Things to do in Algiers
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Algiers
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Best months, warm and sightseeable all day, with gardens at their best and Tipaza in its famous light.
Hot and humid, Casbah in the morning only, beach in season and diaspora crowds push hotel prices up.
Mild, wetter and quietest, museums and the Casbah at their most local, with possible snow at Chrea.
Ramadan falls roughly here in 2026 and 2027 and moves earlier each year, closing most restaurants in daylight and moving dinner late.
What's on
- Algiers International Book Fair (SILA) late October to early November
One of the Arab world largest book fairs at Pins Maritimes, a busy week for hotels nearby.
- Algiers International Film Festival December, dates vary
Screenings around Riadh el Feth and the Cinematheque, with programming French and Arabic first.
- Yennayer 12 January
Amazigh New Year, a public holiday with traditional meals, marked in the capital.
- Independence Day 5 July
Official ceremonies, crowds and closures in the centre, in peak summer heat.
Best things to do in Algiers
Casbah of Algiers
A lived in Ottoman hillside city of stairs, palaces and mosques, best walked downhill from the citadel with a guide.
Basilique Notre-Dame d'Afrique
A neo Byzantine basilica on the cliff above the bay, calm inside and with the best western view in Algiers.
Jardin d'Essai du Hamma
Algiers green lung of palms and ficus avenues, deep shade and local families, right by the Hamma metro stop.
Memorial du Martyr
Three huge concrete palm fronds over the bay, the monument Algiers orients by, with a free panoramic esplanade.
Musée Public National du Bardo
Prehistory and ethnography inside an 18th century Moorish villa of tiled courtyards, fountains and gardens.
Palais des Raïs - Bastion 23
Restored Ottoman seafront palaces at the foot of the Casbah, the most legible historic interior in the old city.
La Grande Poste d'Alger
The 1910 neo Moorish main post office, free to admire and the orientation point where the centre meets the port.
Ketchaoua Mosque
Ottoman mosque turned cathedral and back again at the foot of the Casbah, read from the square with a guide.
Where to stay in Algiers
Hydra / El Biar heights
quiet, views and a residential feel
Leafy elevated villa streets with the best cafes nearby, and taxis needed for almost every sight.
Didouche Mourad / centre
first trip, short trip
Walkable to the Casbah foot, the port and metro stations, with the largest choice of everyday restaurants.
Bab Ezzouar / airport
transit nights and business
The most modern chain hotels by the airport and mall, with no old city sights within walking distance.
Think twice about
- Lower Casbah as a place to sleep
Few verifiable bookable hotels, steep unlit lanes after dark and no taxi access to most doors. Visit by day with a guide and sleep in the centre.
- Isolated suburbs with no named hotel cluster
No walkable sights, no metro or tram link and no hotel desk to solve problems. The risk is logistics, not a named dangerous district.
- Sidi Fredj / Palm Beach as a sightseeing base
A long traffic exposed commute from every central sight and tired resort stock. Good for one beach night in summer, not a base.
Best restaurants in Algiers
Le Tantra Restaurant
Algiers most praised fine dining room, Algerian inflected French cooking on a terrace among trees.
Restaurant Le Bearnais
A long running French dining room you ring to enter, for grilled fish, precise lamb and Algerian wine.
La Palmeraie Restaurant
Traditional couscous, tajines and bastilla in a well kept room where local families take a proper lunch.
Dar Yemma Casbah
A traditional house restaurant inside the Casbah, the atmospheric lunch stop inside a guided Casbah day.
Restaurant Le Dauphin
The old port side fish institution with a harbour terrace, praised and criticised in almost equal measure.
Couzina
A Hydra neighbourhood table for sardines, couscous, merguez and sea bass where Algiers eats for itself.
Sapori
A vaulted centre room turned couscous bar, a focused menu and an easy first night dinner near centre hotels.
Le Roi de la Loubia
Three dishes only, loubia, fried sardines and pepper salad, at shared tables for a few hundred dinars.
Outdoor things to do in Algiers
Tipaza Archaeological Park
A Roman port city spread over a green headland above the sea, the single best day trip from Algiers.
Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania
A vast conical royal tomb from about 3 BC on the Tipaza road, a short stop that gives the day its second era.
Musée Public National de Cherchell
Royal sculpture and fine mosaics from ancient Caesarea, the museum that explains whose city Tipaza was.
Chrea National Park
Atlas cedar forest and Barbary macaques an hour south, cooler in summer and snowy enough to ski in winter.
Plage Sidi Fredj
A historic port and sandy beach west of the city for a summer swim, a corniche walk and a fish lunch.
Algiers Casbah Walking Tour
A booked local guide turns the Casbah maze into palaces, mosques and a traditional house over three to four hours.
Best hotels in Algiers
Hotel El Djazair
The former Saint George of 1889, Moorish rooms and a famous botanical garden, with dated rooms and slow service.
El Aurassi Hotel
The big tower hotel above the centre with spacious rooms and the bay view that defines Algiers hotel photos.
Sofitel Algiers Hamma Garden
Chain predictability beside the Jardin d'Essai, with a pool, gardens and the Hamma metro for the centre.
Algiers Marriott Hotel Bab Ezzouar
A modern 2021 Marriott near the airport with pool and spa, right for transit and wrong for a Casbah weekend.
Lamaraz Arts Hotel
Large spotless rooms, a seventh floor restaurant with bay views and staff reviewers praise by name.
El Biar Hotel
A small refined hotel on the heights, a quieter and more personal alternative to the big centre towers.
Albert Premier
An old centre hotel whose location scores far above its rooms, the honest budget pick for a short stay.
ibis Alger Aéroport
The predictable airport budget chain in Bab Ezzouar, right for a late arrival or an early flight out.
Is Algiers expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | DZD 7,000 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | DZD 16,000 a person |
| Splurge | DZD 38,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Basilique Notre-Dame d'Afrique: a few days ahead
- Tipaza Archaeological Park: a few days ahead
- Royal Mausoleum of Mauretania: a few days ahead
- Musée Public National de Cherchell: a few days ahead
- Chrea National Park: a few days ahead
- Algiers Casbah Walking Tour: a few days ahead
- Hotel El Djazair: weeks ahead
- El Aurassi Hotel: a few days ahead
- Apply for the visa months ahead and do not book non refundable flights before it is granted.
- Book Casbah and Tipaza guides days to weeks ahead in season, and top dinners by phone days ahead.
- Book hotels weeks ahead for May, late September, book fair week and the summer diaspora peak.
- Request a Bab Ezzouar hotel airport shuttle explicitly in advance.
Is Algiers safe?
- Avoid travel within 30 km of the Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Tunisia borders. Algiers itself is in no high-risk zone.
- Do not photograph government buildings, police, military sites, checkpoints, bridges or dams.
- Leave the lower Casbah lanes before dark, keep phones discreet in crowds, and carry a passport copy with the original in the hotel safe.
- Alcohol is served only in some hotels and a few restaurants, never in public, and is reduced or absent in Ramadan.
Algiers travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- Do not build a day on walking into the Great Mosque, as non Muslim visitor access is limited and changeable.
- Decline unbooked Casbah tours from street touts and book an established local guide instead.
- Hotel dining rooms are the city most expensive and least interesting default meals.
- Sidi Fredj sold as a resort out of season is a quiet marina with tired hotels.
Getting around Algiers: public transport and more
- Metro Line 1 links the centre, Grande Poste, Place des Martyrs and Hamma for about 50 DZD a ride.
- Use Yassir first, then Heetch, for priced and tracked rides without a street taxi negotiation.
- Taxis often do not use the meter, so agree the fare before moving and show the destination in French or Arabic script.
- Take the cable car between the Jardin d'Essai area and the Martyrs Memorial once for the view.
Who Algiers suits
| Solo travellers | OK |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | Good |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | OK |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Algiers your trip
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