Algeria - No Dust in Sand Land

Why did I expect Africa's Algiers to be one of the most deserted and hopeless places on earth? It is almost the opposite, more like a small harbor city in France or another well-maintained city in southern Europe.

Algeria is a huge country, the biggest in Africa. With Algiers being so close to Europe, it's not far to travel there from central Europe. During an extended weekend in August, I visited both Algeria and Tunisia.

Arriving in Algeria

It was the early morning flight from Barcelona that brought me here to Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

Not much dust. Actually clean. Lots of coffee shops. They see directly to the shrine. Apartment blocks in the very center.

No problem with immigration, but these impediments I already had before coming here as I needed a visa in advance. Very few nationalities get a visa on arrival, and as I'm not a Libyan or a Moroccan, I had no luck in this.

Two weeks before departure, I incidentally found out that I need a visa before arrival and that caused a bit of a hassle. I didn't expect that the visa would arrive before I flew here and believed I would need to cancel my trip. But sometimes you win and other times you lose, this time I won.

Money exchange hassles!

The airport is of modern standards and has many comfortable coffee shops. Only the money exchange is a pain. There are two exchange counters and one was closed. Even when a few people want to exchange foreign money to Algerian Dinar, it can become a tiring, daunting procedure when a few Algerians want to exchange Algerian Dinars into foreign currency. By default, only Algerians are allowed to exchange Dinar into foreign currency and when that happens, it's going to start a paper war with easily a few minutes per customer.

I intended to take the 20-minute ride from the airport to the city center by bus, but as the bus left right in front of me, I took a 5-euro taxi, which I paid in euros with no problem.

I like countries with not too much tourism because "Not much tourism = friendly, human-behaving, fair taxi drivers".

Map of Algiers

Day 1 - Modern metro brings me around old monuments

I did have plenty of time to explore the most popular places in Algiers, but there are many more that I didn't know even existed. Huge spectacular architectural artifacts can be found, but I simply didn't know, even though I did research and put all of them on my offline map.

The drive with the taxi showed me that the internet is not comprehensive when it comes to information about things to see Algiers. When looking up things to see in Algiers, then there do show up some things, but far from all that is available in reality.

Only news about war, conflict, refugees and stuff like that show up on the internet. All other things have to be grabbed out from google search results on page number 20 and onwards.

Pleasant walking around the city center

From the city center walking towards the north is pleasant. How come no one attacked me, as the internet was telling me that it might happen?

The streets look highly influenced by French culture, the buildings look like somewhere in downtown Paris and not what I might expect from "Algeria", with dusty rusty buildings everywhere - as the internet told me. There is, of course, sand around, but it's kept clean as best as possible under their circumstances.

The stroll through the Algiers center and to the "grand poste" with its many coffee shops, is actually nice. Towards the port along the boulevard to watch fishing boats coming back for unloading and cleaning up. Actually nice too!

The area around the harbor.

The north with this lighthouse or castle. I didn't find out what it was.

I thought I would have to spend a fortune on mean taxi drivers, but I didn't even have to think about taking a taxi as there is a modern metro of which many European countries can take note, particularly regarding cleanliness and air-conditioning in summer.

Easy Food

When it comes to food, Algier is convenient too! There are those chicken booths every 20 meters, and they serve a delicious big portion of BBQ chicken with pasta for a two-euro coin! This is fast food in Algiers, and in addition to the modern Metro, many European cities could learn from Algiers on how to do fast food properly, with real portions and freshly baked bread, pasta, and chicken.

The Ketchaoua Mosque.

In front of the mosque the "place de martyrs".

There is even a cable car

So yes the metro is great in Algiers, fast, cool, easy, cheap. And it brings me right in front of the places I want to see. Like the Shrine of Martyrs, which can be accessed with a cable car up to the hill where the shrine stands and which offers a magnificent view over the Mediterranean sea and all over Algiers.


From up there is a great view over the whole of Algiers as well over the Botanical Garden right down the road.

The shrine itself is outstanding.

A huge tower overlooking the whole of Algiers: it was a pleasure to rest there in one of the coffee shops and watch the tower with chocolate ice cream and a coffee. The windy breeze up there did its best to keep the heat off, really nice!

Day 2 - Departure to Tunisia

Again, I expected huge hassle and bargaining with taxi drivers.  But no problem here, "5 Euro," and 20 minutes later, I was at the airport. So easy and painless.

It's not possible to exchange Algerian Dinar back to foreign currency. Exchanging Algerian Dinar is prohibited by law, and no bank does it. But there is the black market where they do it. However, it's better to get rid of Algerian Dinar in Algeria with a 25% loss instead of taking it out of the country (which is also prohibited) and having no usage for the currency at all, resulting in a 100% loss. As I don't plan to return to Algeria in the foreseeable future, I opted to exchange it for euros with a boutique owner at the airport at the black market rate.

The plane to Tunisia departed right on time and took only about an hour.