ALGERIA
December 2009
Borders
with Morocco and Libya have been closed for
years.
Revised map of safe/accessible desert regions
according to Tanezrouft Voyages
Currency
Dinar. 83D = 1 euro.
Price
of fuel
Petrol (essence)
23 d/litre; Super 30+ d/litre where
available (unleaded available in the
north); diesel about 14 d/litre.
Costs
Fuel
is cheap. Meals from 200d, camping from 400d,
hotels from 1000.
Useful
languages
Arabic or French.
Escorts
Travellers
with vehicles heading into
the Algerian Sahara require an escort pretty
much anywhere in the country now, ie: not just
the desert. Without vehicles you may get
around freely in the north (assuming you get
a visa - these guys managed in May 09), but not in the desert. In Salah seems the control point on the TSH where they insist on an escort to carry on south.
First of all
arrange your itinerary (or direct transit
to Niger) with an approved agency (see below),
then they send your official invite aka: certificate
d'hebergement to
the consulate where you apply for your visa.
These escorting regs match broadly similar
requirements in Libya and to a lesser extent,
travelling in remote parts Niger and Egypt.
Hassle,
of the type encountered in Morocco
or Egypt in unknown in Algeria. You will find
the people exceptionally hospitable and courteous.
Sly hustlers at Algiers' new airport are about
as bad as it gets.
Security
is another issue and
foreginers are said to be a target. Flying directly
into the south for a tour is fine but driving
too close to the Malian
borders off the main TSH route is unadvisable. Lately the formerly quiet Grand Erg Occidental region between Bechar and Ghardaia has become the location for clashes with AQIM. Such activity had not been reported so far south in Algeria; normally bombing and ambushes continue unbroken in the Tizi Ouzou region east of Algiers (an area long avoided by tourists).
Visas
Needed by all citizens of non-Arabic countries,
usually applied for in your country
of residence (which for most people
rules out Tunisia for example). It's possible
to obtain a regular 30-day visa in
Agadez (Niger)
the same day for 24,000CFA. The consulate is at:
N16° 59.131 E7°59.905
(Mon to Fri & Sat morning). You need the letter
of invitation/booking from the Algerian agency, two
photos. See this. You'll
then need to meet your guide at In Guezzam from Agadez
(or Bordj Moktar should you come up from Mali, although
don't bank on getting an Alg visa in Bamako, Mali).
The usual path for the Sahara travels is to apply
via an agency as described above. According to
UK visa regs (could be different elsewhere),
for independent travels in the north you can
submit a certificate
d'hebergment ('proof
of lodging') by booking a night in a hotel. Finding
a hotel that will answer your query and fax
the CdH can be another matter. If you have
been officially invited to northern Algeria
(usually by some institution) a Letter of Introduction
with an Algerian address and an explanation is
all that is required. In other words travelling around the north without a guide as was possible a few years ago is less easy in the current climate where the north is more dangerous than the south.
APPLYING
FOR A VISA IN THE UK for
a Saharan visit
The Algerian Consulate
6 Hyde
Park Gate, London, SW7 5EW.
Closed Sunday
and Monday (Sat - collection only).
Tel. 020 7589 6885
Fax 020 7589 7725
Website
Apply
in the basement between 9.30am and noon.
Note if applying in person by 8.45 there
are already half a dozen couriers queuing.
On opening the doors they now hand out numbered
tickets to those already waitiing; if you arrive
after ticket handout pop downstairs and ask
for one. Arriving much after 10.30 may mean
you won't get to the head of the queue before
they close at noon.
If you DIY, collect between 4 and
4.30pm a week later (during Ramadan 2.30-3pm but varies). Download
form here (pdf). Fill out two copies and
attach a photo to each.
You
need an invitation from an Algerian
tourist agency (they fax a copy
directly to the consulate)
and a letter
from your employer, basically
saying you work there. A single-entry
30-day visa costs £28 for a UK
passport holder.
Tourist
agencies in Algeria that can fax the
necessary invitation for tourists - aka "certificate
d'heberegement" include:
Agence Tanezrouft, September
2007 prices for up to 3-4 cars:
Guide with a car:
€135-150/day
Guide in your car :
€50-70/day
€530 for
6-day Tunisia to Niger
transit via the Trans-Sahara
Highway
Info
needed for your invitation
•
names and date
of birth
nationality of the participants
passport numbers
how are you travelling to Algeria
registration number of vehicles
itinerary
exact dates of entry and exit
to the country
'transit' or a 'tourist' visa.
The certificat d'hebergement will
only be accepted
if faxed directly from the agency to
the consulate where you're applying.
Many travellers use Agence Tanezrouft because I use them and list them here, but lately some have had not so good experiences once out there; the usual combination of duff guides/escorts and their sometimes unreliable cars (sometimes a problem in Libya too).
In my experience a drop in quality eventually occurs with any popular agency in the Sahara, but for the moment I stick with the devil I know. When it comes to processing the visas, Tanezrouft are fine.
There are plenty of other agencies; Akar Akar based in Tam has a slick website, but in my experience they soon lose interest when asked to organise something out of the ordinary.
Border
formalities - overland
An hour or four from Tunisia at Taleb Larbi
(between Nefta - El Oued; the most common
entry point where your escort meets you.
Fill out police forms for you and your
car, then customs declaration forms and
maybe get a search. Then you need to declare
and change your official money and buy
motor insurance (2069d for 4 weeks for
a 4x4). They also do a health briefing
(AIDS awareness?). Then you must check
into the gendarmerie a couple of kms down
the road.
The
crossing from Ghat (Libya) to Djanet is closed to tourists and despite what
the new LP says, I don't believe the crossing
out of Deb Deb to Ghadames in Libya is
possible for tourists either; entry into Algeria
certainly isn't. Nothing doing yet with
Moroccan borders, Mali-Tanezrouft is risky as usual and the Algerian Tanezrouft
may be closed to tourists (see below).
Though we went as far as Tessalit in October
2006, a month later it was dangerous again
and has flared up in late 2007 in
line with the unrest in north Niger.
Border
formalities: flying in
To Tam for example, on an organised/private
tour: no compulsory exchange required
(though you may want to change some
anyway for personal use). Just fill
out the brown card and a white customs
form declaring money and phones, cameras/etc
(no binoculars aka: jumelles).
This customs sheet is looked at but virtually
never checked against your money on the
way out. They ask but don't search much.
Desert
pistes
The landscapes of south Algeria
offer the best of the true Sahara
without committing yourself to crossing
the desert to West Africa, with clear
tracks, many wells and much nomad life.
The Amguid region and track (A9 and A12) as well as A2 and A3 have been said to be closed for a few years to tourists following the 2003 kidnappings there, but there is talk of the region opeining in 2009. Erg Chech is out of bounds and as mentioned the Occidental Erg has become insecure.
Coming
down from Taleb to Djanet in February
2007 was business
as usual - tedious checkpoints in every
town and village, some insisting your
guide goes to the local barracks to fill
out a form; next time I took
the Algiers-Tam route in January 2008.
There were police at every roundabout
and
checking-in is required with the Gendarmerie if you
stop at In Salah and at Tam. Exiting via Bordj
is straightforward both ways although north Mali has its issues right now. A 2008 report on this and the Tam route here and a recent report on arriving at Algiers from Marseille is here.