Top things to do in Algiers

Carrying the name of its original owner, Dar Hassan Pacha, this is one of the city's grandest mansions. The building now houses a collection of illuminated manuscripts and contemporary calligraphy by artists from...

The heart of the city is its ancient Casbah, a steep and narrow maze of streets just west of the Pl des Martyrs. There are several magnificent Ottoman palaces to explore here, most concentrated around the Djemaa...

The Bardo, which focuses on the prehistory of Algeria, is one of the best museums in Algiers. The collection is well-displayed with videos, models and excellent diagrams and information panels (in French) that...

This palace is in fact a row of several large waterfront houses, joined to form a single compound. It is now home to the Centre des Arts et de la Culture, which hosts some excellent art and photographic...

The richness of Algeria’s heritage is brought home in this museum. The collection of antiquities is drawn from sites around the city and throughout Algeria. Among the early works are fine ivory carvings and...

This classy, intimate and laid-back restaurant is perhaps the best place in Algiers to eat gourmet versions of local classics. It's best known for its mechoui, delicious slow roasted lamb on the bone. It also...

Algiers' beloved main post office is an unmissable piece of living history, a fine example of French-designed, early 20th-century Moorish architecture. Look out for what is possibly the world’s most exquisitely...

This museum is the most accessible of the buildings one can visit in the Casbah. It is housed in a fine example of an Ottoman-period town house, the Dar Khedaoudj el-Amia, which follows the classic town house...

A handy place to eat when exploring the Casbah district, this cheap locals favourite serves traditional home cooking that can be hard to find elsewhere. Try the grilled sardines, various kebabs and, if you're...

This gorgeously renovated old building, with its star-studded roof, Andalucian-style tiled walls, Moorish arches and an interior stage that was once hosted musicians, is now an upmarket restaurant specialising in...

These bayside botanical gardens date to the first years of French occupation and today they are a sprawling natural hothouse. It's a place of outstanding beauty with avenues of palms and stands of exotic trees....

This Algiers institution is a great place for breakfast and coffee on the ever-busy terrace of the cafe. Around the back is the restaurant serving grilled meat and fish dishes as well as thin-crust pizza.

A highly atmospheric bar where time seems to have ground to a halt in 1931. Half drunk bottles of whisky gather dust behind the wood and mirrored bar and old men slap cards down on the table tops.

A fast, fun, noisy and busy Palestinian restaurant with a calling card of succulent dripping shawarma and plates of mezze loaded with hummus, olives and falafel.

Of all the mosques in central Algiers, the Djemaa Ketchoua has had the most turbulent history. Its date of construction is estimated as being around the beginning of the 17th century. Its name translates as place...

The Djemma Ali Bitchine, which dates to 1622, is a mosque with an unusual domed design clearly influenced by Italian or Byzantine churches. That it should be so is perhaps less of a surprise when you learn that...

The city's Grand Mosque has ancient heritage. It's built on a rise above the inner port where early Berber and Phoenician inhabitants built a place of prayer. The Romans later turned this into a temple which was...

Colonial French town planners cleared many Ottoman buildings when they redesigned the Algiers waterfront and laid out what is now the place des Martyrs, but they left the Djemaa el-Djedid. Contrary to its name,...

One of the most recognisable landmarks in the city, the Makam Echahid celebrates the sacrifice of the unknown martyr who fell for his country. The monument, constructed by the Canadians in the early 1980s, is...

This museum, which sits directly beneath the Makam Echahid, aims to collect, preserve and display objects and memories of the struggle against colonialism. It starts with the story of the French invasion of 1830,...