While you certainly need more than 24 hours to adequately explore a country or even a city, you can accomplish a lot in 24 hours. In this post, I will recount what I saw over a 24-hour period in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.
24 Hours In Algiers: What To Do, What To See
I arrived into Algeria late on a Saturday and left early on a Tuesday, but really only had two full days on the ground. Since I work while I travel, one of those days (actually a portion of both days) was spent working. It is what it is…without work, I cannot travel. This report will capture what I did over a 24-hour period from Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon.
Yesterday, I shared two coffee recommendations. My venture from the Hyatt Regency at the airport into Algiers began in pursuit of coffee. But after a lovely coffee refuel at Narcoffee Roasters, I hopped in a taxi for my first tourist stop, the Maqam Echahid or Martyr’s Memorial. This was opened in 1982, on the 20th anniversary of Algeria’s independence from France.
While much of it was blocked off, it seemed to be a popular congregating point and was quite crowded during golden hour.
From the memorial, I walked around what appeared to be a largely deserted mall before taking a gondola down from Bab El Oued to Z’ghara, near the entrance to the Le Jardin d’Essai du Hamma (botanical garden). As it was dusk, the gardens were closed and I returned to the hotel.
The following morning, I got started after breakfast. There is no Uber in Algeria. Instead, a ride-sharing app called YASSIR is used. Due to heavy traffic around the airport, I had a lot of trouble finding a driver. I would summon one, wait several minutes, but then cancel because they had not moved closer toward me.
Ultimately, I was about to use a taxi when a car rolled up to the Hyatt, a young man rolled down the window, and called out, “Matthew?”
It was a driver I had canceled about 10 minutes prior…he had come anyway. And I’m so glad he did.
We were off, with our first stop being the Notre Dame d’Afrique. Perched high on a hilltop overlooking the city and the Bay of Algiers, the basilica opened in 1872.
An inscription on the church reads:
Notre Dame d’Afrique priez pour nous et pour les Musulmans
(“Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims”)
Rather than just drop me off, my driver Hecham wisely decided to stick around and we ended up spending the entire day together. During that time, we had several remarkable conversations and I was beyond grateful to get to know a local and gain a better understanding of Algeria.
Algiers is a bustling city with a lot of French influence in its architecture.
Our next stop was coffee at El Hyl Coffee in Hydra.
After, we headed back to the Hamma botanical garden for a walk. This garden is really a masterpiece in the heart of the city, a lovely public space where we spent the next hour walking around.
From there, Hecham wanted to take me to his neighborhood of Rouiba on the other side of the airport.
On the way, we passed the impressive Djamaa el Djazaïr (great mosque of Algiers). The mosque houses the world’s tallest minaret and is the third-largest mosque in the world after the Great Mosque of Mecca and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi of Medina in Saudi Arabia. I wanted to stop in, but was told that as an infidel I would not be allowed inside (Hecham and I had such a great conversation over matters of faith throughout the day).
Interestingly, the mosque was built by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
We parked on a busy street in Rouiba and found a shawarma shop for lunch. It was delicious…hitting the spot after several hours of walking around and only drinking coffee.
After lunch, we went to a coffee shop Hecham liked called Diagonal and enjoyed our last coffee of the day (by this time, it was approaching 5:00 pm).
Hecham dropped me off at my hotel and bid me adieu. It was a great day and if you are in need of an English-speaking, safe, reliable, and intelligent driver, I wholeheartedly recommend Hecham. He can be reached on WhatsApp at +213 656 37 40 08.
CONCLUSION
Of course, I barely just scratched the surface of Algiers, let alone the other great cities of Algeria. But I was very happy with what I managed to see in a 24-hour period and so thankful for the chance to visit such a lovely capital city.
Source : https://liveandletsfly.com/24-hours-algiers/
