Updated January 2024

All borders except Tunisia closed or not accessible to foreign tourists.
Agency guides and sometimes gendarmerie highway escorts required to visit the desert south, but lately some manage to dodge this. See this thread or read this article or this report
From 2023 visas issued on arrival (VoA), but only with pre-arrangement on an organised fly-in tour. So no real change for overlanders.

This website is blocked in Algeria

Money
Algerian dinar officially around 167 dinars = €1 and not sold abroad. A parallel market in small shops gives some 50% more depending on where and who and how you ask. At Algiers airport and up north, the parallel rate is said to be better than down south in Illizi or Djanet. Bring €uros; foreign cards may not work in Algerian ATMs and the rate will be official. South of Ghardaia there are no ATMs, or they won’t work.

Price of fuel
Unleaded ’95’ (‘super’) 45d/litre (2023) available everywhere but probably more like 90 octane.
Diesel 20d/litre (est) but very high sulphur which disagrees with modern engines’ DPF.
World fuel prices. Algeria was the last place to drop leaded fuel.

Costs
Even without black market rates, fuel is very cheap and with a stable price. Petrol is about 20% of current UK price, VHS diesel even less. Meals from 300d, camping from 400d, hotels/rooms from 1000d; tourist hotels 3500d.

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

Borders
Borders with Libya were never really open and, as things are now, getting too close to any southern border is risky or not permitted. What few overlanders there are cross via Tunisia at Nefta–Taleb Larbi. A 2023 account of the Mediterranean border at Tabarka–El Kala (and another in the same thread). Otherwise, cross by ferry from France to Algiers or Almeria to Oran/Ghazaouet.
You can’t cross into Mali (nor would you want to), same with northern Niger via In Guezzam. a migrant trafficking corridor.
In 2019 a handful of individuals managed to cross directly into northern Mauritania via Tindouf, most recently in February 2022. 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 But lately unescorted travellers have been dodging this rule which may be out of date or no longer enforced. The import thing is knowing where not to wander, even if you can, while also recognising you are very much alone out there.
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.

Escorts
Officially, travellers with vehicles require an agency escort/guide from border to the deep south and back.
This is not the same as a gendarmerie escort (right). Military escorts may also be imposed west of Bechar to Tindouf (the road to Mauritania), but nothing is set in stone in Algeria, if ever it was.
You might get in from Tunisia and travel around the north freely, but (until recently) not in the desert. Things are changing, and lately intrepid travellers are managing to get around in the south without restrictions, but with no official change announced to the rules, it’s hard to think this is not an anomaly/oversight/loophole that may close without warning, especially when foreigners push their luck and get in trouble.

Hassle
… of the type encountered in Morocco or Egypt is unknown in Algeria. You are pleasingly invisible but will find the people hospitable, courteous – or just ‘normal’.

VISAS
Needed by all citizens of non-Arabic countries and must be applied for in your country of residence (which for most people rules out applying Tunisia, for example). For decades visas have been the stumbling block; Algeria is more like Iran or North Korea, but like Saudi, Algeria is trying to enter the modern world. From 2023 visas issued on arrival (VoA) on presenting pre-approved documentation at an airport. VoAs are expected to morph into e-visas. Some clarification on VoAs vs ordinary visas here. VoAs as yet untested, but don’t really apply to overlanders at ports and land borders.

The usual path for Saharan travels has been to apply via an agency. Or support your application with a certificate d’hebergment (‘CdH’; ‘proof of lodging’) by booking a night in a hotel/Airbnb. Finding an establishment that’ll answer your query and forward the CdH has become a little easier – individually owned AirBnBs are better than a big hotel chain. but there is no guarantee a visa will be issued which complicates planning. This is why Algeria has long been like it is, for travellers.

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 get on the case weeks before your departure; firstly by obtaining an invite from the Algeria travel agency, or organising evidence of pre-booked lodgings, then applying at the consulate and waiting from a week or more for your visa. Usually, you never see a tour agency invite: it’s sent directly to your consulate. They match your application with the agency invitation and hopefully issue your visa. If it takes much longer despite everything being correct; they’re giving you the run-around so give up. It pays to choose flights/ferries (or have insurance) that allows them to be cancelled last minute.

• 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: £85

If not using a visa service, apply in person at the address above. Get there early. If you arrive much after noon you may not get to the head of the queue before they close. Inside, they look over your docs and if they spot any mistakes they will reject or maybe amend, depending on their mood. Pay in cash. If all is in order you will be given a receipt with a collection date or they will call you when the passports are ready.

Info needed for invitation from an Algerian travel agency
• names and date of birth
• nationalities
• passport numbers
• registration number of vehicles
• itinerary
• exact dates of entry and exit to the country
• ‘transit’ or a ‘tourist’ visa.

Info needed for CdH from lodgings
• names and date of birth
• nationalities
• passport numbers
• registration number of vehicles
• ‘transit’ or a ‘tourist’ visa

You’re advised not to get a ferry or plane ticket before you secure a visa; and a visa is not guaranteed if they don’t like the cut of your jib. Of course, this then means booking a plane or a ferry very late.

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. New agency based in In Salah, run by a guide I used to work with
Essendilene Voyages Djanet; recommended, quick replies, English spoken
Timtar Voyages Tam, but work anywhere; speak English if you push them
Agence Mezrirene Illizi; recommended but hopeless at email replies
Zeriba Voyages in town centre hotel in Djanet; good for Jabbaren day trip.
Desert Reisen (Germany). Expensive but fast replies

Agency escort (‘guide’) with their own car, normally about €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 the northern border or port to meet you.

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 at Taleb Larbi (between Nefta – El Oued. 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.
Change minimum at the borders/ports; then ask at a shop down the road.

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 here since the Arab Spring. These days this Algerian border is heavily patrolled and lined with berms (sand walls) to discourage smugglers. near in Guiezzam migrants are regularly (beaten up and robbed then) expelled from Point Zero in No Man’s Land (above) to walk back to Assamaka, the Niger entry post.

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). But desert travel in southern Algeria (the 9th biggest country in the world) is an order of magnitude greater than Morocco, for example, where few direct pistes require a night in the desert. In southern Algeria you can expect to spent at least one night in the desert just getting to the next fuel via the most direct route.
Now they’re so cheap and reliable, the Algeria Sahara is the place to travel with a satellite messenger like InReach, or a rented Thuraya sat phone, especially if travelling ambitiously in a single vehicle. Have local numbers to call if you get in trouble.

Only a small corner of the southeast and the Assekrem + Tassili Hoggar region close to Tam are officially open to off-roading. Unless you know better or are with a guide who does, keep out of the orange area (left) or too near any southern borders. 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 (also orange, left). Try and I am pretty sure you will be stopped and sent back, so stay in the fabulous southeast (Hoggar and Tassili) which was deservedly the most popular area for desert travel.

Escort free
In January 2023 an unescorted but very experienced Swiss couple managed to not only get into Algeria via Nefta without a guide, but then drive from Djanet via Admer Erg over to Tam. No one’s done this for years and while the going’s good they’re heading back this winter. Since then a French and a Brit motorcyclist have done similar routes, while another Euopean couple in a van had more issues getting past some checkpoints. Calls higher up the command chain need to be made to let you continue. Obviously it pays to be polite and patient.
Have checkpoints been given new instructions to lay off unescorted travellers as part of a new tourism policy? It seems so but with no local guide you need to talk a good checkpoint talk, several times a day and ideally in French. Heading south, just mention the next nearest town or be vague. Or get off the roads and stay off for as long as possible. Checkpoints will speed up if you have a phone number so buy a local Mobilis or Djezzy SIM card for next to nothing (good page on Algeria SIMs).