Algeria is a country that has been on my wish list for nearly a decade. Years ago, I went through the lists of the top destinations to visit there, diligently marking all the great places that I could see on Google Maps. Based on this, you would guess that I developed a kick-ass itinerary that scheduled all of my days and weeks to the very minute. Or that I would at least have a rough idea of what I wanted to do while I was there.
However, in true Krissi fashion, I waited until the very last minute to come up with a rough itinerary of the places that I would go and the things that I would see. I compiled this using other people’s trip reports in the Facebook group Every Passport Stamp (if you are a hardcore traveler but haven’t joined that group yet, I highly recommend it!) and by googling the best things to see in Algeria.
Disclaimer: I have to admit that Algeria felt very hard for me and I have no idea why. I don’t know if it was the constant language barrier, the lack of vegetarian food, and the fact that I couldn’t go out alone at night and had to plan my day around that, or that I’m simply tired of traveling but it was hard. Really hard. This overall feeling impacted my experience there and I would like to go back later after I have had a break from traveling for a while.
My biggest mistakes: I kind of wish I had hired a rental car and done the entire trip on my own. The major reason that I didn’t was that I was scared of doing the really long drives on my own AND I didn’t want to have to worry about police checkpoints.
My trip to Djanet was also kind of awful because I had a lecherous tour guide and a terrible travel companion. I could have handled one of those but not both together. I also didn’t really like my guide for Ghardaia to Bechar as he was very condescending.
I also wish I would have traveled with a man. It would have made many parts of the trip much easier and I probably wouldn’t have had to sit at home eating cashews for dinner so many nights.
Overall costs: I tried to pay around $25 per night for a hotel which generally got me quite comfortable accommodation with private bathrooms and good wifi. I also hired taxis to take me between cities which cost roughly $7 per hour of driving. Although there were buses that could take you between many of the cities, for me, the taxis were the better way to go in terms of time management, my long legs and my luggage.
Safety: The golden rule of Algeria is not to go out by yourself after dark as a woman. I felt completely safe during the day but had some unfortunate experiences at night.
Hotels: It is really difficult to book hotels in advance in Algeria so I mostly just showed up in places and headed to places that looked decent on Google Maps. The only exception was the airport hotel that I booked in advance because I wanted to make sure that I had some place to stay in the middle of the night. Many of the hotels also have What’s App numbers where you can make a reservation but it’s hard to figure out what the What’s App number actually is until you go there!
Visas: As an American, you can get a two-year multiple-entry visa for $160. I applied in person at the Algerian consulate in New York City and got it within a week with no issues. Alternatively, you can book a tour of the south and get a visa on arrival through your tour operator.
Visiting Algeria as a Solo Female
Although I predominately traveled by myself throughout Algeria, I did have a tour of Djanet and Ghardaia. This is necessary as there isn’t really a way to do it on your own. Below is a breakdown of how I spent my time there.
Tunis to Annaba
With a very loose itinerary in hand and an Algerian visa that I had gotten the year before in New York in my passport, I headed from Tunis to the Algerian city of Annaba. According to Google Maps, the drive time should have taken around four hours. However, thanks to my happy-go-lucky taxi driver who stopped frequently along the way and the hour-long wait at the Tunisia-Algeria border, it ended up taking us close to 8 hours. Luckily, I had decided to splurge on a private taxi for $50 rather than cram myself in the back of a shared taxi which made the long journey much more bearable.
Annaba
Needless to say, I was exhausted but exuberant when the taxi driver finally dropped me off at my hotel. I dropped my stuff in my room and decided to head out for dinner. On my way out, the old man working at reception began yelling at me in French. Since I speak zero French, I had no idea what the issue was but could hear him saying security and police over and over again. A young guy came to help translate and it turned out that the old man was concerned about my safety. I told them that I was quite used to traveling alone and that they didn’t need to worry.
Approximately five minutes later, I realized that they REALLY did need to worry. The evening streets were full of young men clumped together in groups and virtually no women. I started getting a little nervous walking around so quickly grabbed a few slices of pizza and then started making my way back to the hotel. I noticed a bar around the corner from my hotel and figured that since it was only about 6:30 p.m. that I could pop inside for a quick beer and then go home. This experience became my first and only time drinking beer in Algeria!
The next morning, I realized that my passport that I had attempted to send in Tunis had been blocked by Tunisian customs and that I would need to return to Tunis to retrieve it from FedEx prison (so long for a few weeks spent exploring Algeria!). To make a relatively long story short, I had to delay my trip to Algeria in order to go to Europe and mail my passport. I spent a large part of the day redoing my travel plans. I didn’t get to do much in the city as a result and since it was pretty cold and rainy and the fact that Annaba is actually really dangerous, I really didn’t mind. By the end of the day, I had some fairly solid travel plans starting to come together and had a taxi booked to head back to Tunis the following day.
I woke up early the next morning for one last walk in Annaba before my taxi driver came to get me. We stopped at the Roman ruins on the edge of town which were fantastic before making our way back to the Tunisian border. Although it meant that we didn’t make it to Tunis until late in the evening, it was well worth the stopover.
What I regret: Annaba felt very dodgy. This was my first stop in Algeria and I expected it to feel as safe as Tunisia. Although I should have expected it since it is a Muslim country, I was still quite surprised to see so many men lurking around all the time. Nothing bad happened while I was there but I later heard about people getting robbed there.
Constantine
After spending a week exploring the wonders of Sicily and officially finishing off the European continent with a quick stop in Andorra, I flew back to Algeria. My first port of call was the breathtaking city of Constantine. I stayed at the Ibis Hotel, located smack dab in the middle of the city which made it easy to walk to everything. Unfortunately, the first day that I was there was insanely cloudy and I wasn’t able to see anything at all! I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and used this as a good opportunity to hang out in the hotel and have a restful night because I knew that the next day was going to be a hectic one.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early-ish to go out an explore the city. Although the morning was a bit overcast, as the day went on, the skies became clearer and the city became more and more spectacular. Known for its many, many bridges, Constantine seems to be somewhat precariously perched on a series of plateaus that are divided by a deep channel. It is a truly stunning city and definitely worth visiting.
As you can probably imagine, one of the top things to do in Constantine is aimlessly wander over its many bridges to take in the incredible views so that is exactly what I did!
Djanet and the Sahara
From Constantine, I took a late night flight to Djanet. I arrived at Djanet airport very, very late at night and was greeted by my tour guide and the owner of the tour company that I was traveling with and was immediately told that it was very cold camping outside. This didn’t come as much of a surprise to me since I expected it and had already bought a winter coat, gloves, and a hat in Constantine. After leaving the airport, we immediately headed to our first camping spot for the night which was only about 20 minutes away. Although I expected to be spending the night somewhere a bit more remote, I was excited to find that I still had phone service and was able to spend a bit of time responding to messages and checking my emails before passing out for the night.
The next morning, we packaged up our campsite and began a five-day tour of the gorgeous, and incredibly diverse, Tassili N’Ajjer National Park. Each day, we would make our way through the desert, checking out amazing geographical sites and anomalies. The rapid changes that we would see were almost as awe-inspiring as the areas themselves.
We would generally stop for lunch after driving through the desert for a few hours. During this time, the cook would whip up some food. Unfortunately, he forgot to make vegetarian food a few times and I was left with only salad to eat. This always struck me as odd as I was the only person for part of the tour. During the second half, I was joined by a fellow vegetarian so it seemed that the cook prioritized making food for he, the driver, and the guide more than us. He was a really sweet guy and always apologized so I didn’t mind too much.
In the early evening, we would arrive at our campsite for the night which was always secluded from any other tourists and in a breathtaking location. We hiked up sand dunes to watch the sunset, spent the nights sitting by the fire, and slept in tents in the sand. There were no facilities of any kind and it really felt like we could disappear into the desert forever.
We eventually made our way back to the town of Djanet and spent our last day exploring the museum and the market and hanging out at the tour operator’s house where we were able to take some much, much needed showers. We were dropped off at the airport late at night for our flight to Algiers.
What I regret: Although the tour company that I went with had great reviews, my tour guide was a little bit creepy. He would tell me how beautiful I was and that he loved me frequently. I was having a lot of problems with my back and he took it upon himself to give me a really uncomfortable massage in my tent one night. It weirded me out a lot. To top it off, the random woman that I traveled with and had met through Every Passport Stamp turned out to be all kinds of awful. It made the entire trip feel really unsettling.
Algiers – Part 1
I arrived in Algiers in the middle of the night from Djanet and headed straight for a nearby airport hotel. Although I would normally not stay at the airport unless necessary, I was a bit hesitant to take a taxi into the downtown area at 5 a.m. Since I was arriving in the early, early morning, I debated on simply dropping my bags at the hotel and then heading into the city when it got light but was too exhausted. In the end, paying that extra night was well worth it. I was able to get a few hours of sleep, take a long, hot shower, and mentally prepare myself for another day of non-stop sightseeing!
My original plan was to try and squeeze everything I wanted to see in Algiers into one long day since I had never really heard anyone say anything good about it and figured that I wouldn’t need much time there. However, within a few hours of walking around there, I knew that I wanted to come back. This allowed me to wander around the city at a more leisurely pace. My first stop was the Martyers Memorial dedicated to the Algerian independence war. There is a museum inside the memorial but the lines to get in were never-ending so I decided to skip it. The views from the memorial are great though so it is definitely worth visiting.
From there, I took the funicular down to the Botanical Gardens which were lovely. It was fun walking around inside and seeing tons of families enjoying the beautiful day. The
From Algiers, I flew back to Tunis. There, I met up with my tour group for Libya when we flew to Libya.
Overlanding back into Algeria
After having a great tour in Libya, I decided to overland back into Algeria and hoped to take the Tunisian train as far west as possible and then get a taxi across the border. I headed to the train station in Tunis and asked the staff there what they thought was the best way to do it. I was promised that crossing the border at Ouled Moumen would be good as there were always plenty of taxis to take you over to Algeria.
The next morning, I got the first train to the town of Jendouba. From there, I got a taxi to the Roman ruins of Bulla Regia. These ruins didn’t look like much at first glance, the “basement” levels of the houses were extraordinary. The ruins were covered with rich mosaics that made it seem like the family who once lived there would soon step back into the room.
I could have easily spent a few more hours exploring each and every nook and cranny but I knew I had to push onwards to the border while it was still light outside. I headed back into town and went to the bus stop where I could catch the bus. I waited about 10 minutes for the bus to leave and about 15 minutes later, I found myself standing in front of Tunisian immigration.
Crossing the border took significantly longer than crossing the border further north. They saw very few tourists there and the border staff wouldn’t let me leave until they had someone who was willing to drive me across the border. Turns out, this came in the form of a man who was a known smuggler to both Tunisian and Algerian immigration. The man was very nice and although he didn’t speak any English, he tried to make me feel welcome and comfortable.
I arrived at the Algerian border and that’s when the real fun began. I ended up having to wait around for close to three hours as they tried to figure out what to do with me. One of the border guards even told me that they hadn’t seen tourists in years. Lucky me. I eventually made it across but due to my lengthy intermission there, I was not able to make it all the way to Timgad and ended up spending the night in Souk Ahras.
Souk Ahras
I arrived at Souk Ahras late in the evening and immediately checked into a hotel. Knowing that Algerian cities weren’t safe for women alone at night, I stayed inside, pitifully eating the tiny array of snacks that I had brought with me from Tunisia. The next morning, I woke up and set off to try and exchange money and top up my Algerian SIM card. This was easier said than done since it was a Friday morning and everything was closed.
Luckily, I was able to get help at the local coffee shop. This was the only place that I could find open but after asking the men inside a) where I could exchange money, b) where I could get a taxi the rest of the way to Timgad, and c) where I could add more credit on my phone, I was connected with all the right people. Unfortunately, when I went to the local corner store that eventually opened about an hour later, I ran into a police officer who then refused to leave my side until I was on my way out of town. This meant that I didn’t really get to see anything in town. I later found out that there are some great ruins nearby and some other really cool historic sites but oh well, I guess you can never see everything!
Timgad
After a few hours’ drive with the taxi driver that I hired in Souk Arhas, I arrived in Timgad. Although it would have technically been possible to visit the site and continue onwards that day, I knew that I simply couldn’t be bothered to travel that much more AND that I wanted to take my time and explore these famous ruins. I was able to check in early at the wonderful Timgad Trajan Hotel and spent a little time relaxing before heading out to explore the ruins of Timgad.
Timgad was founded in the 1st century and was a far-flung city of the Roman Empire. It’s most famous for being one of the first cities designed in the now-familiar grid pattern that you can find across the United States. The ruins are spectacular and it doesn’t take a big imagination to guess what the city must have looked like in its heyday. I ended up staying at the ruins much longer than I expected and was lucky to be there during the blue hour after sunset. I got some amazing photos and got to experience the site with very, very few other people (even by Algerian tourism standards!)
Ghoufi Canyon & Biskra
The next morning, I hired a taxi to take me to the relatively nearby city of Biskra via the beautiful Ghoufi Canyon. This was one of the highlights of my entire time in Algeria. The balconies overlooking the canyon offer sweeping views and you can pick out the stone houses of this ancient settlement. My wonderful driver accompanied me for a walk down to the bottom of the canyon and up the other side to the ruins of a hotel that was built there. The hike wasn’t very challenging and the views across the canyon were great so it was definitely worth the 30-minute or so walk it took to reach it. It was also really cool to see the ruins of the hotel themselves. There are still rooms built into the cliff face and I couldn’t help wishing it was still open today!
We arrived in Biskra in the mid-afternoon and I took a quick walk through the market before sunset and then headed out again the next morning to “see the sights”. While it was interesting to check out, there wasn’t really much there. I felt like I had seen everything in the town within a few hours so I went to bed early at the very nice and relaxing Hotel Viscera Sud. That may not have been a bad thing in the end as there was still a ton more stuff left to see in Algeria and I needed to save some energy!
Touggourt & Tamacine
From Biskra, I grabbed a taxi to Touggourt. On the way there, I began to feel much more like we were heading into the desert and soon I found the car whizzing by sand dunes. At first glance, Touggourt didn’t have a huge amount to offer visitors. Although it’s dusty and quiet, I quickly learned to enjoy this little city. There is some really unique architecture and the city center is quite enjoyable to walk around. It was one of those places that I had zero expectations of and that really surprised me with how much I liked it. I stayed at the Hotel Hammadi which was cheap and comfortable.
One really touching thing happened there as well. I was eating dessert at a little pastry shop. When I went to pay, they motioned not to worry about it. I discovered that a quiet woman standing at the high-top table behind me had paid for it! It was such a sweet thing to do and really caught me off guard.
The next morning, I hired a taxi to take me to Ghardaia where I would be starting a tour that evening. About 20 minutes outside of Touggourt, my driver asked me if I wanted to see something cool and we did a detour to the ruins of Tamacine. What a pleasant surprise! Although I had seen it on Google Maps, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was. Turns out, it’s basically the ruins of an ancient mud-brick town. Time is slowly turning the ruins into a big pile of dirt and rubble but you can still see much of the original structure. This gave a fascinating look into what the town may have looked like and what it looks like when nature takes over.
We are about two-thirds of the way to Ghardaia when my hotel called my driver to let him know that I had forgotten my passport at the hotel. Luckily, they were able to give it to a local bus driver who brought it to us at the next big town. The oopsie-daisy ended up costing us an extra hour and as a result, I got to Ghardaia later than expected. My guide met me at the bus station and took me to my hotel for the night.
Ghardaia
The next morning, I met up with my guide to explore the towns of Ghardaia. This unique area is made up of five different towns that have now all blurred together to form one large city. The area is famous for its never-ending alleyways and interesting architecture as well as the weird white wool abaya that women wear. They hold the abaya closed with their hand and always make sure to keep one eye covered. It is probably one of the most idiotic examples of hijab that I have ever seen considering that the women can barely see but I guess that’s the point. Many people have said that Ghardaia was the highlight of their trip to Algeria and although I did find it interesting, the to nd themselves just felt like old European towns and I wasn’t particularly impressed. I was also downright disgusted with the whole one-eye thing. It’s expressly forbidden to take photos of the people there but you can do a Google search and find many photos of these women and their ridiculous clothing.
Timimoun
From Ghardia, we drove to the town of Timimoun. This was way more my style. Timimoun felt like a fascinating combination of Mali and Nigeria and that was the first time that I really “felt” exactly where I was. We spent two nights in Timimoun and spent the full day touring the city and then some of the ruined mud-brick towns nearby. This was probably one of my favorite places in the south as not only was the architecture really freaking cool but it also felt much safer than the other places I had been so far.
My guide had promised me that he had the proper permits for me to travel through the area but in reality, I think he didn’t actually have them. As a result, it was a bit stressful whenever we got to a checkpoint or saw police. It was a little concerning but fortunately, we were never stopped by the police.
Beni Abbes & Taghit
From Timminoun, we made the long drive to Taghit with a very, very quick stop in Beni Abbes. Taghit is another of the highlights for many travelers and is a popular place to go for domestic tourism as well. This was the first, and only, place that I saw souvenirs for sale and it almost felt like I had a bit of culture shock suddenly! The ancient city is full of winding alleyways and mud-brick houses and is surrounded by enormous sand dunes. I had never been anywhere quite like it and could see why so many tourists flock here!
We stopped along the way to watch the sunset over the town before making our way into the city. We arrived there late in the evening so pretty much just had enough time to check into the very, very basic guesthouse and eat dinner before going to sleep. The next morning, my guide took me to a nearby oasis where we strolled between palm trees and gardens and where I even got to go kayaking! It was a nice change from sitting in the car all the time.
After visiting the oasis and some ancient rock carvings, my guide took me back to town and dumped me off in the city center, telling me to meet him back at the hotel. I wandered around for about an hour or so checking out the town and then went back to the hotel to meet him. He was smoking shisha on the roof of the guest house with some friends and after waiting for him for about an hour, he got up to take a shower and then went to take a nap. We eventually left around two hours later. I was beyond angry at this point because he had gone out with friends a few other nights as well but really just wanted the tour to end. We did a very quick tour of the town and I sat and watched the sunset from Taghit’s mud-brick walls before he drove me to the train station in Bechar where I was taking the overnight train to the coastal city of Oran.
Overnight Train to Oran
When I found out that there was an overnight train between Bechar and Oran, I was overjoyed. I adore train travel and jump at every chance to ride one. You unfortunately can’t book Algerian train tickets online and could only purchase them in-person within five days of your travel date. Unfortunately, I wasn’t close to any train stations within that window before I needed to travel so my guide had one of his friends in the city go and buy the train ticket for me.
I asked my guide if there would be blankets on the train and he told me that there would be since there was a night train. Immediately after, he said that we could also stop and buy something if I wanted. As we drove to the train station, I became a bit worried since we still hadn’t stopped anywhere and I had no food, barely enough water, and no blankets. He deposited me at the train station about an hour early and then immediately left, giving me no option to go and buy something.
Turns out, the train was very cold and I felt like the entire Sahara desert was trying to get inside. I was in a cabin with six beds and at the very top of a three-tier bunk. While this made it annoying to get in and out of bed, I was at least far away from the six million kids who were staying in my cabin with their moms.
Oran
The train ride was uncomfortable and cold but I finally made it to Oran where I proceeded to head directly to Hotel Khalid, located just a short walk from the train station. I was able to check into my hotel early in the morning and even got to enjoy the free breakfast before collapsing into bed for a few hours.
I woke up in the late morning and started exploring the city. I had a few historic places earmarked that I knew I wanted to go to and then just spent the rest of the time strolling around the city. I finished off the day with a long walk along the waterfront and had a delicious Indian dinner. The highlights of the day were definitely the cable car where you could get amazing views of the city and the old Spanish fort.
The next morning, I took a taxi to the city of Tlemcen. Located near the Moroccan border, Tlemcen is supposed to have some of the best Moorish architecture in North Africa. Unfortunately, there isn’t much of this left besides a large minaret that stands a bit outside of the city center. However, you can take a cable car up to a plateau and get some decent views of the city, including the aforementioned minaret which was pretty cool!
Safety Alert: I stopped at the local market to buy some fruit and then things got weird. As I was leaving the market, a man in a police uniform came up to me and asked what I was doing. He told me that I needed to be with a police escort at all times. I had never heard anything like this from other travelers who had visited there so I was a little bit suspicious. I also didn’t trust the fact that he was wearing a different uniform than any of the other police officers that I had seen in Algeria.
Luckily, another officer came up and asked if everything was ok. I used that as an opportunity to get away. I walked a few blocks away and tried to order a taxi to get me back to Oran. Another police officer saw me and helped me but only on the condition that my taxi driver that my driver present himself to the police when we had safely made it back to Oran. This ended up being a bit of a nightmare as we got stuck at a roundabout with some police officers who wouldn’t let me leave until we had gotten approval from someone higher up. We ended up having to wait around an hour while the issue was sorted out.
My driver took me to the restaurant I had asked him to go to (and where I told the police I was going). About halfway through my dinner, the police then came in to check on me. I am not sure what the other diners were thinking but it probably wasn’t good. I took a taxi home from the restaurant, stopping at the train station along the way to buy a train ticket for the next morning back to Algiers.
Algiers, Cherchell, and Tipaza
The train ride to Algiers seemed to take forever and I ended up getting back into the city in the early afternoon. I dropped my bags off at the Afric Hotel in the Casbah and rushed out to explore the city. I wandered through the Casbah and along the waterfront and then sadly had to rush back to the hotel for work (plus, it was a bit scary outside by myself at night).
The next morning, I got a driver to take me to the nearby towns of Cherchell and Tipaza which are home to some more great Roman ruins. I really liked the town of Cherchell which had Roman ruins scattered throughout the town. To give some reference, the town square is littered with Roman columns and men were even using the broken-off column bases as makeshift seats! There is an old Roman theater as well as an old Roman gate in town as well.
My guide/driver asked me if I wanted to go to the museum there but I told him no since I have been to a million museums already and was pressed for time. That turned out to be a huge mistake! Apparently, the museum there is amazing. Instead, we rushed to Tipaza which although has a beautiful setting right on the coast, its ruins themselves are a little less impressive and only consisted of a few streets and the ruins of some villas.
On the way back, we stopped at the Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania. This dome-like tomb is said to be the final resting place of Cleopatra and Marc Antony’s daughter. The tomb is huge and really fascinating to see. It’s hard to imagine how they even built it! It was certainly worth stopping at and was a great “final ruin” to check out before leaving Algeria.
We made it back to the city of Algiers around 3:30 p.m. which gave me enough time to see a few more things before sunset including the Church of Notre Dame of Africa and the Rais Palace. Both were interesting to see but definitely not must-dos. I was also able to spend about an hour getting lost in the Casbah, which is certainly a must-do! I strolled around the downtown area a bit more before finally heading back to the hotel for work and a much-needed night’s sleep!
The next morning, I boarded a flight to Tunis from Algiers airport. It was sad to say goodbye to this enjoyable yet exhausting country. I hope to be back soon!
