I lived for almost 10 years in the Maghreb area (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt) but only spent a day in Algeria in 1989, so cannot really speak about it. I was living in Tunis at a time, and went with my parents and sister on a road trip up north to the lovely beaches of Bizerte, then west to Tabarka, and we eventually crossed the Algerian border. My father is Italian, but with a beard he really looks Arabic - hence the very, very long discussions at the border station - the custom officer was wondering why on earth this "Arab" man would smuggle two white kids into Algeria through a desolated town in the Sahara desert...