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Visiting Gibraltar

5K views 20 replies 7 participants last post by  Caz.I 
#1 ·
Hi All
My suegra celebrates her 80th birthday next month (February) and would rather like to visit Gib. We thought of staying at La Linea on a Saturday and Sunday night with a visit to Gib on the Sunday.

Are things open on Sunday in Gib unlike where we live in Spain where almost everything is closed?

We have heard that the best way is to take a bus into Gib, can anyone confirm this?

Is there anything we also ought to know?
 
#2 ·
The tax-free shops on Main Street are closed, but actually they are a bit of a rip-off. All the touristy stuff is open, as is Morrisons supermarket, and some of the Ocean Village boutiques.

There is no bus into Gib from La Linea (queues of traffic can take an hour to get through) but if you walk across the border, after about 200m there is a red double-decker bus which takes you all round.

Make sure not to bring Gib coins off the Rock because they are not legal tender in the UK. And there is a strict Duty Free allowance as it is not strictly in the EU.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Sunday is indeed a good day for Morrisons. As Alca said, it's a short walk across the border to the bus.
It will be interesting to hear what you think of Gib.
I'm sure you won't be as daft as me and forget your passport...they wouldn't let me in:( Had to drive the hour back home.
You'll need a £ coin for your trolley.
If you are a tippler...Rives gin is £3.99 a litre, Claymore whiskey £3.45. I think the allowance is one litre per person.
And yes, the Main Street shops are very disappointing. Unless you want to buy your wife or mil some gold and diamonds as there are loads of
jewellers.
 
#4 ·
Sunday is indeed a good day for Morrisons. As Alca said, it's a short walk across the border to the bus.
It will be interesting to hear what you think of Gib.
I'm sure you won't be as daft as me and forget your passport...they wouldn't let me in:( Had to drive the hour back home.
You'll need a £ coin for your trolley.
If you are a tippler...Rives gin is £3.99 a litre, Claymore whiskey £3.45.
But if you go to Morrisons you´ll need to take the car in. The queues aren´t too bad early Sunday morning.
 
#5 ·
We only ever go to Gib on a Sunday - the queues aren't bad at all so you can either walk or drive in.

I expect you will be able to find somewhere to stay in La Linea but there are other options quite close as well. If you let me know what kind of thing you are after I'll do some finding out.
 
#14 ·
I would actually fancy a visit to Gibraltar, I'm curious to see if I would feel like being back in Ireland/UK (lived in Dublin 1 year and Belfast 2 years) or if it would just feel like a Spanish town with English road signs and pounds instead of euros... I'm curious. :)

The problem is that Barcelona is far from the Rock, and I believe direct flights are still a bit of a hassle due to the hassle between both governments.

In fact it is odd: Madrid doesn't accept the Gibraltarians want to be British and makes a huge fuzz about this. Meanwhile they seem to find it very normal Ceuta and Melilla are still under Spanish reign, but when another country has an overseas territory the Spanish government screams scandal? Bit inconsequent when they have recently repeated that there's no way Melilla and Ceuta would be Moroccan anytime soon.

PS: would love to visit Ceuta as well. I guess a trip to Gibraltar and Ceuta can easily be combined in a long weekend since they are very close (the boat travel would probably be over before you know it)?
 
#18 ·
Gibraltar feels nothing like England and nothing like Spain - it´s a runique mixture and there are people from lots of other cultures too - including Indian, Moroccan, Italian and Jewish. The llanitos (native Gibraltarians) speak a strange hybrid language. The British military installations dominate the coast alongside the luxury yacht marinas.

There isn´t a problem with flights from Spain any more, but I think the direct flights from Madrid were stopped last year because of lack of interest. You do have to go through customs and there is a duty free allowance of 250 cigarettes and a litre of spirits. They are very strict because there is a lot of smuggling.

You have to go along the coast to Algeciras to get a ferry to Ceuta, but you could probably do it all in a long weekend.
 
#19 ·
Have you been in Ceuta? If yes, does it feel very Spanish or do you have that Moroccon atmosphere dominantly all over the town?

PS your post made me even more curious to see Gibraltar :) I don't think there's direct flights from Barcelona so the itinary to get there would be quite complex. I can see myself fly to Gatwick and then to Gibraltar while Gibraltar is closer to BCN than London :eek:
 
#20 ·
I haven't been to Ceuta, we keep promising ourselves to go but haven't got round to it yet. Many of the Spanish cities in this corner of Spain have historic Moorish quarters, so I don't suppose it will be much different from them except that it is surrounded by sea and has a horrid great fence to keep the Moroccans out. Just after we moved here, there were lots of shootings as they tried to storm the fence - I think that may be what has put us off going.

Vueling fly from Barcelona to Jerez de la Frontera, which is about 100 km away and there are regular buses to Algeciras. The ferry takes 35 minutes and you quite often see dolphins and pilot whales.
 
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