Travel to Algeria used to involve lengthy wait times at Algerian embassies, however, their new Visa on Arrival (VOA) scheme aimed at bringing tourists to the south has made this a whole lot easier!
The visa on arrival scheme has now been around for a little while, however recently it has had one major change.
So how does it work? Well, you will need to book a tour with a guide that heads to one of Algeria's southern Sahara regions. The most popular of these are Ghardaia, Tamanrasset and Djanet. Your tour operator will organise for you your visa which will come in the form of a boarding authorisation. You will have to show this as well as proof of travel to the south for which domestic flight tickets are sufficient. All you will need to do next is hop on a plane and arrive at one of Algeria’s airports.
The big change that has come is that there is now a 75 EUR (or 10,000 DZD) fee that is charged on arrival in Algiers. Previously international arrivals into Algiers using the boarding authorisation were not charged anything! Arrivals that previously came in via Constantine or Oran were however charged 75 EUR, so this change isn’t exactly unexpected.
For many, I’m sure it was a nice surprise that there wasn’t a charge on arrival but sadly those days are now gone.
The easiest way to get a boarding authority letter is to book through a travel agency that will handle all the work for you or even better by joining one of Saiga Tours group Algeria tours!
If you would like to travel to Algeria on one of our group tours or as an independent, send us an email at
[email protected]
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