Best Travel Tips to Algeria in 2019 (For Your First Trip)

Algeria combines European orderliness, Asian color and African friendliness.

It offers tourists a mix of beautiful coastline, picturesque mountains and unique desert landscapes.

The Algerian urban centers are a combination between eastern, western and southern atmosphere.

Algeria is one of the largest countries in Africa and is among the world leaders in oil and natural gas production.

More from Africa:

Algeria is one of the developed and rich countries of the continent.

Few countries in Africa could be compared with Algeria in terms of health and education system.

What is the Best Time to Visit Algeria?

To a large extent the answer depends on which part of the country you wish to visit.

For example, south of the Atlas Mountains the most pleasant time of year for tourism are winter months from October to April when temperatures are most pleasant.

Along the country, however, climate conditions are quite different.

In the northern parts of the country (including the capital Algiers) offers the best conditions for tourism during May, June, September and October.

What Clothes to Wear?

If you are planning to travel around the Sahara desert have to wear very light clothing conformable to the high temperatures.

However, clothing should possibly protect you from the strong tropical sunlight.

Choose bright and airy robes and fabrics.

North of the Atlas Mountains you have to comply with the winter season.

From November to April, you have to wear a thin jacket, and clothes with long sleeves.

It is good also to take in case something as for warm spring weather, because sometimes it is quite warm even in winter.

For summer season from early May to late October summer clothes are best.

It is required to wear enough sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat as the African sun can be strong even during the winter months.

Weather

Algeria falls into the borders of two climatic zones.

The northern-most parts of the country have very nice, sunny and warm subtropical Mediterranean climate with mild and wet winters and hot, dry summers.

The Atlas Mountains play the role of climatic barrier and protect the Mediterranean coast of hot air masses coming from the Sahara Desert.

South of the Atlas Mountains country falls in the tropical climate zone.

It covers almost the entire territory of Algeria.

The climate is extremely dry and hot throughout the year and rainfall is rare event.

Temperatures vary a lot in the country.

In Algiers, located on the Mediterranean coast temperatures are between 15°C in January and 30°C August.

However, in the city Borj Mokhtar, which is located in the southern Algerian Sahara desert temperature ranges from 26°C in January to 43 – 44°C in July, but sometimes it might reach even 50°C!

Waters

In terms of water wealth the country is divided into two parts.

On one side are the northern and mountainous areas, giving “life” of multiple short and fast-flowing rivers.

They flow from the high mountain areas where fall more rain and snow.

On the other hand is the desert south of the Sahara where are almost no rivers.

The only exceptions are some small desert oases or small-sized springs amidst the rocks in the desert.

Small desert rivers occur sometimes after heavy rain.

An interesting fact is that in mountainous areas of northern Algeria there is a large number of salt lakes.

Geographic location, boundaries and size

Algeria is located in northwest Africa.

This is the second largest country on the continent after Sudan and 11th in the world.

Occupies an area of 2,381,471 sq. km.

It is bordered by Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Tunisia.

To the north it has a wide outlet to the Mediterranean.

Algeria is located between 18 and 37° north latitude and between 8° west longitude and 11° east longitude, or on both sides of the Greenwich meridian.

Relief

Algeria has a varied topography.

Northern and south-eastern areas are mostly mountainous.

Along the Mediterranean coast lie the famous Atlas Mountains.

In southeastern Algeria is located Mount Hoggar, where you will find the highest peak in Algeria.

This is Tahat Peak, which rises to about 3003 meters above sea level.

In central Algeria in the middle of the Sahara Desert is located Tademait plateau.

It separates the flat lands to the southwest and the lands with the lowest altitude in northeast Algeria.

The coastline of the country is slightly indented.

There are very few bays and peninsulas and most of them are not very deep cut into the sea and drought.

In larger bays have arisen and have developed the largest cities in the country, including the capital Algiers.

Population

Algeria has a population of about 33,000,000 people, nearly all of whom are Muslims.

Christians and Jews are about 1% of the total population.

Most of the inhabitants of Algeria are Berbers and Arabs.

Population is extremely unevenly distributed in the territory.

The large cities are located in the northern coastal areas, while to the south the vast desert areas are almost uninhabited.

The largest cities in Algeria are the capital Algiers (about 3,500,000 people), Oran (over 2,000,000 people), Constantine (about 800,000) and Annaba (almost 400,000).

The official languages of Algeria are two – Arabic and French (which is among the most popular and widely used languages on the African continent).