One Day in Gibraltar

While planning our road trip in Andalusia, Spain we added in one day to spend exploring the British territory of Gibraltar and we were so glad we did!

Our day in Gibraltar was one of my favorites of our entire trip. The highlights of the day included hiking, amazing views, and monkeys! The excitement for the day started to build as we drove closer to the impressive rock of Gibraltar.

Getting There & Parking

We parked our rental car at the FoCana car park in La Linea, Spain. We read about long lines of border traffic when crossing back into Spain with your car, so to avoid that potential hassle we parked in Spain and walked across the border to Gibraltar. The FoCana car park is a less than 5-minute walk to the border and walking into Gibraltar took less than a minute. The border control agent took one quick glance at our passports and told us to have a good day. Easy peasy.

As you walk into Gibraltar you will pass a bus stop with buses that will take you into the center of town. Gibraltar is fairly walkable and we wanted to walk across the active runway of Gibraltar International Airport. Yes – you read that correctly all pedestrians and cars cross the airport runway to get into Gibraltar.

We walked from the border to the center of town which tool about 10-15 minutes. We walked down the pedestrian streets and explored the shops and restaurants. After a quick bite to eat, it was time to explore the rock!

Hiking the Rock

There are several ways to explore the Rock of Gibraltar. There are taxis that will take you on a private tour of the rock, a cable car will take you to the top, or you can use your own two feet and hike to the top of the rock. Can you guess which option we chose?

If you guessed walking then you are correct! Chris almost had me convinced to take the cable car to the top, but unluckily for him we were visiting on Dec 31 and the cable car closed early for the holiday.

After our lunch in town we started our walk uphill. There are several staircases from the town that will lead to the Moorish Castle. We were worried that we made a terrible decision to walk, but once we reached the ticket booth for the nature preserve the friendly man selling the tickets was very reassuring.

The Gibraltar rock is a nature preserve and has many attractions including the World War II tunnels and St. Michael’s Cave. With a limited amount of time to spend in Gibraltar we opted for a basic walking ticket (£5). This allowed us to explore the majority of the rock while skipping a few attractions.

The walk was steep, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it hiking. We followed a paved road all the way to the top cable car station. Chris even admitted that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. The rock is certainly intimidating from below, but once you make it to the top its a great feeling of accomplishment!

Once we reached the Skywalk (included in the walking ticket) we encountered a stunning view of the rock, a lot of monkeys running around and a ton of people on private taxi tours. The taxi drivers were even picking up the monkeys and having their passengers take pictures with the monkeys.

The monkeys were very mischievous, they were jumping on cars, on each other, and on people! As long as you didn’t have food or plastic bags the monkeys were relatively friendly. I was still a little uneasy around them and enjoyed watching them while keeping my distance.

We heard a story about a monkey that went into an open window of a new Mercedes taxi and released the e-brake of the car. The passengers and driver were out of the car taking photos while this happened and the car was totaled as it rolled off the road. That must have been an interesting story to share with the car insurance company and a great reason to explore the rock on your own instead of taking the private taxi tour!

We continued our hike/walk along the Douglas Path to the O’Hara’s Battery.

After exploring the battery, we started walking down the rock via the Mediterranean steps. These steps were steep and going up the steps would definitely be considered hiking! We were happy to be going down and enjoyed the views along the way. We ended our Gibraltar rock journey at Jew’s Gate.

Europa Point

After exiting Gibraltar Nature Preserve from Jew’s Gate, we walked to the main road and waited at the bus stop for the #2 bus to take us to Europa Point. The bus system is very easy to follow in Gibraltar. We recommend purchasing an all day ticket if you plan to take the bus more than once.

Europa Point is the perfect place to end your one day in Gibraltar. It is located at the southern tip of Gibraltar and almost the most southern tip of Europe. You can see the coastline of Northern Africa. (The closest we have been to Africa as of now!)

The bus waits at this stop until another bus arrive. You can hop back on this bus and it will take you back to Market Place which is close to the border of Spain.

We finished our day walking back across the runway heading for Spain. As soon as we crossed the runway alarms sounded and gates blocked the road for cars. We thought we were going to see a plane land or take off, but a few moments later the alarms ended, gates were raised, and cars were able to drive through. It must have been a false alarm!

Crossing the border on foot into Spain was even easier than our first border crossing. We made it back it our car and continued our road trip to the beaches of Costa del Sol.