Is Algiers safe to walk around?

Algiers is a working Mediterranean capital of several million people, and its centre is genuinely pleasant on foot. The white amphitheatre of the bay, the arcaded boulevards of the colonial city, the Grande Poste, the sweep down to the port — this is a city built for walking, and locals use it that way until late.

The realistic risk is petty theft: phones and bags in crowded markets, at transport hubs and on busy pavements. It is the same calculation you would make in Naples or Marseille. Keep your phone out of your back pocket, don’t wear a camera loose around your neck in a crowd, and carry the day’s cash rather than everything.

Two nuances worth knowing. After dark, the main lit boulevards stay busy and comfortable; quieter residential and peripheral districts are worth a taxi rather than a long walk. And the Casbah — the UNESCO-listed old city — is not dangerous but it is a dense, steep, unsigned maze of private alleys and staircases where a guide changes the experience completely, both for navigation and because much of what makes it extraordinary is behind doors you would otherwise walk past.

You will also find Algiers unusually free of the tourist-directed hustle common elsewhere in North Africa, simply because there are few tourists. Curiosity and invitations to tea are far more likely than a scam. For the wider picture see the Algeria safety guide and our Algiers state guide.