Algiers Good value
Chorba and couscous are the staples, and the pastries show the French century. Coffee culture is strong. Alcohol is legal but discreet and hard to find outside a few hotels.
Budget travel in Algeria
What a visitor's money does in Algeria: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Good value average across 1 guide · 5 is very cheap
Money
Algerian Dinar (DZD) · 1 EUR = 154 DZD official; the parallel rate is considerably higher
The dinar is closed and the parallel rate is substantially better than the official one, which is why most visitors bring euros in cash. Card acceptance is very limited and foreign cards frequently do not work at all — plan to run the trip on cash.
ATMs
Avoid: building the trip around withdrawing money — many machines reject foreign cards
Use: BNA, CPA, Société Générale Algérie
Bring euros in cash. Machines that do work dispense at the official rate, which is well below what cash fetches.
Getting around
A short ride in Algiers: 300–800 DA across town — cheap
From the airport: Algiers airport to the centre 1,500–2,500 DA
Cheaper than a negotiated taxi, and Yassir is what everybody under forty uses.
City by city, cheapest first
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
