Algeria

The Sahara here is the real thing, and tours are mandatory in the south

Algeria is the largest country in Africa and about eighty percent of it is Sahara. It has been difficult to visit for decades, first because of the civil conflict of the 1990s and since because of a restrictive visa regime, and it receives a tiny number of leisure visitors relative to its size and heritage.

That is changing slowly. A simplified visa on arrival now exists for organised tours to the southern Sahara, which is where the country most extraordinary landscapes are. Tassili n’Ajjer is a plateau of eroded sandstone with over 15,000 prehistoric rock paintings showing a green Sahara with hippos and cattle. The Hoggar mountains around Tamanrasset are volcanic and otherworldly.

On the coast, Algiers has the Casbah, a dense Ottoman-era hillside quarter that is UNESCO listed. Djemila, Timgad and Tipaza are Roman sites of the first rank with almost no visitors. Note that travel advice restricts several border regions and requires escorts in parts of the south, so check current guidance.

Annual events and festivals

• Ramadan (varies) — widely observed, with lively evenings in the cities.
• Eid al-Fitr (varies) — a major national holiday.
• Eid al-Adha (varies) — the second Eid, a multi-day holiday.
• Yennayer (12 Jan) — the Amazigh new year, now an official public holiday.
• Sebiba, Djanet (varies) — a Tuareg festival of drumming and sword dancing. UNESCO listed.
• Independence Day (5 Jul) — marks 1962 independence from France after a brutal war.
• Revolution Day (1 Nov) — marks the 1954 start of the war of independence.
• Timgad International Festival (Jul) — concerts in a Roman theatre.
• Festival of Rai, Oran (Jul-Aug) — celebrating the music style born in that city.
• Date harvest, Biskra (Oct-Nov) — the deglet nour harvest in the oases.