didn’t help with it, I wouldn’t recommend buses for the long journeys). Every domestic flight I was told to step aside and fill in a form because I was a foreigner and I was always asked by security which day I came to Algeria and what I am doing etc. In Djanet I was taken aside by security as soon as I got off the plane and asked to provide the phone number of the tour company there, luckily I had it on my phone as it was internet blackout time due to the exams. All of these things do not make you feel welcome at all, but of course the people are not the government, and most people were great with me and welcoming and helpful!

I heard many times even from locals that foreigners are highly tracked while in the country, even as far as being followed by plain-clothed police. I didn’t notice anything, but I can totally imagine this being true with all of the forms and questions and visa processing time. That being said, I was able to plan an itinerary as I went and see the amazing things that I wanted to see in Algeria with no real problems! And if you do run out of cash and think you are screwed, you can always transfer people euros online and they will give you good rates in cash, which is apparently also quote common!

The biggest country in Africa definitely has a lot to offer and I am so glad that I went – I just hope for the locals sake that they make the country a little bit more foreigner friendly.