I’ve lived in Spain for four years and Gibraltar was the one place two hours down the coast that I could never go. My husband Jethro and I are South African, and on temporary residency the border made this a day trip we couldn’t take without a visa.
That all changed in 2026, though. The frontier gates have come down, and although Gibraltar still isn’t part of the Schengen zone, the border is now a formality rather than a barrier.
So we finally went, and I’m so glad we did. The Upper Rock Nature Reserve is genuinely unlike anywhere else in Europe, and the Barbary macaques are absolutely worth the trip on their own.
This is what two days there actually looked like, what it cost, and why you should or shouldn’t go.
Is Gibraltar Worth Visiting?
Yes, for one really good day. Gibraltar is 6.7 square kilometres of British Overseas Territory on the Spanish coast, and the Upper Rock with its wild macaques is unlike anywhere else in Europe. But the town below is pretty ordinary, and most visitors will have seen everything they came for in a single day.
I went for two reasons and they both absolutely held up: the hike, and the monkeys.
What I didn’t expect was how much of the rest felt like an ordinary British high street with better weather. There’s real war history here, and that same military past is why the buildings are so plain. Older buildings are nothing like what you see in Spain, and boarded up ones sit between them, which is a strange contrast against the construction going on at almost every block.
If you’re staying on the Costa del Sol, treat it as a day trip, and add a second day only if you want the beaches or the history properly.
What Changed in 2026: The Cable Car Is Closed
The Gibraltar cable car closed on 18 November 2025 for a complete rebuild and isn’t expected to reopen until 2027. It’s the biggest overhaul since it was built in 1966.
Most of what’s written about visiting the Rock still assumes it’s running, so check the date on anything you read.
This matters more than it sounds, because getting to the top of the Rock is now the hardest thing to plan and the easiest place to overpay. You have three options, and they are not equal:
- Walk up. Free once you have your Nature Reserve ticket, and it’s a serious climb in summer.
- Taxi or tour minibus. The going rate at the bottom is chaotic, and there’s more on that below.
- Bus part of the way, then walk. What we ended up doing, and the cheapest route up.
The steep staircase that runs beside the old cable car line is still there and still open. Don’t go up it, though, because it’s a superb way to come down.
What Is a Must See in Gibraltar?
The Upper Rock Nature Reserve, and specifically three things inside it: the Barbary macaques, the beautiful St Michael’s Cave and the Skywalk. If you see nothing else in Gibraltar, do see those three. Everything below the reserve gates is a pleasant afternoon rather than a reason to cross a border.
The Best Things to Do in Gibraltar
1. The Upper Rock Nature Reserve
This is genuinely the reason to come. The reserve covers the top of the Rock and holds almost everything worth seeing, and the ticket is what absolutely everything else hangs off.
One thing nobody warned me about: the attractions aren’t on a single path. They zigzag and crisscross the whole mountain, so you can’t walk up in one clean line and tick things off. Immediately after we came through the entrance and started climbing, we had to go back down again to reach the bridge.
Do plan a full day if you want to see all of it. We gave it one, walked until we completely ran out of legs, and still missed the tunnels.
2. The Barbary Macaques
Europe’s only wild monkey population, and honestly the thing I’ll remember longest. They are wonderful!
We first met them at St Michael’s Cabin and they were absolutely everywhere from that point on. Most of them posed quite happily. One sat and let me photograph it and did nothing at all, which made me far too brave, and the next one I tried went straight for my bag.
Here’s the rule I worked out the hard way, and it’s consistent:
- Bag in your hand: they will go for it.
- Bag on your back: they will come and look, and try their luck.
- Bag on the ground: it’s gone.
One walked up to me on the staircase and studied my bag without opening it, the way a customs officer decides you’re not worth the paperwork. Another sat on the railing letting a queue of people photograph it and never once looked up. A third came close enough that I could hear it breathing, and I was the one who moved.
They aren’t dangerous, they’re just opportunists, so keep the bag on your back and close it.
One of them had got hold of a packet of crisps and was working through it while people photographed him. I found that genuinely upsetting, and it’s the only part of the day I’d rather not have seen. Don’t feed them, and don’t make it easy for them to help themselves.
It’s illegal too. There’s a £500 fine for it, and it isn’t only about the money: the Government of Gibraltar warns that human food throws out their diet and leaves them prone to conditions like diabetes.
3. St Michael’s Cave
So much bigger than I expected, and genuinely worth the walk on its own. The best of it is the coloured lighting, which is used to pull shapes out of the walls as you go through. The angel is the famous one, and it has its own information panel telling you where to look, because you have to look directly above you to see the curtain of flowstone that forms the outline. We picked out a wolf as well, and a figure that looks like a man holding up pillars.
The show itself is called The Awakening, and the signage in the cave said it runs every seven minutes, so you won’t be waiting long for one. It finishes with a projection across the main cavern that you watch from the rows of seats at the end. We sat through ours and it turned out to be coloured lights, which was a letdown after the build up. The cave itself is the attraction, not the show.
The exit routes you straight into St Michael’s Cabin, which is very clever of them, because after that climb you’ll absolutely stop. We certainly did. Jethro had two Cokes, I had a Fanta and we shared a spinach quiche, and we were so tired it was hard to finish.
4. The Skywalk
A glass viewing platform out over the east side, and the single best view on the Rock. You look down over Sandy Bay and the gorgeous beaches, with a sheer drop right underneath your feet.
I’m not good with heights. My favourite photograph from the whole trip is me standing on that glass looking genuinely frightened.
Two warnings here. It’s a bottleneck, for people and for taxis, so there’s a queue at the top of the road and a crowd on the platform. And the macaques know exactly what they’re doing here. One group sat along the entrance ledge so nobody dared walk past, and one kicked an empty bottle around while he waited for somebody to hand something over.
5. The Windsor Suspension Bridge
Strung across a gorge on the way up, and the views from the middle of it are as stunning as anything higher up. It’s a short detour off the road and really worth doing properly rather than just crossing and moving on.
6. The Old Batteries and the 100 Ton Gun
Cannons, gun emplacements and turrets are scattered along the whole route up and down, and most of them are free to walk into. The Devil’s Gap Battery near the bottom has a good one and even better views.
The best of them is away from the reserve entirely. Napier of Magdala Battery holds the 100 Ton Gun, and photographs honestly don’t convey the size of it until there’s a person standing next to it. We drove there on our second day and had it almost completely to ourselves.
7. Casemates Square
The main square, and where every tour operator, taxi tout and restaurant is concentrated. It’s where you’ll arrive, and where you’ll get pulled into a decision before you’re quite ready.
It was so much nicer than I expected. Restaurants line the whole perimeter, most with tables out under the arches, and the deals chalked on their boards are better than anything you’ll have read about beforehand, because none of it is published anywhere.
Walk the whole square first, note what you want, then come back. Don’t take the first table. That’s the single most useful thing I can tell you about eating here.
8. The Alameda Botanic Gardens
Small, and so much prettier than the size suggests. Dragon trees, cactus beds, a lovely ornamental gate and a miniature fairy garden tucked into one corner. It’s free and it’s a really good last stop before you walk back into town.
9. Europa Point
The southern tip, reached through two road tunnels. The lighthouse is framed by gorgeous turquoise railings that make it photograph far better than it has any right to, and you can hear ships sounding their horns out in the strait when the mist is down.
It earns its place on this list for about twenty minutes of coastline and not much else. Behind the railings there’s a stadium and a scatter of buildings that nobody comes to see, so walk the rim and skip the middle. The mosque is worth a photograph, and we ran out of time to go inside it.
10. Camp Bay and Little Bay
Two lovely little swimming spots on the west side with pools, cafes and bars, and a genuinely good place to stop when your legs have gone. The first is free, the second charges, and the paid one is the one with the pretty waterfall beside it.
There’s plenty of parking at both, and we went in peak August and had no trouble at all.
I still have no idea where that waterfall gets its water, because it’s a tiny territory and there’s an awful lot of it coming down.
11. Main Street
Included because you’ll walk it, not because I loved it at all. It’s a compact, busy shopping strip and most of it is chain stores. I was expecting so much more that felt English and honestly found very little.
The things worth stopping for are almost all beside it rather than on it. Painted macaque sculptures turn up on corners, there’s a stone chair with John Lennon carved into it, and the lanes running off the main drag have better names than anything on it.
Go late in the day, when the Irish Quarter and the pubs are the whole point.
12. Watching a Plane Land at the Airport
You can stand inside the airport beside the runway and watch aircraft come in right over the road. It’s ten minutes on foot from Casemates and it’s completely free.
We got this wrong, and it’s the one thing on this list where I’d tell you to do the opposite of what we did. Gibraltar Airport handles a handful of flights a day. We strolled over at 6pm assuming planes arrive the way they do at Málaga, found the next one wasn’t due until 8pm, and stood looking at an empty runway before giving up and going for a drink. Do look the schedule up first.
How Many Days in Gibraltar Is Enough?
One full day covers the Rock and the town, and I’ve set that out hour by hour in one day in Gibraltar. Two days is comfortable and lets you drive the coast to Europa Point and the beaches without rushing, which is what we did.
Anything beyond two days needs a specific reason. The obvious ones are the war history, which is substantial, or the beaches, or eating your way through the British and Irish food you can’t get in Spain. That last one is the reason I’d add a day.
If you only have three or four hours, do the Upper Rock and nothing else. The town will still be there and it’s not what you came for. Gibraltar in 3 hours is the version for a cruise stop.
For what all of it costs, itemised, see is Gibraltar expensive.
How to Get to Gibraltar
Estepona is under an hour, Marbella about an hour, Benalmádena and Málaga around ninety minutes. It’s an easy drive from anywhere on the western Costa del Sol, and there are good day trips from Estepona and day trips from Marbella pages if you’re building a wider trip.
I expected a passport check at the frontier and got nothing whatsoever. No booth in use, no official, no queue, nothing to slow us down at all. Take your passport regardless, because the requirement hasn’t changed simply because nobody was checking on the afternoon we arrived.
Leaving is the slower direction, because the old zigzag lanes are still in place and they slow everything to a crawl, but going out on a Friday at 3pm it cost us roughly two extra minutes.
For where to leave the car, see where to park in Gibraltar. For buses, taxis and the three ways up the Rock, see getting around Gibraltar.
⭐ What I would book first >> Upper Rock tours and tickets, because the gap between the cheapest and most expensive way to reach the top is bigger than the entry ticket costs.
Is It Safe to Walk Around Gibraltar?
Yes. I walked the town, the seafront and the Upper Rock over two days, including after dark around Casemates, and honestly never felt uneasy anywhere.
The real risks are heat and terrain, not crime. We went in August and badly underestimated it. We sweated through absolutely everything we were wearing, and I really wish we’d brought electrolytes rather than just water.
The roads through the reserve are properly surfaced, so you can do the whole thing in flats, and I did. The exception is the Devil’s Gap path at the bottom, which is rocky for its last two hundred metres and will find every thin sole you own.
The macaques are the other thing people ask about. Keep your bag closed and on your back and there’s nothing to worry about.
Best Time to Visit Gibraltar
Spring and autumn, so May, June, September and October, which give you the lovely walking weather without the August heat that flattened us.
There’s one Gibraltar specific thing to know, and almost nothing online mentions it. It’s called the levante, and it’s a wind off the Mediterranean that hits the Rock, rises, cools, and caps the summit in cloud. It sat over us both mornings and we thought we had booked the wrong week entirely.
It lifted around 11am both days and was completely gone by half past twelve. It also keeps the mornings lovely and cool, which in August is honestly a gift rather than a problem. I’ve written the whole thing up in the best month to visit Gibraltar.
What I Would Skip
The light show in St Michael’s Cave. The Awakening comes round every seven minutes, so it costs you almost nothing to see one. It just isn’t the thing the cave is famous for, and going in expecting a spectacle is how you end up disappointed by a genuinely beautiful cavern.
Main Street as a destination. Just walk it to get somewhere else.
Sandy Bay, unless you’ve solved parking first. It looks wonderful from the Skywalk and it’s genuinely hard to stop at. One lane road, a stop and go light, and what parking exists is residents only. We had bought an Indian takeaway to eat there and ended up eating it in the car further down rather than risk being towed.
The far end of the reserve, if you’re already tired. From the bottom of the steps you can carry on another kilometre or so to the Military Heritage Centre, City Under Siege, the Great Siege Tunnels, the World War Two tunnels and the Moorish Castle. We were finished by then and went straight down to town instead. I’m told the tunnels are the best history on the Rock, and I can’t tell you first hand, because I didn’t go. The Moorish Castle was closed for renovation in August 2026 in any case, with works under way on the Tower of Homage and the former prison, so don’t assume the whole cluster is open.
Who Would Enjoy Gibraltar the Most?
Anyone who wants a proper half day hike with a real payoff, and anyone who wants to see wild monkeys behaving badly at close range. Those are the two things Gibraltar does that nowhere else on this coast does at all.
It also suits homesick Brits beautifully. The takeaways, the pubs and the shelves of Terry’s Chocolate Orange are a real draw if you’ve been in Spain a while, and I’d happily give a whole day to eating here.
Who won’t enjoy it: anyone coming for architecture or old town charm, so go to Ronda or Frigiliana for that instead. Gibraltar’s past is military, and military towns are built plain.
I absolutely loved that hike and I didn’t finish it, which is the main reason we’ll go back. But for me Gibraltar makes far more sense as a day trip than as a destination on its own.
Common Questions About Gibraltar
More short answers are collected on facts about Gibraltar.
Is Gibraltar part of Africa or Europe? Europe, though it doesn’t always feel that way from the Skywalk. Africa is right there across the water on a clear day, close enough that you keep looking back at it.
Can you use euros in Gibraltar? The official currency is the Gibraltar pound, pegged to sterling. We paid for parking in pounds and for the Upper Rock and taxis in euros without any difficulty, though you won’t get a good rate paying euros in shops.
Do you need a passport? Yes, take one. Gibraltar isn’t in the Schengen zone, and although nobody checked ours on the way in, the requirement is unchanged.
Are the macaques dangerous? No, but they’re practised thieves, so bag on your back and closed.
Would I recommend it? For one day, yes, and I loved the walk. I wouldn’t recommend Gibraltar as a base, and I’d skip it entirely if what you want is an Andalusian old town.
