◆ Country guide · North Africa

Top 10s across Algeria

The largest country in Africa, and almost all of it is Sahara. The 1,600 kilometres of Mediterranean coast at the top carry the cities, the Roman ruins and the vineyards, and the desert behind them holds rock art older than the pyramids.

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AllAlgiers & the central coastThe east & KabylieOran & the westThe Sahara

By Wimup Editorial Updated August 2026 12 min read

Best months

Apr · May · Oct · Nov

Ideal length

10–14 days

Budget / day

$45–95

Language

Arabic & Tamazight

Getting around

Domestic flights & trains

Region ▾Theme ▾Budget ▾Best month ▾Trip length ▾ 3 guides

Grid Map

Quick answer · where to go in Algeria

Algiers is where every route starts, and three nights covers the Casbah, the Bardo and the Musée national des Beaux-Arts, plus an afternoon at Tipasa, the Roman seaside city an hour west. From there the country splits three ways. East along the coast to Béjaïa and the Kabylie mountains, then inland to Constantine, the city built across a gorge, with the Roman streets of Djémila and Timgad within reach and Annaba beyond them. West to Oran for the raï bars, the Spanish forts and the beaches, and on to Tlemcen for the Andalusian mosques. South is the other trip entirely: Ghardaïa and the M'zab valley at the edge of the plateau, then Timimoun, Djanet and Tamanrasset, which are flights rather than drives and are travelled with a licensed agency. April, May, October and November suit the north. The Sahara is a winter destination.

All regions Algiers & the central coast The east & Kabylie Oran & the west The Sahara

Jump to City guides Fun fact Stereotypes Famous Algerians Food FAQ

3 Algeria city guides

Sorted by what travelers are saving this month.

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Algeria became the largest country in Africa in 2011, when South Sudan's independence split Sudan in two. At 2,381,741 square kilometres it is also the tenth largest in the world, and roughly four fifths of it is desert.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to fit in.

"Algeria is closed to visitors"

The realityIt is bureaucratic, not closed. The visa is a consular application with real paperwork and a wait of weeks, which puts most people off, and that is the whole barrier. On the far side of it are Roman cities you will have to yourself and a tourism industry small enough to still be genuinely pleased you came.

"It is all sand"

The realityFour fifths of it is desert and the other fifth holds almost everyone. The north is Mediterranean: vineyards, pine and cork forests, ski slopes above Blida and a coastline that runs 1,600 kilometres. The Sahara itself is mostly rock, not dune, and the Hoggar is volcanic mountains rising past 2,900 metres.

"Nothing Roman survives outside Italy and Tunisia"

The realityTimgad is a complete Roman colonial town on a grid, laid out for Trajan's veterans and abandoned early enough to stay legible. Djémila sits in the hills with its forum and arch intact, and Tipasa runs Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine ruins along the sea. Three of Algeria's seven UNESCO sites are Roman.

"Everyone speaks French, so language is no problem"

The realityFrench will get you a long way and it is not the country's language. Arabic and Tamazight are the official pair, darja is what people actually speak, and Kabyle is the first language of the mountains east of Algiers. A few words of any of them changes the temperature of an encounter.

"You can see the Sahara on a day trip"

The realityGhardaïa is a domestic flight from Algiers and Djanet is nearly 2,000 kilometres south of the capital. The desert is a separate leg of the trip with its own season, its own operator and its own aircraft, and treating it as an add-on is how people end up seeing an airport.

A coffee ordered and then nursed for an hourSelecto in a glass bottleFriday couscous, at home, at lunchtimeA shared taxi that leaves when the last seat fillsFootball arguments about 1982 and about Madjer's backheelMint tea poured from a height in the southSomeone insisting on paying for you

Cultural notes that actually help

Hospitality is treated as an obligation rather than a gesture. An invitation to eat is meant, and refusing outright reads as a rebuff, so accept and eat lightly if you must.
Friday and Saturday are the weekend. Friday lunch belongs to family and couscous, and the working week runs Sunday to Thursday.
Cash runs the country. Carry small notes, because change for a large one is a genuine problem in a café or a taxi.
Ask before photographing people, and skip it entirely around government buildings, ports, airports and military sites.
Dress is relaxed in central Algiers and Oran and more conservative in smaller towns and in the south. Covered shoulders and knees keep every door open, and mosques ask for the same.
Alcohol is legal and low-key. It is sold in licensed shops and served in some hotels and restaurants, and it is not part of an ordinary meal out.
Greetings take time. Handshakes, a question about the family and a second question about your journey come before business, and cutting to the point reads as brusque.

Famous Algerian faces

The names behind Algeria's history, letters, music, cinema, sport and art. Pick a field.

Emir Abdelkader

Scholar and commander who led the resistance to the French conquest from 1832 and built a state to fight it, then sheltered thousands of Christians during the Damascus riots of 1860

Saint Augustine

Born at Thagaste, modern Souk Ahras, in 354 and bishop of Hippo Regius, now Annaba. The Confessions and The City of God were written on this coast

Albert Camus

Born at Mondovi, now Dréan, in 1913 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957. The Outsider and The Plague are both set in Algeria

Assia Djebar

Novelist and film-maker elected to the Académie française in 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to take a seat there

Zinedine Zidane

Born in Marseille to a Kabyle family from Aguemoune. Won the 1998 World Cup for France and later coached Real Madrid to three straight Champions League titles

Khaled

From Oran, and the singer who carried raï out of Algeria. Didi in 1992 was the first Arabic-language single to chart across Europe

Yves Saint Laurent

Born in Oran in 1936. Took over Dior at twenty-one and then built the house that put women into the trouser suit

Riyad Mahrez

Winger who captained Algeria to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations title and was the Premier League's player of the year in 2016

Massinissa

First king of a united Numidia in the second century BC, and the ruler who turned a set of Berber kingdoms into a state Rome had to negotiate with

Ahmed Ben Bella

Independence leader and the first president of the Algerian republic, from 1963 until he was deposed in 1965

Djamila Bouhired

FLN militant of the Battle of Algiers, sentenced to death in 1957 and reprieved after an international campaign. Still a national figure

Houari Boumédiène

Ruled from 1965 until his death in 1978, nationalised the oil and gas industry and made Algiers a capital of the non-aligned world

Kateb Yacine

Wrote Nedjma in 1956, the novel that broke Algerian literature open, and later abandoned French to write theatre in darja

Mohammed Dib

From Tlemcen, and the most prolific of the founding generation. His Algeria trilogy opened with La Grande Maison in 1952

Yasmina Khadra

Pen name of Mohammed Moulessehoul, an army officer who wrote under his wife's names to escape military censorship and kept the name afterwards

Jacques Derrida

Born at El Biar above Algiers in 1930. The philosopher behind deconstruction, and one of the most cited thinkers of the twentieth century

Cheikha Rimitti

The mother of raï. Sang from the 1940s about drink, desire and hard luck, was banned from the radio for it, and recorded into her eighties

Idir

A Vava Inouva in 1976 took a Kabyle lullaby around the world and made Berber song an international proposition

Warda Al-Jazairia

Born in Paris to an Algerian father, and one of the great voices of Arabic song across five decades in Cairo and Algiers

Rachid Taha

Fronted Carte de Séjour, then went solo. His Ya Rayah turned an exile's lament into the song played at every North African wedding

Souad Massi

Singer and songwriter from Algiers whose Raoui in 2001 set Algerian folk against acoustic guitar and found an audience well beyond it

Merzak Allouache

Director of Omar Gatlato in 1976 and Bab El-Oued City in 1994, the two films that put ordinary Algiers on screen

Rachid Bouchareb

Made Days of Glory in 2006 about the North African soldiers who fought for France, and its cast shared the acting prize at Cannes

Isabelle Adjani

French actor with an Algerian father from the Constantine region, and the only performer to have won five César awards for best actress

Hassiba Boulmerka

World champion over 1500 metres in 1991 and Olympic champion in Barcelona in 1992, Algeria's first gold, won under death threats at home

Noureddine Morceli

Three world titles over 1500 metres and Olympic gold in Atlanta in 1996, with world records that stood for years

Taoufik Makhloufi

Won the 1500 metres at London 2012 and took two silvers at Rio four years later

Rabah Madjer

Scored the backheel that won Porto the 1987 European Cup, and played in the Algeria side that beat West Germany at the 1982 World Cup

Baya

Painter, born Fatma Haddad in 1931, who exhibited in Paris at sixteen and whose gouaches caught the attention of Picasso and Breton

Mohammed Racim

Revived the art of the miniature in Algeria in the twentieth century and built a school of painters around it

M'hamed Issiakhem

Painter of the war generation and one of the founders of modern Algerian art, whose work carries the injuries of the period it came from

Must-try Algerian food

The classics first, then what each region cooks. Pick a category.

Couscous

The national plate and the Friday one: steamed semolina under lamb or chicken with chickpeas, carrot, turnip and courgette, and a ladle of the broth poured over at the table.

Chorba frik

Lamb and tomato soup thickened with frik, the green wheat harvested young and roasted. The first thing on the table when the fast breaks in Ramadan.

Rechta

Algiers in a bowl: hand-cut flat noodles steamed, then covered in a pale chicken and turnip sauce scented with cinnamon. A celebration dish rather than a weeknight one.

Dolma

Courgettes, potatoes and peppers hollowed out, stuffed with minced meat and simmered in a white sauce. The Ottoman inheritance, still cooked weekly.

Tajine zitoune

Nothing to do with the Moroccan pot. Chicken or meatballs stewed with olives and mushrooms in a lemon and cinnamon sauce, and a fixture at family lunches.

Bourek

Cigars of thin pastry rolled around minced meat, cheese or tuna and fried until they shatter. Sold by the tray in Ramadan and by the piece the rest of the year.

Mhadjeb

Semolina flatbread folded around a cooked onion and tomato filling and griddled flat. The best thing you will eat standing on a street corner.

Chakhchoukha

From the Aurès and Biskra: rougag flatbread torn into pieces by hand and drowned in a red lamb and chickpea stew. Filling in a way that ends the day's plans.

Karantika

Oran's own: chickpea flour baked into a soft custard, cut into slabs, dusted with cumin and eaten in a split baguette with harissa.

Berkoukes

Hand-rolled semolina pearls, larger than couscous, cooked into a vegetable and lamb soup. A winter dish of the high plateau.

Mechoui

Whole lamb turned slowly over embers until the skin crackles and the meat pulls apart. The centrepiece of Aïd and of any occasion worth the effort.

Deglet Nour dates

The translucent amber date of the Tolga oases near Biskra, dry rather than sticky and the one Algeria is known for abroad.

Grilled sardines

The coast's cheapest good lunch. Bought at the port in the morning, grilled over coals, and eaten with bread, salt and lemon.

Poisson au four

Whole sea bream or bass baked over sliced potatoes with olive oil, garlic and chermoula. Every seafront restaurant from Annaba to Oran has a version.

Fried calamari

Floured, fried hard and served with lemon and harissa. The starter that arrives before you have chosen anything else.

Zlabia

Coils of batter fried and steeped in syrup, orange and sticky. Boufarik's version is the one people argue for, and Ramadan is when the queues form.

Makroud

Semolina diamonds packed with date paste, fried and dipped in honey. Constantine and Biskra both claim it and both are worth believing.

Kalb el louz

Semolina and almond cake soaked in orange-blossom syrup until the middle is nearly liquid. Ramadan's dessert, sold warm from the tray.

Lham lahlou

Sweet meat, literally: lamb simmered with prunes, cinnamon and orange-blossom water and eaten as a course of its own. Stranger on paper than in the mouth.

Qahwa and mint tea

Coffee is the northern habit and the reason cafés are full at four in the afternoon. Mint tea, poured from a height, takes over as you go south.

Selecto

The apple and caramel soda from Hamoud Boualem, an Algiers house founded in 1878 that has outlasted every multinational sent to unseat it.

Algeria travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Algeria?+

Almost certainly, and you need it before you fly. There is no visa on arrival at Algiers, Oran or Constantine, and EU, UK, US, Canadian and Australian passport holders all apply at an Algerian embassy or consulate. The file usually wants confirmed accommodation or an invitation from a licensed Algerian agency, a return ticket and proof of funds, and processing takes weeks. Start it before you book anything you cannot change.

When is the best time to visit Algeria?+

April, May, October and November for the north, when the coast and the Roman sites are warm rather than hot and the rain has not settled in. For the Sahara it is the opposite calendar: November to February, when days are clear and mild and nights are properly cold. July and August are the months to avoid inland, with temperatures past 40°C and the whole coast at capacity.

How many days do you need in Algeria?+

Ten to fourteen. Three nights in Algiers with Tipasa as a day trip, then a choice: east to Constantine, Djémila and Timgad, or west to Oran and Tlemcen. Adding the Sahara means four or five days on top, because Djanet or Tamanrasset is a flight each way and the good part starts once you are out of town.

Can you travel independently in Algeria?+

In the north, yes. Trains, coaches, shared taxis and hire cars all work between the coastal cities, and the Roman sites are ordinary day trips. The desert is different: the southern national parks are visited with a licensed operator and a local guide, which is how the permits, the vehicles and the fuel actually get arranged. Check your own government's travel advice on the border areas before fixing a route.

Is Algeria expensive?+

No, and cash is the reason to plan. Food, transport and museum entry are cheap by European standards, while hotels in Algiers and organised desert trips are where the money goes. Cards are barely accepted outside airline offices and larger hotels, and the dinar cannot be bought before you arrive, so work out the whole trip in notes.

Know before you go

The essentials for planning an Algeria trip, visa first.

Currency

Algerian dinar (DZD)

Algeria runs on cash. Cards are accepted at airline offices, larger hotels and some city restaurants, and almost nowhere else, so budget for notes rather than a contactless tap. Bank machines in the cities take Visa and Mastercard and dispense dinars only. The dinar is a closed currency: it cannot legally be carried in or out, which means the exchange happens after you land, not before.

Language

Arabic and Tamazight

Both are official. What people speak on the street is darja, the Algerian Arabic that borrows freely from Tamazight, French and Spanish, and Kabyle is the first language across much of the mountains east of Algiers. French is not official and is everywhere anyway: on menus, on shopfronts, in offices and in half of any given sentence. English is thinner outside the airline and tourism trade.

Calling code

+213

Local SIM cards from Mobilis, Djezzy or Ooredoo are sold on production of a passport, and coverage along the northern corridor is good. It thins in the deep south, where a licensed agency's satellite phone is the actual answer.

Power

230V, 50Hz, plug types C and F

The round two-pin sockets used across most of continental Europe. UK and US plugs need an adapter, and US devices need to handle 230 volts.

Emergency

17 police, 14 civil protection

Police on 17 and civil protection, which covers fire and ambulance, on 14. The gendarmerie answers 1055 and is the right call on rural roads and outside town limits.

Time zone

CET (UTC+1), no daylight saving

Algeria holds UTC+1 all year, so it matches Paris in winter and sits an hour behind it in summer. Sunset is early for the latitude in June, which is worth knowing when planning a desert evening.

Visa

Required in advance for most passports

There is no visa on arrival. Most nationalities, including EU, UK, US, Canadian and Australian passport holders, apply at an Algerian embassy or consulate before travelling, and a tourist file usually asks for hotel bookings or an invitation from a licensed Algerian agency, a return ticket and proof of funds. Allow weeks rather than days, and read the requirements on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs page rather than on a forum.

Getting around

Domestic flights, trains and shared taxis

Air Algérie and its subsidiary Tassili Airlines connect Algiers with Oran, Constantine, Annaba, Béjaïa and Tlemcen in the north and with Ghardaïa, Adrar, Tamanrasset and Djanet in the south. SNTF trains run the northern corridor, most usefully Algiers to Oran and Algiers to Constantine and Annaba. Coaches and shared taxis cover everything the railway misses, and a hire car makes the coast and the Roman sites easy.

Desert travel

Booked through a licensed agency

The Tassili n'Ajjer and the Hoggar are national parks reached from Djanet and Tamanrasset, and both are visited on organised trips with a licensed operator and a local guide rather than independently. Book the flight and the agency together, because the small aircraft serving the southern airports fill in the winter trekking season.

Tipping

Round up, in cash

Not obligatory and always appreciated. Round the bill up in a café, leave five to ten per cent for a good restaurant meal, and tip desert guides and drivers properly at the end of a trip. It is cash every time, since card payments barely exist.

UNESCO sites

Seven, from Roman cities to Saharan rock art

Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad was listed in 1980 and Tassili n'Ajjer in 1982. The rest are the Roman cities of Djémila, Timgad and Tipasa, the fortified villages of the M'zab valley, and the Casbah of Algiers.

Friday

The weekend is Friday and Saturday

Offices, banks and many shops close, and Friday lunch is the couscous meal families eat at home. Museums and sites keep their own hours, so check before building a Friday around one.

When to visit Algeria

Two calendars in one country: spring and autumn in the north, winter in the Sahara.

Full month guide →

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Best: April, May, October and November, warm on the coast and still workable in the south Peak: July and August, past 40°C inland and every coastal town full Good: cool and wet in the north, which is exactly when the Sahara is at its best

Algeria on Wimup Videos

City vlogs to watch before you book.

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