A Gibraltar Break

How ever long you are in Gibraltar for you must take a "Rock Tour". These can be booked through travel agents in the town or simply ask a taxi driver who will personalise the tour for you. This tour will take half a day - if you have time after this there is a whole range of sites depending on your interests.

Quick Tips:

Drink and tobacco is very cheap.

Best Way To Get Around:

Travel on foot when going about the town - parking is very difficult and you will find that it takes longer to walk from the carpark than to walk to where you want to be.

Taxis are plentiful and very useful if you dont want to walk too far. They are however restricted to Gibraltar and cannot cross the frontier into Spain.

Busses are frequent and cheap during the day, however they do not run at night.

A hire car can be useful if you know where you want to go and where to park. I would not reccomend hireing a car to someone going to see Gibraltar for the first time - you will have more than enough to do without needing to drive.

Remember there can be long delays to take a car over the frontier into Spain - these dalays can be as long as three or four hours.

This is an exceptionally good bistro off the tourist track but very popular with locals.

It has a large indoor eating area and an outside terrace which is opened during the summer months. The restaurant also has a bar area (indoor and outdoor again) where they serve drinks and light snacks/meals.

The place in Gibraltar to go for Sunday lunch. The restaurant serves a traditional Sunday lunch at a reasonable price - beware, at other times it is much more expensive. Alternatively if you don't want a full lunch try a bar snack on the Wisteria Terrace.

Both the restaurant and the bar have fantastic views over Algerceras Bay.

This is a wonderful day out whether you are a sun worshiper or not. I would recommend going late morning (between 11-00am and 12-00pm) for lunch. If you want to sunbathe go earlier. The afternoons are not as good because the bay falls into the shadow of the rock.

Take a table at either "Seawave" or "The Village Inn". Both are waterside but can get busy later.

The menus at both establishments are similar as are their prices. You can either order a plate each, consisting of one main course with chips and salad or order several "rathiones" each being just the meat from the main course. Ordering a selection of these with a portion of chips and bread gives a varied meal that you share.

This is the bar that time forgot. You approach it along a back alley and enter it down a flight of steps. It belongs to the age where Gibraltar was a major location for the Royal Navy and this was a sailors bar. It is not a place to go for an evening out but it is a true friendly experience to sample the local culture.

Go after dinner for the expierence.

You can buy just about anything in Gibraltar - if it's not in stock they'll be able to get you one. The adantage of Gibraltar is that purchases carry almost no duty. This means that cameras, electricals, drink, tobacco are very very cheap.

Leave Main Street just opposite Tesco - two minutes walk and you're at the Museum.

The museum covers Gibraltar history in general but includes exhibits on the Gibraltar Skull (Neandetal Man would have been Gibraltar Man if the importance of this skull had been recognised earlier) and the seiges of Gibraltar. The museum also houses one of the two three-dimensional models of the Rock.

Climbing to the top of the rock and back is a very rewarding experience, However to walk you should allow most of a day and be relatively fit to do it(My parents managed it it their 60's so not that fit).

Enter the nature reserve by entering just past the casino. Watch out on this section of road as it has no footpath and a lot of taxis use it.

At the pay booth either follow the road up the West side or follow the narrow path to the "Mediteranean Steps". You might have to ask where this path is as the sign is only small.

The "Medeteranean Steps" are the only path on the East side of the Rock above sea level. They give spectacular views over the sea and towards Africa but you need to be fit and agile to climb them.

If you take the road and head up the West side, stopping at St Michaels Cave. St Michaels Cabin (the cafeteria at the cave) does acceptable Tapas (a Spanish light snack) and is a suitable place for a rest before completing your climb to the top.

If it's open it is worth visiting O'Hara's battery, a gun emplacement at the uppermost Southern tip of the rock. This is also the point where the Medeteranean steps come out.

Head North along the top of the Rock to the "Top of the Rock Cable Station". En-route you will pass many fortifications from the Moorish to Napoleonic to the Present day.

From the cable station follow the road down returning past "Hayes Level" (an entrance to the Second World War tunnels and unfortunately closed at the moment) and the Moorish Castle to return to Gibraltar Town at the North End.

This is your typical botanical garden, however being in Gibraltar it is biased towards the Gabraltar Flora. It includes examples of many plants, including the Gibraltar Candytuft - found nowhere else in the world.