u/mootloot

I spent a week in Algeria in April.
 
Itinerary: Algiers to Mansoura to Ghardaia
 
TL:DR Not the easiest country to get to or navigate once there, but a truly amazing place with wonderful people and incredible sights. They lack the infrastructure for tourism which is a shame.
 
Visa was time consuming but not exactly really difficult, lots of documents to mail to embassy in NYC plus $160 and more $ for the return envelope to send back passport, I requested multiple entries and got a 2 year visa for 90 days at a time.
 
As a white 40yr old American man I felt safe at all times, surprising I know. I’m passing though so everyone spoke Arabic first, even got asked for directions lol, and then assumed French and then surprised that I was there as a solo American. I speak some Arabic but couldn’t understand any of the dialect at all.
 
Arriving in evening in Algiers, exchanged euro with taxi drivers for enough to cover my hotel for 2 nights. Do not pay any hotel in advance as they use the banks exchange rate, which is really bad.  Next day, walk to Port Said Square to exchange more money on the black market, it is very safe just watch the counting. It did feel slightly uncomfortable spending the day walking around with 70,000 dinars though when everything is so cheap. Walk to Casbah, then to Notre Dame d’Afrique, and then to the Martyrs Memorial, which I had no idea has a whole museum at the base. I was not prepared for the experience as it depicts graphic images and diorama style displays of torture during the war for independence from the French. A very solemn and heartbreaking place. Then went to the Great Mosque of Algiers, which was breathtakingly grand in all the ways.
 
Next day flew to Ghardaia, picked up by driver to go to Monsoura, 45 min south, to a little palm grove oasis hostel I found on airbnb that would take me to the Sahara with camping overnight.  This was a check off my bucket list. Beautiful date palms and fig trees but very desolate and calm and quiet. The next day I spent almost in solitude before the trip to Sahara, not real deep Sahara like Dejanet but I didn’t have time to go there. After lunch a bus full of 20 20s something architect students from Oran arrived and I’m so confused because my guide never mentioned this, but they turned out to be incredibly friendly and happy to speak English with a native speaker for the first time. Thanks to this sub I knew Oran was known for its music and that helped me out a bunch! We became quick friends and after some delay we set off to the dunes, the reason for my trip. They had never been this far south and were snapchatting and taking as many pics and videos as I was. It turned into a Sahara photo-shoot for a while. Lots of music, sand boarding, and walking barefoot in the sand. I thought speaking English and all these college students might ruin my experience but it was the exact opposite and I really enjoyed conversing with them and feeling like part of their crew. We’re all friends on instagram now! Then tea, bread baked in coals, dinner, and gazing up at the stars. They left and it got really quiet and I slept with my tent door open in awe.
 
Next day off to Ghardaia for the final 3 days. I could wonder the market for weeks there. Bustling and vibrant and then 2-3 hours of silence around 1pm. I had the best meal of my entire trip from a woman owned and run Syrian restaurant. Luckily they had a picture menu for foreigners. The architecture in this ancient city is incredible and how they keep cool and their water distribution planning is unreal. I hired a tour guide, as you must, to see the old city and it felt like I was traveling back in time. The “one eyed” women were everywhere. It felt easy to navigate on my own and I mostly walked around and people watched.  Ate camel and date couscous. On the day I left, I bought 4 smallish, 4’-5’, rugs for $80 total... Amazing!!! I would have bought more if I had more arms.
 
The good = prices cheap and people were super honest, I would just hold out my hand full of coins and shopkeepers would take what things cost. Architecture incredible.
 
The bad = food wasn’t that great and that makes no sense to me with the blend of Arabic and French cuisine. I speak some Levantine Arabic and couldn’t understand anything anyone said and they barely understood me and I refused to use a translate app because where’s the fun in that.
 
The ugly = all of my domestic flights were delayed at least an hour, overall the cities I went to were dirty with lots of litter, trash, overall unkempt and just the vibe that it didn’t matter, car pollution terrible.

I spent a week in Algeria in April.
 
Itinerary: Algiers to Mansoura to Ghardaia
 
TL:DR Not the easiest country to get to or navigate once there, but a truly amazing place with wonderful people and incredible sights. They lack the infrastructure for tourism which is a shame.
 
Visa was time consuming but not exactly really difficult, lots of documents to mail to embassy in NYC plus $160 and more $ for the return envelope to send back passport, I requested multiple entries and got a 2 year visa for 90 days at a time.
 
As a white 40yr old American man I felt safe at all times, surprising I know. I’m passing though so everyone spoke Arabic first, even got asked for directions lol, and then assumed French and then surprised that I was there as a solo American. I speak some Arabic but couldn’t understand any of the dialect at all.
 
Arriving in evening in Algiers, exchanged euro with taxi drivers for enough to cover my hotel for 2 nights. Do not pay any hotel in advance as they use the banks exchange rate, which is really bad.  Next day, walk to Port Said Square to exchange more money on the black market, it is very safe just watch the counting. It did feel slightly uncomfortable spending the day walking around with 70,000 dinars though when everything is so cheap. Walk to Casbah, then to Notre Dame d’Afrique, and then to the Martyrs Memorial, which I had no idea has a whole museum at the base. I was not prepared for the experience as it depicts graphic images and diorama style displays of torture during the war for independence from the French. A very solemn and heartbreaking place. Then went to the Great Mosque of Algiers, which was breathtakingly grand in all the ways.
 
Next day flew to Ghardaia, picked up by driver to go to Monsoura, 45 min south, to a little palm grove oasis hostel I found on airbnb that would take me to the Sahara with camping overnight.  This was a check off my bucket list. Beautiful date palms and fig trees but very desolate and calm and quiet. The next day I spent almost in solitude before the trip to Sahara, not real deep Sahara like Dejanet but I didn’t have time to go there. After lunch a bus full of 20 20s something architect students from Oran arrived and I’m so confused because my guide never mentioned this, but they turned out to be incredibly friendly and happy to speak English with a native speaker for the first time. We became quick friends and after some delay we set off to the dunes, the reason for my trip. They had never been this far south and were snapchatting and taking as many pics and videos as I was. It turned into a Sahara photo-shoot for a while. Lots of music, sand boarding, and walking barefoot in the sand. I thought speaking English and all these college students might ruin my experience but it was the exact opposite and I really enjoyed conversing with them and feeling like part of their crew. We’re all friends on instagram now! Then tea, bread baked in coals, dinner, and gazing up at the stars. They left and it got really quiet and I slept with my tent door open in awe.
 
Next day off to Ghardaia for the final 3 days. I could wonder the market for weeks there. Bustling and vibrant and then 2-3 hours of silence around 1pm. I had the best meal of my entire trip from a woman owned and run Syrian restaurant. Luckily they had a picture menu for foreigners. The architecture in this ancient city is incredible and how they keep cool and their water distribution planning is unreal. I hired a tour guide, as you must, to see the old city and it felt like I was traveling back in time. The “one eyed” women were everywhere. It felt easy to navigate on my own and I mostly walked around and people watched.  Ate camel and date couscous. On the day I left, I bought 4 smallish, 4’-5’, rugs for $80 total... Amazing!!! I would have bought more if I had more arms.
 
The good = prices cheap and people were super honest, I would just hold out my hand full of coins and shopkeepers would take what things cost. Architecture incredible.
 
The bad = food wasn’t that great and that makes no sense to me with the blend of Arabic and French cuisine. I speak some Levantine Arabic and couldn’t understand anything anyone said and they barely understood me and I refused to use a translate app because where’s the fun in that.
 
The ugly = all of my domestic flights were delayed at least an hour, overall the cities I went to were dirty with lots of litter, trash, overall unkempt and just the vibe that it didn’t matter, car pollution terrible.