Updated January 2026

.This website may be blocked in Algeria.

Only Tunisia and Mauritania borders open to foreign tourists.
Agency guides unavoidable when applying for visas, at the border andgendarmerie highway escorts on the TSH leading to the deep south.
Fly-ins joining organised tours, or meeting an agency escort at an overland border can use expensive pre-authorised visas on arrival (VoA).
Tourist kidnapped January 2025 but soon released.
Recent report (moto, north only) • Backpackers’ report (with buses)

Useful languages
Arabic or French. Younger people may speak English.

Money
Algerian dinar officially 140 dinars = €1 and not sold abroad. A easily accessed black market gives up to 250 dinars or more, depending on where, who and how you ask. At Algiers airport (ATMs @ official rate) we were approached immediately and got 190-200 in December 2024 with no tricks. Later, down south our agency guy gave us 240; in Oran near the Spanish embassy, or the square in Algiers (see link above) you’ll get 250.
Clearly the cost of your trip will depend on what rate you pay. Buy minimal at the official 140 rate or even the airport. Ask in jewellers or anyone as everyone wants your euros.
South of Ghardaia there are very few ATMs, the rate will be official and foreign cards may not work.

SIMs, WiFi and VPN
Mobilis is said to be the best network in the south. At the airport we bought a SIM with 50GB lasting 2 weeks for 1500DA – all set up for us at the guy behind the counter who needed passport details. We paid cash after changing at the parallel rate. I barely got through 5GB in 11 days. All the way down the TSH there was 4G/LTE in towns, 3G in villages and roadhouses, checkpoints or near masts, but nothing in between. A signal will only crop up if there is some population base or a mast in sight. Good page on Algeria SIMs here which says there are no SIM selling counters at other international airports, but getting it done in town from a tele boutique is as easy.
As elsewhere, mobile data is always better than the wifi in any hotel, even next the router. One of us found VPN blocked in Algeria, as are several websites like this one.

Price of fuel
There is only one state fuel company.
Unleaded ’95’ (‘super’) 45D/litre available everywhere.
Diesel 30D/litre but high sulphur (<2000ppm when ULSD in Europe is <10ppm). HSD may disagree with modern engines’ emission and filtration systems. See this thread.

Costs
At parallel market rates fuel is very cheap while everything else is comparable with Morocco or a bit less. Roadside meals from 300d, camping from 1000d, nice tourist hotels 9000d with basic brekkie, but far fewer than Morocco and the food is ordinary. Internal flight to In Salah (2 hours) 100 euro return. People carrier unshared taxi Algiers to Ghardaia 90 euro (400km; 8hrs).

Borders
Borders with Libya were never really open and, as things are now, getting too close to Algeria’s southern borders with Niger and Mali is not permitted nor a good idea. Overlanders cross via Tunisia at once popular Nefta–Taleb Larbi (may demand an agency escort) or further north at Bou Chebka, west of Kasserine, or right up on the Med (fewer escort demands). A 2023 account of the Mediterranean border at Tabarka–El Kala (and another in the same thread). Otherwise, cross by ferry from France or Spain.
Since 2019 you can come and go from northern Mauritania via Tindouf. A handful of tourists use this route per month. Read this and the following posts, or read the latest on the Routes page.

Don’t be too encouraged by the large expanses of green on the UK FCO map above right. Officially, only a small corner of the Illizi wilaya (ringed in blue) is open to off-highway tourism. But this changes and lately some unescorted travellers have been roaming free. The import thing is knowing where not to wander, even if you can, while also recognising you are very much alone out there. In January 2025 a Spanish-speaking man travelling with three Algerians were all kidnapped north of Tamanrasset and taken to northern Mali where the Algerians were released. This is the first such event in over a decade.
The French version (top left; still current) seems a bit extreme. The small print does say: ‘ACTIVITÉS SPORTIVES A RISQUE: Les randonnées dans le désert saharien sont possibles après accord des autorités locales et en restant sur les parcours surveillés par l’armée. L’emploi d’un guide reconnu localement … est fortement recommandés.

VISAS
Needed by citizens of all but seven countries, for decades visas have been the stumbling block. If attempting to avoid agency escorts (easier done in the north, see bottom of page) apply at your home country consulate, but if heading south don’t mention a vehicle. As it is, this loophole may have closed late 2025 – the consulates are on to it.
2023 saw Visas on Arrival (VoA) issued by sending in the form below to get a pre-authorisation from your travel agency who will escort/guide you. This can include overlanders using ports and land borders, not just airport fly-ins. But in February 2025 the VoA price shot up to ridiculous levels (above). VoAs were expected to morph into e-visas but don’t hold your breath. Otherwise pay £85 applying in person in London consulate (or try a visa agency to save you the journey from £150 + the visa fee).

Following the mass kidnapping in 2003, the path for Saharan travels has been to contact an agency who lodged or verified your application and route to enable you to apply at a consulate.
Without an invite from an agency you need a certificate d’hebergment (‘CdH’; ‘proof of lodging’) by booking a hotel (avoid AirBnB, choose a big hotel chain). Finding an establishment that’ll take your booking became a little easier for a year or two, but that door seems to have closed now. As said, – the consulates are on to it.

APPLYING FOR A VISA IN THE UK

Algerian Consulate
5 Portal Way, London W3 6RT
Tel: 0208 752 8068
Apply Tues–Fri 9am–1pm (collection 3-4pm).
Website Read the visa page carefully

You will need to organise evidence of a pre-booked tour, then apply at the consulate and waiting from a week or two for your visa. It’s quicker to apply online.

• Fill out the online visa form here, print off two copies, date and sign both
• Include two passport photos with your name written on the back
• Make two photocopies of every page of your passport, even blank ones and the cover
• Include a letter from your employer, basically saying you work there
• Travel insurance is not required for British and Irish citizens
• Fee: exactly £85 in cash (UK)

If not using a visa service, apply in person at the address above or apply online (faster visa). They look over your docs and if they spot any mistakes they will reject or maybe amend, depending on their mood. If all is in order you’ll be given a receipt with a collection date or they will call you when the passports are ready.

Some tourist agencies in Algeria
There are hundreds of tourist travel agencies registered in Algeria, but for decades there were only ever less than a dozen reliable ones which actually existed/replied and so got most of the work. Tourism as we knew it has collapsed so if they reply at all – be they slickly presented but clueless northerners, or less flash but long-established southern outfits – responses usually dry up once you push them with specifics, rather than what they want to sell you.
Here are some agencies I have travelled with or tried to deal with:

Tadjemout Travel In Salah-based agency we used in 2025. Speaks English
Essendilene Voyages Djanet. Used before and recommended, quick replies, English spoken
Timtar Voyages Tam, but work anywhere; speak English if you push them
Mezrirene Aventure Illizi. website now hosted by Germany-based Tuareg-Reisen who were expensive last time I checked, but replied fast.
Zeriba Voyages  Djanet town centre hotel; good for Jabbaren day trip. May also be known as Sable Tours.

Agency escort (‘guide’) with their own car, up to €120-150/day. Agency escort sitting in your car: €90/day. You are also charged €50-100/day for the days it takes them to travel or drive up to meet you at the northern border or ports.

Border formalities, ferry or overland

Detailed report from Dec 2022 on ferry from Spain to Ghazaouet with immigration procedures.

If used, your escort should meet you at the border/port. Allow an hour or four from Tunisia. Fill out police forms for you and your vehicle, then customs declaration forms and maybe get a light search. Then you need to declare and change your official money (over €1000 must be declared) and buy motor insurance (3000d for 4 weeks for a 4×4). Then you must check into the gendarmerie a couple of kms down the road. It’s said the Mediterranean border at Tabarka–El Kala. can be done in 1.5 hours.
Expect the same duration and hoops to jump through for immigration at Ghazaouet or Oran on ferrying from Spain. With booked lodgings, they may call them to check they are for real.

Algiers airport
Arriving at an international airport with a Visa on Arrival (VoA) doesn’t mean you simply get stamped and waltz on to baggage reclaim. You and your passport are taken aside as if something’s wrong, then eventually led to a nearby waiting area, opposite a bank counter. We met a group of 15 Koreans who’d been waiting here 2½ hours (4 hours on previous occasions). We three waited about 40 minutes, then paid 105 euros (pre price hike) for a two week visa at the counter opposite after which were free to move on. This unexpected delay matters if you’re a big group with an onward domestic plane to catch, although in my experience few domestic planes leave on time. Leave loads of time for domestic onward flights.
To change money or buy a SIM see above and below.
Flying back from Algiers the queues are excruciating so arrive at least three hours before departure time (which is broadly punctual). The queue for the passport exit stamp alone can be an hour; each person is processed in ~5 minutes. After that there’s some Customs valuables declaration counter – a relic from the old days when you had to declare cash and valuables on entry and exit. But we weren’t stopped here. I may have missed them in the rush, but I can’t say I saw a vast spread of mouthwatering eateries in departure, just snacks. So bring food and drinks.

Uniform guide to Men in Hats
Blue Police. Low calibre down south and minimal interaction
Grey Customs at frontiers/ports/airports. Minimal interaction
Green Gendarmerie. Checkpoints outside all towns. Green & white 4x4s
Camo Army – Minimal interaction compared to Gendarmerie

Off the highways you will rarely seen any of the above, unless you pass a base.

Hassle & Bribery
… of the type encountered in Morocco or Egypt is unknown in Algeria. You are pleasingly invisible but will find people hospitable, courteous – or just ‘normal’.
Demanding payments from tourists who have not transgressed in some way is virtually unknown. If asked without just cause, it will be a feeble hustle, easily dismissed.

Two types of ‘escorts‘
Officially, travellers with vehicles require an agency escort (aka: ‘guide’) from border to the deep south and back.
This is not the same as a gendarmerie highway escort (right) which can be imposed at any road checkpoint down south, even when you are with an agency escort. Delays can occur when escort cars are swapped at the subsequent checkpoints.
Military escorts may also be imposed west of Bechar to Tindouf, but nothing is set in stone in Algeria, if ever it was. Often you can talk your way out of it, or they will dither then lose interest, or call someone higher up and let you pass. But not always. It’s said the Spaniard grabbed in January 2025 talked his way out of a gendarmerie escort.
You might get in from Tunisia and travel around the north freely – but any more. As expecyed it appears this is anomaly/oversight/loophole may have closed up again. But it’s Algeria; nothing is fixed.

The Trans-Sahara Highway is now sealed from Algiers via Tamanrasset all the way to the Niger border at In Guezzam, but no overlander has crossed to Niger since the Arab Spring. These days this Algerian border is heavily patrolled and lined with berms (sand walls) to discourage people-smugglers. Near In Guezzam migrants who got north get dumped at Point Zero in No Man’s Land (above) to walk back to Assamaka, the Niger entry post, or try again.

Desert pistes
The landscapes of south Algeria offer the best of the true Sahara without committing yourself to crossing the desert to West Africa (were that possible). Desert travel in southern Algeria (the 9th biggest country in the world) is an order of magnitude greater than Morocco where few pistes require a night in the desert. In southern Algeria the next fuel, lodgings and towns are hundreds of kilometres apart.

The Algerian Sahara is the place to travel with a satellite messenger like InReach2, or a rented Thuraya sat phone, especially if travelling ambitiously in a single vehicle. Have local numbers to call if you get in trouble. There is no rescue service in Algeria.

It’s hard to keep up with the changing regs which vary from province to province (wilaya) Unless you know better or are with a guide who does, keep out of the orange area (left). West of the Tanezrouft piste to Mali (Erg Chech; orange area left) has long been out-of-bounds. I’d say the same for the TSH south of Tam to Niger. Try and I’m pretty sure you’ll be stopped and sent back. That leaves loads of the fabulous southeast (Hoggar and Tassili) which was deservedly the most popular area for desert travel.

Guide free (before late 2025)
In January 2023 an unescorted but experienced Swiss couple managed to not only get into Algeria via Nefta without a guide-escort, but then drive from Djanet via Admer Erg over to Tam. No one’s done this for years and they did the same and more the following winter. Since then several more have done similar unescorted tours, while another European couple in a van had issues getting past some highway checkpoints. Calls higher up the command chain need to be made to let you continue. Obviously it pays to be polite and patient, speak French and have a phone number to give out.
With no local guide you need to talk a good checkpoint talk, several times a day. Heading south, just mention the next nearest town or be vague. Or get off the roads and stay there as long as possible. Eventually you may get roped into a ‘for-your-own-security’ gendarmerie escort, but only on roads. On the piste they don’t got. As said above, it appears the visa dodge with hotel bookings may have closed and things are back as they were a few years ago. Guides required at the visa stage and gendarmerie escorts from all border entry points, at least for a few days.