Algeria Discovery Guide

Algeria holds some of the best-preserved Roman towns in North Africa precisely because so few travellers reach them: Timgad and Djemila, both UNESCO sites, Tipasa's ruins on the Mediterranean shore, and the Kasbah of Algiers above the sea. Further south lie the fortified M'Zab settlements and the rock art of Tassili n'Ajjer.

The main travel issue

It is heat and distance. Summer is hot across the country and extreme in the Sahara, where days regularly pass 40°C. The rail network linking Algiers, Oran and Constantine is slower and less frequent than in neighbouring countries, which leaves long-distance buses as the usual way between cities.

The solution

Come in spring or autumn, when both the northern cities and the desert are comfortable, base on the northern rail corridor for the Roman sites, and treat the deep Sahara as a separate, organised trip rather than an add-on. The one geographic limit is the frontier: the British advisory rules out everything within 30km of the borders with Libya, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, and restricts a 30km strip along the Tunisian border. No city or Roman site is inside any of it.

• North Central Algeria
• Northeast Algeria
• Northern Sahara Mountains
• Northwest Algeria
• Saharan Algeria

If you travel slowly: the Roman cities of the north — Timgad, Djemila, Tipaza — reward unhurried visits and are extraordinarily uncrowded for sites of their quality.

If you want the essentials: Algiers for the Casbah and the colonial city, one Roman site, and if time and permits allow, the Sahara around Djanet or Tamanrasset.

If you’re after local character: drink coffee in a Casbah café, eat in a family restaurant rather than a hotel, and visit Kabylie, where Amazigh culture is strongest and hospitality is close to obligatory.

If you want to go past the obvious: the Tassili n’Ajjer rock art — thousands of paintings recording a green Sahara with cattle and elephants — is one of the great prehistoric sites anywhere, and receives almost no visitors.

Algeria is the least visited major Mediterranean country, and its character is formed by an Amazigh substrate, an Arab-Islamic identity and an unresolved relationship with France.

Amazigh recognition, recently won

Tamazight’s official status came in 2016 after decades of activism. In Kabylie the language is everywhere, and the Amazigh new year is now a national holiday.

Roman cities almost to yourself

Timgad and Djemila are UNESCO sites of the first rank, better preserved than most in Europe, and visited by a handful of people at a time.

The Casbah of Algiers

A dense Ottoman-era quarter, UNESCO-listed, partly crumbling and the subject of long-running restoration debates. It is lived in.

Memory of the war

The independence war and the 1990s conflict are both present in public memory and in family history, and neither is small talk.

Algeria remains a conservative Muslim country, and dressing modestly -- covering shoulders and knees, particularly outside major cities -- is generally expected of visitors, regardless of stated policy.

Photographing government buildings, military installations, and police or soldiers is prohibited and taken seriously -- when in doubt, especially near official buildings or in the south near sensitive border regions, it's best not to raise a camera at all.

Tourism infrastructure in Algeria is still limited compared to neighboring Morocco and Tunisia -- travelers who use local guides and licensed tour operators, particularly for Saharan travel, support an industry that's still rebuilding after decades of low visitor numbers.

The M'Zab Valley's Ibadi Muslim communities maintain distinct customs from the rest of the country, including restrictions on entering certain areas of their towns -- respecting posted boundaries and local guidance matters more here than in most of Algeria.

Algeria's size means its seasons vary enormously between the Mediterranean north and the Sahara in the south.

Spring (March-May) and fall (September-November) are the best times to visit most of the country, with comfortable temperatures in both the northern cities and the desert regions.

Summer (June-August) is hot across the country and extreme in the Sahara, where daytime temperatures regularly exceed 40°C (104°F) -- the north's Mediterranean coast is more tolerable and is when most Algerians themselves travel domestically.

Winter (December-February) is mild and pleasant in the north, but can bring genuinely cold nights in the Sahara and the Atlas mountain regions, where temperatures can drop below freezing after dark despite warm days.

Algeria is inexpensive by the standards of the Mediterranean, and for an unusual reason: very little of its economy is organised around visitors, so prices are the prices locals pay rather than a tourist tier layered on top. The saving is real and the trade-off is that the infrastructure a visitor relies on elsewhere -- booking systems, English-language service, card payment -- is thin.

The costs that dominate a budget are transport and organisation rather than accommodation or food. Northern travel by train or bus is cheap; a Saharan trip is not, because it is bought as an organised expedition with a vehicle, a driver and permits rather than as a journey. That single decision is usually the difference between a modest budget and a large one.

Carry cash. Cards are of limited use outside the main hotels, and cash above 5,000 euros or the equivalent must be declared at entry and exit.

Year-round relative cost index vs country average

Lowest — Northeast Algeria, Northwest Algeria. Lower — North Central Algeria. Average — Northern Sahara Mountains. Higher — Saharan Algeria.