Libya and Algeria (1/2)
This post is part 1 of the "libya-algeria-2025" series:
I spent nearly 3 weeks exploring Libya and then Algeria. It was a pretty good trip overall, despite requiring 9 separate flights (round trip).
This trip was a long time coming. My first attempt to visit Algeria was back in 2022, but I couldn't get a visa. The second attempt was a year ago, but the tour group never got enough signups, and it was cancelled. This time, I took steps to eliminate both of those risks, by pursuing Algeria's (newish) visa-on-arrival program, and signing up for a private tour. That isn't to say that any of it was easy. Finding a tour company that I could actually rely on was a huge mess. I contacted nearly a dozen different companies. Some never replied at all. Others stopped responding for no obvious reason. But, I thought I had a good company lined up, and was ready to finalize dates and pay them, they ghosted me. I scrambled to find another company, and found one that was actually pretty good to work with.
What follows is the time that I spent in Libya, see the second part for Algeria.
Day 1
The Precheck line had literally no wait. Although the goon at the desk berated me for not hearing his rambling that I didn't need to scan my boarding pass. TSA even restocked the hand sanitizer. I went straight to the lounge which was maybe 1/3 full. Same food as always.
Boarding took forever because lots of people had huge bags that didn't fit well into the bins.
Then we were blocked by the huge Emirates plane which was scheduled to depart 10 minutes after us. But since boarding took so long we fell behind.
We ended up departing nearly an hour late. The flight kinda sucked. I had 2 large guys beside me, who needed to get up nearly every hour.
The food was some of the worst that i've had on a flight in a long time. The USB port for my seat didn'work at all. I managed to sleep maybe an hour.
We landed on time at CDG.
By some miracle, the terminal where I arrived was the same terminal that I needed for my flight to Tunis. I didn't even need to clear security. I went straight to the lounge which wad quite full. I got some food. Boardimg was a circus. There was a huge mob gathered around the gate when I arrived 10 minutes before boarding time. They started boarding 10 minutes late, and it took forever. We pushed back 20 minutes late for the hour flight. The flight itself was ok.
We landed in a steady rain in Tunis. I attempted to go through the Transit desk and they refused to help me without a boarding pass.
The immigration line was super slow. After 30 minutes it was my turn. I told the guy that I was transitting to a flight to Tripoli, he was unphased,
and stamped me in. When I found the Libyan Wings counter, there was no line. They asked to see my evisa,
then told me that checkin for my 20:20 flight starts in an hour, after the 18:10 flight closes. I asked if I could switch to the earlier flight,
but they claimed it was fully booked with a standby list. I stood against the wall observing all the chaos for a while.
Then I noticed people queuing and assumed that it was for my flight. The sign board finally updated, but then there was a shift change and the new people putzed
around for another 20 minutes. Finally it was my turn but the lady had to call her manager to inspect my evisa first.
After that it was a lot of the normal emmigration/security crap and then waiting for my flight to board.
Less than an hour before departure time a thunderstorm rolled in.
Boarding was complete chaos. No announcement, just a jumble of people rushing the gate. The Libyan Wings 737 plane was very old.
Many of seats were stuck in a partial reclined position. And the seats were beat up and rock hard.
One of the AC nozzle units above a row had somehow broken free and was dangling lose. There were at least 3 different styles of armwrest.
Somehow, they managed to do meal service during the one hour flight. There was a juice box, fritatta and crescant. It honestly wasn't bad.
We landed 15 minutes late, then taxiied for 10 minutes, then bus. When I entered the terminal, there was 1 sign in Arabic pointing to one huge line (i guess for Libyans), and a 2nd sign in English "Arabs & Foreigners" pointing to a 2nd line with about 15 people. Occasionally a random guard would escort people from the back of my line to the front for reasons. It seemed like groups with women or children got to cut the line. No wifi in the terminal. When I finally reached the front of the line, they took my passport and told me to take a seat. While I was waiting, my guide (Hatam) & police escort dude (Abdul) found me. The police guy is huge. Like almost 7ft. After 10 minutes thr guide returned with my passport, and we drove to the hotel.
Day 2
I slept ok until the alarm in the room next door went off for 5 minutes at 6am, then the call to prayer a few minutes later.
The plan was to eat breakfast at 7:30am, then meet the guide at 8am to depart. Since I don't have cell service in Libya, my phone's clock never updated.
I forgot that Libya is 10 hours from PST, rather than 9, and I was on the wrong timezone. It was actually already 8:05am instead of 7:05am.
I packed up fast, and raced to eat fast. Breakfast was ok, but nothing fancy. But when I got down to the lobby, the guide wasn't there.
He ended up arriving at 08:35am due to 'traffic'.
We stopped for gas, which cost about $0.60/gallon. Even the guide commented that its insanely cheap. Traffic was a bit congested getting out of Tripoli. Air quality was really bad. The sky was a grayish brown color. Just before 10am we made a brief toilet/smoke stop. The scenery quickly transitioned to full desert with creosote and lots of sand & rocks everywhere.
At 11am we reached the first real stop of the day, Kasr Haj, a village and ancient grainery. It was very similar to those that I saw in Tunisia last year. This one was in use from the 14th century up until 1996. It was in good condition, with a caretaker, plus 2 tourist police. A Japanese solo tourist arrived while I was visiting.
Next we drove up into the mountain range that runs west all the way to Tunisia. We stopped at noon to see the ancient Berber village of Tarmisah.
It sits on a huge cliff 721m up at the edge of the mountain. There was a huge rectangular signaling tower, an old mosque, olive grinding room,
and lots of former homes.
We drove another hour to the city of Kabow. First stop was lunch. Not a lot of choices, so we ended up at a place that was sandwiches, and I got 2 egg cheese burgers with a Libyan bitter soda. The soda was good, it was kinda like coke, only with no sugar. The burger had spicy pepper paste which was nice. Total for lunch was about $3.
We drove to the old part of Kabaw to see another, larger grainery. There was also an old olive pressing wheel and crumbling stone ruins of the old town from long ago
The remainder of the day was spent driving to Ghedames, about 300km away through open desert. The road was mostly ok, but it was pretty boring for the majority. Lots of blowing sand across the road, and mostly just flat nothingness with small rocks scattered about, with a few dumb military checkpoints. We stopped at 6pm for a tea/toilet break with 100km left. The tea was the same super sweet tea that I drank all the time in Mauritania.
About 30km outside of Ghedamis at 7pm, the car lost engine power. We ended up stuck at a military checkpoint waiting for someone to come from town to rescue us. After 20 minutes the rescue vehicle arrived and towed us with a janky rope into town. We briefly stopped at a mechanic, and he claims the transmission fluid line ruptured and should be easy to fix.
The hotel is huge and old, and wifi only works in the lobby. I'm spending 2 nights here.
Day 3
I slept ok despite being awake for at least an hour at 2am for no reason. I was up for the day just before 7am at the call to prayer.
A large tour group ate breakfast at 7:30am, and by the time I arrived most of the food was gone. I ended up getting stuff, but it was picked over.
We walked about 30 minutes from the hotel, through the modern city to the edge of the old town. It was a bit chilly, but at least the sky was clear.
In the 80s, Qadaffi built modern housing and encouraged everyone to leave the old town. We met with the local guide, and Hatam left to deal with his car.
The old town was really fascinating, as its been basically frozen in time since everyone moved away in the 80s. No tourist shops, or tacky signs.
The business district was just inside the walls, basically around the perimeter, and everything else was 3 or 4 story homes. Very narrow,
twisty passages mostly shielded from the sun. We spent time in one home, seeing how they were setup. The living/sleeping spaces were on the 2nd floor,
kitchen on the 3rd. The roof was a social space for women. I also got to sample some traditional sweets. It was fine, although the date syrup was super good,
similar to pomegranite molasses. We walked lots and lots of paths, and after a while it seemed as if we were killing time.
We returned to the same coffee shop 3 times. We passed the same mosque at least twice.
Ended up having lunch at 2pm. It was a tagine with camel, chickpeas, onion & couscous. It was fine, but not a lot of flavor.
After lunch we stopped by the Ghadames Association for Heritage & Manuscripts. Its basically a group of volunteers who are collecting ancient Islamic documents,
and cataloging and scanning them. They showed me 11th century documents, a Koran from the 16th century and poetry from the 13th century,
all originals in amazingly good condition. The guy running the place has traced his own family tree back to the 9th century.
It was fadcinating and really cool, until we were about to leave and the guy dumped a stack of religious propaganda in my hand, including a english Koran.
Dude, why did you have to make things weird?
We returned to the hotel after that to rest. Then at 16:30 we
rode in a 4x4 into the desert north west of town. Not far from where the Libyan, Algerian & Tunisian borders meet are the ruins of a Roman fortress on top of butte.
Most of the stone walls are still in tact. From the top, I could see all 3 countries. After that we drove south into the dunes to view for the sunset.
Afterwards, at the base of the dunes, a group was camping. They invited us to join them as they baked flat bread under the sand with hot coals.
They put sesame seeds, cumin seeds & anise seeds on the dough. It was really good with dipping olive oil & date syrup. Of course, they also gave us sweet tea.
Then more tea with peanuts (which is apparently a sign of respect for a guest).
Once we finished the bread & tea, we drove back into town and went to Pizza Abass for dinner. I got chicken with veggies. It was actually decent.
It needed salt, but otherwise it was well made, with good ingredients. Not much crust though.
The car is not fixed. The transmission is leaking fluid, and the mechanic can't figure out why without doing a full rebuild. So, we are getting a ride from another driver about half way to Tripoli, then the tour company will have a car waiting there for us to swap cars for the rest of the drive. We need to depart no later than 08:30am.
Day 4
I had severe indigestion overnight, but managed to sleep until my alarm at 7am. Feeling better this morning. Breakfast was very sad, with just boiled eggs and prepackaged junk (laughing cow cheese, jam packets, etc).
We departed Ghadames at 8:35am. At the military checkpoint 25km east of town, there were 2 guys who looked barely 18.
They insisted on talking to me, despite not knowing more than 'hello' in English. After 3 rounds of Hello & Salam, they gave up and let us proceed.
We arrived in the city of Nalut at noon. The city sits on the mountain plateau at 650m, and is the largest Berber city in Libya. We went to the ruins of the old town. Its mostly rubble, except for the grainery, which dates back to the 10th century. Unlike the other graineries that I've visited, which had all the storage space around the perimeter, this one had an inner ring too. It all felt very cramped.
As we finished, the replacement car & driver arrived. Lunch was Turkish food a few minutes drive away. I got shawarma. It came with flat bread, fries, rice, hummus, babaghanoush & tomato cucumber salad. It was pretty good and cost about $5.
The remaining drive back to Tripoli was a bit of a slog due to traffic. We stopped at a rest area at 4pm. I got a moroccan mint tea.
There was a farm shop selling fresh dates, milk and cheese. We got half a kg of cheese (for about 50 cents) for me to try.
They told me that the cheese & milk is very popular to break the fast during Ramadan. The cheese was ok but very mild. Basically like ricotta.
While I was standing around a random guy walked up to me and offered me some of the dates that he just purchased. I took one, and thanked him.
But he kept insisting that I take more, so I grabbed another two. Amazing generosity from a stranger. The dates were super yummy. Really juicy and sweet.
We got into Tripoli just before 6pm, and traffic was horrid. We eventually got close to the old town,
and walked the rest of the way after barely moving over 30 minutes. Old town had three districts, Arab, Jewish & European.
We walked around the Jewish & European districts. There's a massive Roman stone arch (surrounded on all sides by restaurants & a 200 year old mosque).
Also passed the original French & British consulates from the 17th & 18th centuries. Finally we saw a very old synagogue (only the outside, it was in poor condition).
There were also lots of cats everywhere. One kind person put out huge trays of chicken to feed them.
Dinner was at any Egyptian seafood place. I had a seafood soup, salad, seafood pasta and lime with mint juice. All of it was very good.
Day 5
I slept ok, but was up for the day at 6:20am. Breakfast was kinda sad. Mostly junk, and nothing looked good.
The drive out to Leptis Magna took about 90 minutes, with a bit of traffic & road construction.
We arrived just after 10am, and I was handed off to the local guide Mahmud.
The site is massive, although much of it remains unexcavated, or unrestored. The guide was good, but at the same time I felt bad for him after he told me his life story. He grew up here, played on the ruins as a child. Then went to Canada to get a chemical engineering degree in the 80s. Now he's doing a few tours a week. Today, I was the only tourist the entire time that I was there.
We walked a large loop around the best restored parts of the site. He pointed out a lot of details that I never would have noticed or understood.
I saw the baths, forum, harbor, theater, and temples over 3 hours. It was nice, but the neglect is obvious, as most everything is sorted piles of rubble.
There are some restored walls & columns, and one very impressive 4 sided arch. But the rest is a bit sad. If it was my first Roman ruins,
I would have been impressed, but now it pales in comparison with everything I've seen in Morocco, Tunisia and, of course, Italy.
But wait, there was more. I thought I had seen it all, but we got in the car, drove 5 minutes further east, and parked along the coast at the top of a hill.
Submerged in the hill was a large amphatheater, where a rock quarry had been mined. There were underground tunnels running around the perimeter,
with exits on 3 sides. It nomwhere near as large as what I've seen in Rome or Tunisia, but unique construction.
We stopped for lunch on the way back to Tripoli at a Libyan fried chicken chain called Kudu Kudu. It was basically KFC, except they gave me rice and weird biscuit things that sorta looked like pancakes. It cost about $4 for 3 large pieces of chicken, fries, and the other stuff.
We went into the Arab district of old town. I saw the black market currency exchange, where they were literally moving huge sums of cash around in black trash bags in wheebarrows. I saw the cuatom made special occasion clothing tailors. I saw the oldest mosque in Libya, dating back to 975.
Day 6
I slept until the call to prayer, and was up for the day at 6:30am.
We departed the hotel at 8:30, and drove a few minutes to see the old Spanish red fort from the 16th century. Yes, the Spanish claimed Libya for 20 years. The fort was fine, but not in great shape. Afterwards we walked through old town once more to visit an old governor's house which is now a museum. It was pretty. Finally we were going to stop for a quick drink before heading to the airport.
The married police dude decided this was a good time to pickup women, and basically wandered off. Hatam got coffee and got me what is basically a date shake.
It had dates, almonds, milk, honey and a ice, and was amazingly good. We finished our drinks, ready to leave, and the police dude was nowhere to be found.
Hatam called him and told him that we were leaving in 5 minutes. Police dude finally showed up in 5 minutes, and we drove to the airport.
TL;DR I spent time in 3 of 5 north african capital airports today, and they all sucked.
The Tripoli airport was chaotic, with nowhere to park. Hatam sent me & police dude inside to get my boarding pass, while he parked. I had zero issues getting my Libyan Wings boarding pass. Then we waited for Hatam to show up because he wanted to see me through immigration. He showed up after a few minutes, we said our good byes, and I got in line for immigration. Once again they had 6 agents doing Libyan citizens, and just 2 for foreigners. My line was long and slow. Finally it was my turn, but the guy in the booth was upset because he couldn't find my visa. I told him it was an evisa, its not a sticker. He kept demanding a visa that I did not have. Finally after a few rounds of this nonsense, he gave up, and stamped me out. Security was fine, the usual, plus forcing shoe removal for anyone not wearing sandals (huzzah). The gate area has 3 bus gates, no wifi, prayer room, toilets and a small cafe. I had a minor panic when the departure board didn't list my flight, until I realized that they were listed by boarding time, instead of departure time. Seems like all flights board an hour early because of busses? Or not, because the clock on the board was an hour behind, so maybe everything is listed an hour early?
I got a gate assignment an hour before departure, but then it changed 2 minutes later. They started 'boarding' 40 minutes ahead, but that was queuing everyone to board the bus. When they finally let people onto the bus, one guy was berating passengers for standing near the door instead of taking seats. I was finally on the plane 25 minutes before departure. We actually departed on time. The flight was fine, with the same meal. We landed in Tunis on time, to partly cloudy skies.
Immigration wasn't too bad this time (or i'm getting used to the pain). However my Air Algeria ticket counter doesn't open until 3 hours before my flight to Algiers, and that flight is nearly 6 hours from now. I never had any other viable options, as all other flights are in the morning, and I had no clue how reliable Libyan Wings was. I found a somewhat quiet corner of the loud, crowded terminal, and sat on my bag. Dylan arrived in Algiers from Paris while I was still waiting, and gave me some tips. The big shock was that the Algerian visa on arrival fee had gone up a lot, and was now 185 euros. I only brought 125 euros, as that's what I was told it cost a few weeks earlier. I ran to an ATM and got out the equivalent of 60 euros in Tunisian Dinar. Then went to a money exchange booth to change it into euros. Also the guys in the forex booth were a bunch of rude jerks. Suddenly they spoke no english. Also they demanded my ATM receipt, passport, and boarding pass just to change money.
Getting my boarding pass for the Air Algeria flight was a bit of a pain. The guy insisted that I needed a visa, but I told him that I was doing visa on arrival.
Then he demanded to see my full tour itinerary, and finally agreed to give me the boarding pass. My inbound plane left about 90 minutes late.
Somehow we managed to board in 10 minutes. The crew was surly. No English spoken at all, just French.
We landed and taxiied forever. Then when we pulled up to a gate, with a jetway, they used a bus anyway.
There was a mad dash when we pulled up to the terminal. I thought that I lucked out, 3rd in line.
But the guy in the booth wanted the arrival card that I didn't know existed, and couldn't even find. Eventually I asked a guard,
and he pointed me to a tiny table at the far end of the hall, that was nowhere near anything. I grabbed a card,
and got back in line. This time the guy filled out some other form, and asked me a few questions.
Then he called over another guy, who escorted me to a waiting room. After a few minutes they called me to the exchange counter to pay 185 euros for the visa.
Then back to the waiting room. Finally after almost 2 hours, I was done and had the visa.
I made it outside and found the hotel shuttle stop. While waiting a random taxi driver was harassing me in french. The stupid shuttle took over an hour to show up. thankfully it was a 10 minute ride to the hotel.
All trip pictures are posted HERE
This post is part 1 of the "libya-algeria-2025" series: