Algeria (may 2018) trip report
 

We have just returned from two week trip to Algeria. Our initial plan was to cross erg occidental from Ghardaia to Timimoun.
This was my forth trip to Algeria and the first one I almost regret. Guide at Taleb Larbi is a must but now you also get a gendarmerie escort for all the transfers. But the escort changes in almost every gendarmerie station along the way. So the transfer to Ghardia lasted 12 hours instead of planned 6-hours. The initial plan was also abandoned due to gendarmerie last minute decisions.

If looks like the tourist with their own vehicles are simply not welcome any more in Algeria. And if they somehow manage to show up then they must be well protected in order to minimise the potential "bad news" spreading out of the country. So oil&gas business .... is safe. According to our experiences the only reasonable option is to fly in and use the local agencies to drive you around. But also their range is quite limited.

Tom

p.s.
No problems with visas ... we got them in couple of days

Do you think it would be the same all over the country? I was thinking of taking the ferry to Oran and make a circuit over Tlemcen, Bechar and Timimoun up to Ghardaia, Constantine and exit via Tunisia.
Always with the aim of pushing the envelope to see how far we can go and if they will let us go alone. Which may take some negotiating. I have done it before (2009) but I think it is impossible to try to divine what the DRS will say this time.
On some level in the system, there must be a discussion about trying to encourage tourism. In Tamanrasset they are fed up with the current situation.

I haven't been to Oran but in Bechar and Ghardaia we got an escort and there is plenty of checkpoints so I think sooner or latter you will end up with them. In region of Taghit we were allowed to do the daily trips into the desert. But our passports were kept in gendarmerie station. Basicaly from the border our passports were not in our possession as they were exchanged between the escorts. Is is a very strange situation ...
There is another point with the escorts - in some regions they are very strict about the speed limit of the "escort convoy" ... it is 80 km/h in some cases even 60 km/h. Straight empty road and you have to drive 60 km/h for 150 km ... it is painful.

According to the discussions we had with the locals and the guides the forecast regarding tourism is rather pessimistic ...

It is a big shame ... such beautiful country but such terrible regulations.

I would think that at least they could gather up courage to let you drive alone along the northern coast?

Driving for days with a convoy would be insufferable.

My experience from earlier this year and 2011 is the the gendarmerie will escort you from the border/port (or soon after the port) to the desert (Gassi Touil; In Salah) and then leave you with you agency guide/escort. The connections of a given agency can have a bearing on how efficiently this all passes.
Certainly I've not heard of them following you onto the piste - what little there is to currently explore.
But I'm not surprised they nixed a traverse of the GE Occ - if that's what you were planning, TC.
Sounds way too ambitious for them, like something from the 1980s.

As with other matters in DZ, you get the feeling that factions are pulling left and right to get their way. Unfortunately, with all its risks in a country this size, desert tourism, even agency organised rather than merely escorted, is not a priority.

Recent car report:
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...a-with-own-car

We knew at the beginning that our plan fails into the "gray" zone. But there were couple of reports by the Italian groups doing this route in 2017. So it was not "mission impossible". Our guide got an information that the route is doable so we decided to go. We were aware that the situation might change in the mean time ... but we took a risk. The plan B was to do a daily trips etc...
Our main problem:( was that we had a tight schedule so the escort pace was a quite an issue for us.