Algiers

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

Algiers climbs straight up from its bay, white apartment blocks from the French period stacked on hills above the water, and the Casbah alone climbs 118 meters from bottom to top. It's the capital of Africa's largest country and home to about 4.3 million people, and it doesn't act like a tourist city because it isn't one. The Independent's writer met one other Brit in a week in Algeria in late 2025. Algeria counted 2.2 million foreign arrivals in its record year of 2023, while the government talks about 12 million by 2030.

You'll love Algiers if you liked Marseille or Naples and wished they were less self-conscious, if you care about colonial and postcolonial history, or if you want a North African medina where nobody is trying to sell you a carpet. You'll hate it if you want things to work without effort. The visa takes paperwork, hotels outside the top end are tired, most places take cash only, and most of the tourist infrastructure Morocco has doesn't exist here yet.

The 2026 moment is mixed. Getting in has eased, with a newer airport terminal, a train link, budget flights from France and Spain, and a visa-on-arrival scheme for Sahara tours. The politics have hardened. Algeria cut diplomatic ties with Morocco in 2021 and with the United Arab Emirates in September 2026, and the land border to the west has been shut since 1994. None of that touches daily life in Algiers. It does shape how you get in and out.

Some of the famous stuff is overrated. Djamaa el Djazaïr, the giant mosque out east, is a feat of scale more than a place that draws you back. And the Grande Poste, the 1910 neo-Moorish post office everyone photographs, takes five minutes. Give your time to the Casbah and the views.

How Algiers Got Here

The Phoenicians traded here first, and the Romans called the town Icosium. The city you walk through dates from the 10th century, when the Zirid prince Bologhin ibn Ziri founded it on the Roman ruins. The corsair brothers Aruj and Hayreddin Barbarossa took Algiers in 1516 and put it under the Ottomans, and for three centuries it was the main seat of the Barbary corsairs, rich on raiding and ransoming European captives. By the 17th century it held more than 150,000 people. By 1830 the corsairs were finished and it was down to about 25,000.

France invaded in 1830, and the Dey surrendered on July 5. The French demolished much of the lower Casbah to make way for what's now the Place des Martyrs, and the European city grew around it. In 1957, during the war of independence, the French 10th Parachute Division swept the Casbah in the Battle of Algiers, and Algeria won independence on July 5, 1962. After 1962 the old families left the Casbah for the European apartments in Bab El Oued and El Biar, rural migrants took their place, and the old city began the slow decay you'll see today, UNESCO listing in 1992 or not.

Two more chapters matter for a visitor. The civil war of the 1990s, after the army cancelled the 1992 election, is the reason Algeria fell off the tourist map for a generation, and it's still a wound people don't discuss casually. Then on February 22, 2019, an estimated 800,000 people marched in Algiers against a fifth term for President Bouteflika. He resigned on April 2. The Friday marches ran for more than a year until COVID stopped them in March 2020.

Getting There and Around

You'll land at Houari Boumediene Airport (ALG), 20 kilometers southeast of the center. International flights use Terminal 4, which opened on April 29, 2019, and domestic flights use Hall 1. Algiers is under three hours from London Gatwick on British Airways, and there are direct flights from Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Barcelona, Rome, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Doha. If you're coming from the Gulf, check dates. Emirates was due to end its Dubai flights in February 2027 after the diplomatic break with the UAE, and UAE airlines' exemption for Algiers flights runs only to December 31, 2026.

The airport railway station, opened the same day as Terminal 4, is reached on foot through the Terminal 4 car park and runs suburban trains to Agha station in the center in about 20 minutes, from about 5:30am to 9:30pm. A daytime bus runs every 30 minutes. Taxis wait outside Terminals 2 and 4, and Wikivoyage warns that most airport taxis don't use meters, so agree the fare before you get in. The ride-hailing apps Yassir and Heetch show the fare upfront. Uber doesn't operate in Algeria.

Entry is the hard part. US, UK, EU, Canadian and Australian passport holders all need a visa, applied for at the Algerian embassy or consulate where you live, with a passport valid at least six months, two photos, travel insurance with repatriation cover, and a hotel booking or Algerian invitation covering the whole stay. The Algerian embassy in Washington says stays run up to 90 days per entry and fees vary by nationality. Americans pay US$160, by USPS money order only. The Independent quoted UK visas from £85 in November 2025. A visa on arrival exists, but only for tours of the southern provinces booked through an approved Algerian agency, which sends you a QR-coded document to show the airline. You pay the fee on landing, and the visa runs up to 30 days.

Inside the city, Metro El Djazaïr runs one line from Place des Martyrs, at the foot of the Casbah, through Tafourah-Grande Poste and Jardin d'Essai to El Harrach and Aïn Naâdja, from 5am to 10pm every day, holidays included. A single ride costs DA50 (about $0.37), a 24-hour metro pass DA150 and a combined metro and tram ticket DA70. The SETRAM tram runs 23 kilometers and 37 stops east from Ruisseau, next to Les Fusillés metro station, past the Caroubier bus station and the Sablettes waterfront to Dergana. Six cable car lines lift you up the hills, the most useful being the one from Jardin d'Essai to the Martyrs' Memorial and the one from Bologhine up to Notre-Dame d'Afrique. On foot, the center is steep but compact.

Most taxis in Algiers have meters, so ask for the meter, and only haggle if the car turns out not to have one. Ride-hailing drivers almost always call you to arrange the pickup, in Algerian Arabic, and the car may not match the one in the app, so French or a hotel receptionist helps. Pick up a local SIM at the airport. Mobilis, Djezzy and Ooredoo all sell them, and Wikivoyage reported Ooredoo's 100 GB SIM at DA2,500 in September 2025.

What's Changed Since 2016

Two openings rebuilt the arrival. The metro reached Place des Martyrs at the foot of the Casbah and Aïn Naâdja to the south in 2018, taking it to 19 stations and 18.5 kilometers. Terminal 4 and the airport train both opened on April 29, 2019, putting a station a few minutes' walk from international arrivals. The operator now lists 5am to 10pm, seven days a week.

Between February 2019 and March 2020, the weekly Hirak marches filled central Algiers every Friday. Bouteflika resigned in April 2019 and Abdelmadjid Tebboune won the December 2019 election. The marches stopped for COVID on March 20, 2020, came back briefly from February to April 2021, and street protest has been tightly restricted since, which is why the FCDO and Canada both tell you to stay away from any gathering.

Djamaa el Djazaïr, the Great Mosque of Algiers at Mohammadia, opened for prayer in 2019 and was formally inaugurated on February 25, 2024. Its 265-meter minaret is the tallest in the world, and its prayer complex holds up to 120,000 people. It changed the eastern skyline, and the tram's Bellevue and Pont El Harrach stops are about 10 minutes' walk away.

The visa on arrival for Sahara tours came in December 2022 with the push for tourism, and in December 2024 Algiers airport installed a Crédit Populaire d'Algérie counter so arriving tourists could pay the fee, after a stretch when there was nowhere to pay. It still covers only organized trips to the southern and high-plateau provinces, and Algeria's embassies say anyone heading anywhere else, Algiers included, needs a consulate visa.

The diplomatic map moved. Algeria cut ties with Morocco on August 24, 2021, and the land border, closed since 1994, stays shut. In September 2026 Algeria broke with the UAE as well, and closed its airspace to UAE aircraft from September 11. Flights straight to Algiers keep an exemption until December 31, 2026. If you were planning to route through Dubai or Abu Dhabi, plan on Doha or Istanbul instead.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Algeria is too dangerous to visit, and the travel advisories say so." The UK's no-go zones are the 30-kilometer strips along the Libyan, Malian, Nigerien, Mauritanian and parts of the Tunisian borders, and Algiers is far from all of them. Canada's countrywide level is 'exercise a high degree of caution'. In the capital the documented problems are pickpocketing and bag snatching after dark, plus a real terrorism warning for crowded places. That's big-city caution, not a reason to skip it.

"You can just get a visa on arrival now." Only for tours of the southern provinces booked through an approved Algerian travel agency, which issues a QR-coded approval before you fly. A trip to Algiers and the coast still needs a visa from the embassy or consulate where you live, with a hotel booking covering every night of the stay.

"Bring a card and use ATMs, like anywhere else." Cards and ATMs pay the official rate, which Wikipedia's dinar page, citing the Bank of Algeria, puts at about DA134 to the dollar, while changers at Square Port-Saïd were buying and selling dollars at about DA238 to 242 in early October. Most shops and cafes take only cash anyway. Canada's advice calls the street market illegal, and Wikivoyage says it runs openly under the eyes of the police. Know both before you choose.

"The Casbah is a souk, like Marrakech or Fez." It's a crumbling residential neighborhood of steep stairs and courtyard houses, with workshops and stalls that sell to locals. The Independent's writer found no trinket stalls and no touts there in 2025. Come for the palaces, mosques and views over the bay, not shopping, and keep your phone in a front pocket.

"Hop over to Morocco while you're in the region." There's no land crossing, because the border has been closed since 1994, and diplomatic ties were cut in August 2021. None of the airlines on Wikivoyage's list of Algiers routes flies to Morocco, so reaching Casablanca means connecting through a third country such as Tunisia, Spain, France or Turkey. Plan Algeria with Tunisia or southern Europe instead.

"The metro's website has the timetable and fares." The metro's old address, metroalger-dz.com, now serves casino spam. The operator's real site is metro-eldjazair.dz, which lists the DA50 single, the DA150 day pass and the 5am to 10pm hours.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about doing the Casbah top to bottom instead of bottom to top? Take a taxi to the Citadel and Dar Soltan, the last palace of the Deys, at the top, then let gravity do the work through the stairways to Ketchaoua Mosque (1794) and the Place des Martyrs metro station. Stop at Dar Mustapha Pacha and Dar Aziza on the way down. At the bottom, the Palais des Raïs (Bastion 23), three corsair-era palaces and six small houses on the water, has been restored, and it's the one Casbah interior that feels finished.

Ride the cable cars, which are transport here, not attractions. Algiers opened its first passenger line in 1956, from Belouizdad up to El Madania. Take the one from the Jardin d'Essai, the botanical garden, up 260 meters of cable to the Martyrs' Memorial, then walk the Riadh El Feth terraces. Another, from Bologhine on the western waterfront, climbs to Notre-Dame d'Afrique, the 1872 basilica whose terrace has the best view of the bay.

Eat what Algiers eats. Rechta, thin fresh noodles served in Algiers with chicken, chickpeas and turnips in a sauce of white pepper and cinnamon, is the city's signature dish, and it comes out for weddings and holidays. Chorba frik, a tomato-based lamb soup, is the soup you'll see everywhere. On the street, look for bourek (fried pastry rolls), mhadjeb (flatbread folded around onions and tomato) and karantika, the baked chickpea flan sold by street vendors. Sapori in the Casbah serves couscous at lunch and dinner, Le Ciloc in Hydra does food from Constantine, and Al Boustan above Riadh El Feth is the place for a view with your dinner.

Take the tram east to the sea. Ride from Ruisseau to Caroubier and walk down to the Sablettes promenade, where families walk the waterfront and park in the evening, then continue toward Bellevue for the walk to Djamaa el Djazaïr. Inside the mosque grounds are a Quran school, a library, an Islamic art museum and a research center on Algerian history. Dress for a mosque. Wikivoyage reports that anyone may enter during prayer times, to pray or to look.

Have you thought about Tipaza? The Roman town is about 70 kilometers west of Algiers, and buses from the 1er Mai station next to Agha take about an hour and a half. The ruins, on the UNESCO list since 1982, run along the shore under Mount Chenoua, with a 1961 stele to Albert Camus inscribed with a line from his Noces à Tipasa. The Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania, said to be the tomb of Juba II and Cleopatra Selene II, is nearby. Leave early, because Wikivoyage warns the last bus back can go as early as 4 or 5pm.

The Part Most Guides Miss

The best thing about Algiers is that you meet it on its own terms. In most of the Mediterranean, the old town is staged for visitors. Here the Casbah's stairways are how people get to work, the cable cars carry commuters, the Sablettes promenade is full of families rather than tour groups, and a stranger who helps you find a bus stop usually isn't steering you to a shop. Algerians treat a warm welcome for a guest as a matter of honor, and with so few foreigners around, asking about the city's history or where the best bourek is will often turn into a conversation. That doesn't survive mass tourism anywhere, and Algiers hasn't had to test it yet.

Where to Base Yourself

Downtown (Grande Poste, Didouche Mourad, Larbi Ben M'hidi). The pick for a first visit. You're on the metro at Tafourah-Grande Poste or Khelifa Boukhalfa, the Casbah is a walk uphill, Agha station and the 1er Mai buses are close, and the arcaded boulevards have the cafes, bookshops such as Librairie Le 88 and pastry counters. Budget hotels such as the Central Touring on Rue Abane Ramdane sit here, as does Hôtel Elghanami, which Wikivoyage listed from DA8,000 a night in November 2025. The catch is traffic noise and tired rooms at the low end.

Hamma and Belouizdad. Suits travelers who want a big international hotel and an easy commute. The Sofitel Hamma Garden is on Rue Hassiba Ben Bouali by the Jardin d'Essai, the metro has a Jardin d'Essai station, and the cable car to the Martyrs' Memorial starts at the garden. It's flat by Algiers standards, which matters after a day on Casbah stairs. The catch is that evenings are quiet, and you'll ride the metro into town for dinner.

Hydra and El Biar. The heights above the center, with villas, craft shops and restaurants such as Le Ciloc. Pick it if you're staying a week or more, renting an apartment, or want greener, calmer streets. The catch is that no metro reaches it, so you'll rely on taxis and ride-hailing for everything, and the drop to the center is long and steep.

Airport (Dar El Beïda). Only for a late arrival or an early flight. The Hyatt Regency connects to Terminal 4, and Wikivoyage put it at DA25,000 to 30,000 a night, with the Ibis five minutes away. The catch is that you're 20 kilometers from everything, and the last train into town leaves around 9:30pm.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Daily budgets depend on the exchange rate you use more than on what you buy. Hôtel Elghanami, the most recently priced central hotel on Wikivoyage, starts at DA8,000 a night, about $33 at the street rate or $60 at the official one. Add metro rides at DA50, meals at DA100 to 1,000 and a DA200 museum, and a day lands around DA9,000 to 12,000 before taxis, about $37 to 50 street or $67 to 90 official. Comfortable starts with the Hyatt's DA25,000 to 30,000 rooms. Older, cheaper hotels such as the Central Touring line Rue Abane Ramdane, but no current source prices them. Paying by card at the official rate costs about 80 percent more than changing cash on the street. Bring clean, untorn euros or dollars. FCDO says to declare cash over €5,000 on entry and exit, and Canada says dinars can't leave the country.

Safety in Algiers is mostly street sense. Canada and the FCDO both flag pickpocketing and bag snatching in big cities, especially after dark, and both warn that terrorists may target crowded places, transport hubs and tourist sites. Police are everywhere, and that cuts both ways. Don't photograph government buildings, police, military sites or bridges, and don't fly a drone, since drones and some camera equipment need authorization. Stay away from any demonstration. Drug laws are severe.

Social rules run more conservative than the cafes suggest. Same-sex relations are criminalized, with Canada citing prison terms of up to three years, so LGBTQ+ travelers should be discreet in public and online. Dress conservatively, especially in the Casbah and mosques, and skip public displays of affection. Foreign women get a lot of attention from men, and Wikivoyage warns that friendliness or direct eye contact can be read as interest. Go easy on praising France, and steer clear of the civil war and ethnic identity in casual conversation.

The working week runs Sunday to Thursday, and Friday and Saturday are the weekend, so plan offices, banks and consulate errands for weekdays. Ramadan runs about February 8 to March 8 in 2027, and daytime eating in public is best avoided then. Alcohol exists but stays discreet, mostly in better hotels, a few bar-restaurants and the liquor shops Wikivoyage calls reasonably plentiful in Algiers, and it's illegal to drink in a public place.

If Algiers Is Part of a Longer Trip

Algeria rewards a long trip more than a short one, because the visa effort is the same for four days or 40. Have you thought about the coastal rail and air spine? SNTF trains from Agha reach Oran, the second city, in four to five hours. Constantine, the city of bridges over a gorge, is an hour's flight east, and the Roman ruins at Djemila are a two-hour drive beyond it. Buy train tickets at the station, since online booking isn't offered.

The Sahara is where the visa-on-arrival scheme points, and it's the reason many people come. Djanet and the rock art of Tassili n'Ajjer are a domestic flight south on Air Algérie or Tassili Airlines, and the trips run through licensed Algerian agencies. Untamed Borders sold a 10-day Algiers, Constantine, Djemila and Djanet tour from £1,750 in late 2025, excluding flights. Don't try the south overland on your own. The FCDO advises against all travel to the border zones.

To and from Europe, the sea route is real. Algérie Ferries and Corsica Linea sail Marseille to Algiers, and Wikivoyage lists crossings from Alicante too. Air Algérie flies to Valencia, and Volotea adds a Valencia route from November 28, 2026. East, Tunisair and Nouvelair fly to Tunis. On a multi-stop route, Algiers works as the North African stop between southern Europe and Cairo or Amman. An open-jaw ticket built by AirTreks saves you backtracking around the closed Moroccan border.

Yearly Things to Consider

Two things set the calendar in Algiers, and neither is foreign tourists. The first is heat. July and August highs run 90°F to 91°F (32°C to 33°C), and that's when Algerians living abroad come home for the summer season, filling the ferries from Marseille and Alicante. Algérie Ferries opened summer 2026 bookings in February. The second is Ramadan, which runs about February 8 to March 8 in 2027, when days slow and nights get busy.

The timing advice runs against instinct. Late October and November are a strong window, warm at 70°F to 80°F (21°C to 27°C), quiet and cheap, but November is also the wettest month at 4 inches, so pack a jacket. April and May are the safest choice, with 71°F to 77°F (22°C to 25°C) highs and the driest walking weather before summer, and Tipaza is at its best. July 5 is Independence Day, and November 1 marks the start of the 1954 uprising, so expect flags and closures.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Algiers

Day one, start at the top of the Casbah with the Citadel and Dar Soltan, work down past Dar Mustapha Pacha and Ketchaoua Mosque to the Place des Martyrs, and finish at the Palais des Raïs. Day two, take the metro to Jardin d'Essai for the garden and the Museum of Fine Arts in the morning, ride the cable car to the Martyrs' Memorial, and eat dinner at Al Boustan above Riadh El Feth. Day three, take the Bologhine cable car to Notre-Dame d'Afrique for the bay view, then come back down for an afternoon on Didouche Mourad and a look at the Grande Poste.

5 Days in Algiers

Do the three-day plan, then on day four take the 1er Mai bus to Tipaza for the Roman ruins and the Camus stele, leaving early, since the last bus back can go around 4pm. On day five, take the tram east to the Sablettes promenade, then walk from Bellevue to Djamaa el Djazaïr, and catch the sunset back at the Sablettes waterfront.

1 Week in Algiers

Five days in Algiers plus a two-day trip to Constantine, an hour's flight east. Walk its bridges on the first day, then hire a driver for the two-hour run to the Roman ruins at Djemila on the second. Fly back from Constantine. Use the extra Algiers day for the Bardo museum and the National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art.

2 Weeks or More in Algiers

Settle in Hydra or El Biar, where apartments and the greener streets make a week feel like living rather than touring, and work from a downtown cafe on an Ooredoo SIM, which Wikivoyage rates the fastest of the three networks. Spend weekend trips on Tipaza and Cherchell to the west, Blida and the Atlas foothills to the south, and Kabylie inland to the east. Then fly south to Djanet for four or five days in Tassili n'Ajjer with a licensed agency, or west to Oran for rai music and the Santa Cruz fort above the bay.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

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