Algeria - Visa, North/South travel, etc.

[ondoibili]

Originally Posted by roro

Great! but 8 days is very short!
Do you think that 15 days will be OK (about visa).
And with a car? (only to visit Northern Algeria).
Where have you slept? Hotels? BivoauacS?

RR.

Sorry, roro, for this late answer.

In the border crossing in the port of Oran there was a very easy passport control, but in the subsequent vehicle control the official was very intensively questioning for a detailed route plan, hotels as looking for something suspecting. Finally, after rereading the visa of my passport, he said: 'ah!, just eight days, ok, go ahead'.
I stayed in hotels: St hotel in Alger (good and not very expensive), Ibis in Constantine.
That's what I can tell you.

Eight days is really a very short time. The north of the country has also a lot to visit.
Good luck.

[Knight of the Holy Graal]

Originally Posted by ondoibili

Hi.

I've just returned from a little trip to Northern Algeria.

Attachment 10856

Four weeks after asking the visa at the embassy I got it. I asked a tourist visa just for eight days and this helped me convince the officials at the toll in Oran I had no intention to get to the South.
People agreeable and very helpful everywhere. Lots of police controls but no problem at all.

Regards.

Basauritik mundura... motorrez: Norte de ARGELIA en moto

Nice trip, mate, I have read it already twice and I am seriously thinking to couple northern Algeria to Tunisia in case I'll have to cancel the trip to Iran in 2014 for budget reasons.

Some questions: was it easy to obtain the Algerian VISA?
I thought that the guide was mandatory for Algeria, but according to your experience, that was not the case if you remain in the north...

How many days did it take to make the entire loop?

[ondoibili]

Originally Posted by Knight of the Holy Graal

Nice trip, mate, I have read it already twice and I am seriously thinking to couple northern Algeria to Tunisia in case I'll have to cancel the trip to Iran in 2014 for budget reasons.

Some questions: was it easy to obtain the Algerian VISA?
I thought that the guide was mandatory for Algeria, but according to your experience, that was not the case if you remain in the north...

How many days did it take to make the entire loop?

The Algerian embassy in Spain demands an insurance (the word 'Algeria' or 'North Africa' must appears) and evidences of hotel reservations. I sent them with MRW and in 4 weeks I had the visa back.

In theory, in the North of Algeria neither guide nor escort are mandatories, but in the web there are some tales reporting people staying a whole day in the customs because the border officials didn't believe they wouldn't head South.

I stayed eight days. It's a short time. To be taken into account that between major cities (Tlemcen, Oran, Alger, Constantine) there are good motorways and you can ride quickly, but between other cities the roads cross lots of villages and the riding can be desperately slow due to traffic jams.

[Knight of the Holy Graal]

Thank you very much for your excellent reply, ondoibili!

How many days did it take to carry out the whole Algerian trip?
Did you sleep in only those two cities you have mentioned or also in smaller towns?
Average price of accomodations?

Thanks again,

[ondoibili]

Originally Posted by Knight of the Holy Graal

Thank you very much for your excellent reply, ondoibili!

How many days did it take to carry out the whole Algerian trip?
Did you sleep in only those two cities you have mentioned or also in smaller towns?
Average price of accomodations?

Thanks again,

The whole trip eight days (5 days biking plus 3 days almost fully as pedestrian).

I stayed in: St hotel in Alger (55 euros/day breakfast included if booked by booking/trivago..., 75 euros/day if booked in their own hotel web), Ibis in Constantine (55 euros/day), and a particular home in Biskra (a guy we met in Alger invited us).

For obtaining an easier evidence of the hotel reservations required for the visa, I booked all the nights of the trip in St hotel; once I received the confirmation email, I redid the reservation according to my real route plan, leaving some days off to have some flexibility.