Jijel is Algeria's green, cliff-backed Mediterranean coast at its most dramatic. The city itself is modest and workaday, but the setting is superb: forested mountains press close to the sea, small beaches sit below headlands, and the road west towards Bejaia becomes one long argument for travelling slowly.
The best reason to come is the coast. The Corniche Jijelienne runs through rocky coves and pine-covered slopes, with the Ras El Afia Lighthouse standing guard west of town. Further along the road, the Grottes Merveilleuses and Taza National Park give Jijel a mix of beach, forest, cave, and mountain that is hard to find elsewhere in North Africa.
Jijel also has a long memory. Classical Igilgili was a Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman settlement, and the later port drew Ottoman sailors, European armies, and traders moving along the Kabylie coast. You do not come here for polished tourism infrastructure; in summer the beaches can be crowded and services are uneven. Come for the scenery, the seafood, the old coastal road, and the feeling that this part of Algeria is still mostly travelling on its own terms.