Hotel El-Djazair (ex St George)

Rooms and decor

Picture a hotel that has been opening its doors to guests since 1889 — older than the Eiffel Tower by a few months — and is still running today. That is Hotel El-Djazair, formerly the St George, which locals still call "Eisenhower's hotel" because the building served as the Allied command post for North Africa during World War II. The main building is Moorish-Colonial, fusing European grandeur with the detail of Arab craft: Ottoman curved balconies, horseshoe arches, multicoloured ceramic mosaics and carved wooden ceilings. Around 152 rooms and suites spread across the old wing and a newer wing, and the old-wing rooms have the most charm — high ceilings, antique tiled floors, and arched windows that open onto the green of the garden. Some rooms have a balcony where you can stand in the morning air much as Churchill did 80-odd years ago. Beds are soft, the linen is good, and the bathroom kit is French. This place is not trying to look new or cutting-edge — its appeal is sleeping inside living history: old wood, light through lace curtains, and birdsong in the garden at dawn.

Food and amenities

If this hotel has a heart, it is the private botanical garden that wraps the entire building. Step through the gate from the main road and you drop out of the busy city into another world: tall palms, century-old olive trees, the scent of orange blossom in spring, and the soft sound of fountains carrying through the leaves. The garden is not just pretty — it is national cultural heritage, protected by the Algerian state, with rare trees brought in back when the building was a nobleman's house. Plenty of reviews say the same thing: a morning coffee out here is the best part of the trip. Inside, the main restaurant El Boustane sits under a high Ottoman ceiling and serves Mediterranean seafood with traditional couscous and Maghreb desserts. There is a colonial-style bar with the feel of a 1940s novel — order an Algerian wine (yes, there is wine, a leftover from the French era), and picture Eisenhower planning Operation Torch at a table like this. Good goosebumps.

Location and getting there

The hotel stands on a hill in the El Mouradia district, in southern Algiers, about 5 km from the city centre and old port — a 10-15 minute drive. That perch buys you what city hotels cannot: quiet, cooler air than down below, and a view over Algiers Bay and the white city from some rooms. El Mouradia itself is a government quarter with embassies and the presidential palace, cleaner and safer than several districts in town. From here it is roughly a 15-minute drive to the UNESCO-listed Casbah of Algiers, and Notre Dame d'Afrique, the clifftop basilica that overlooks the whole city, is not far either. Houari Boumediene Airport (ALG) is about 17 km away, 25-35 minutes on the A1. The hotel runs a pre-bookable shuttle and the staff will call a safe taxi for you. If you want to stroll and shop along the street like in a European city, this is not the spot — but if you want to wake up and walk the garden, drive down to the Casbah by afternoon, then come back for a coffee under a hundred-year-old olive tree, this location is the answer.

Things to know before booking

Straight talk to help you decide — the thing reviews flag most is that room standards are uneven, because this is a building over a century old with several wings. Some rooms have been beautifully restored; others are still in the queue, with tired paint, weak showers or furniture that looks older than the five-star rate you are paying. The simple fix is to ask for a room in the renovated old main wing (Wing 1889) and to specify a garden or bay view. Second, the hilltop location is not somewhere you walk to the Casbah or old port — you need a taxi or the hotel car every time, so budget for the transport. Third, the Wi-Fi and digital systems are not as smooth as an international chain: the signal is weak in spots inside the old building, and online bookings sometimes need an email to confirm. Anyone doing a lot of work-from-hotel may find it sluggish. Finally, this is a heritage hotel — if you expect new minimalist modern, it is not your spec, but if you love old wood, antique tiles and the feel of a bygone era, you will fall for it.

Our take

From reading the real reviews and the history, Hotel El-Djazair (ex St George) sells tangible history, a national-heritage botanical garden and a Moorish-Colonial mood that is hard to match anywhere in North Africa. If your mental picture is waking in a high-ceilinged room with a balcony onto the garden, walking down for a coffee under the olive tree Churchill once sat by, then driving to the UNESCO Casbah in the afternoon, this answers your Algiers trip beautifully and at a fair starting rate near $130 a night. But if the heart of your trip is a brand-new modern hotel with catalogue-perfect rooms within walking distance of everything, the unevenness of the old rooms and the hilltop setting may leave you cold. We score it 8.4/10 — best for couples, luxury travelers chasing timeless charm, and culture-and-history travelers who want to sleep inside a World War II legend. Least suited to families with very young children, or budget backpackers who want to walk everywhere.