The Barbary macaque, a fully grown male, grey fur, orange rump, an expression of calm entitlement, lands on the cable car station railing six inches from your elbow and regards you with the look of a creature that has been stealing tourists’ sunglasses since long before you were born. The macaques of Gibraltar, the only wild monkey population in Europe, are the unofficial welcoming committee, and they set the tone for the Rock: unexpected, slightly anarchic, and completely unforgettable.

Gibraltar: A Piece of Britain at the Mouth of the Mediterranean

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory, 6.8 square kilometres of limestone rock, connected to Spain by a narrow isthmus, dominated by the 426-metre Rock that has been a strategic prize since the Moors first fortified it in 711 CE. The territory has been British since 1713 (the Treaty of Utrecht), and the culture is a distinctive blend of British institutions (red post boxes, the Royal Gibraltar Police, fish and chips on Main Street) and Mediterranean geography (the climate is subtropical, the palm trees are real, and the Spanish influence is everywhere in the architecture, the cuisine, and the bilingual street signs). Crossing the border, a 10-minute walk from La Línea in Spain, passport required, is one of the stranger European experiences: you leave Spain, cross a runway (Gibraltar’s airport runway intersects the main road; barriers come down when a plane lands or takes off, and pedestrians wait for the aircraft to pass), and enter a micro-nation that is simultaneously deeply familiar and utterly alien.

What to See and Do

The Rock of Gibraltar: The upper Rock Nature Reserve (£18, includes the Skywalk, St Michael’s Cave, the Great Siege Tunnels, and the Moorish Castle) is the essential visit. Take the cable car (€19 return, £16, from the town centre) for the view across the Strait of Gibraltar, Africa, 14 km away, the Rif Mountains of Morocco clearly visible on a clear day, the Mediterranean on one side and the Atlantic on the other. The Skywalk, a glass viewing platform cantilevered over the eastern face of the Rock, 340 metres above sea level, is the most photographed spot. The sensation of standing on glass with nothing but air between you and the Mediterranean is worth the admission alone.

The Barbary Macaques (Apes’ Den): Approximately 300 macaques live on the Rock, the only wild monkeys in Europe. They are habituated to humans but not domesticated, they will steal food, sunglasses, and anything that looks interesting. The Apes’ Den (a feeding station, midway up the Rock) is the best place to see them; the macaques are at their most active in the morning. Do not feed them (€500 fine), do not touch them, and keep bags zipped. The legend that Gibraltar will remain British as long as the macaques survive was taken seriously enough that Winston Churchill ordered reinforcements of macaques from Morocco during the Second World War when numbers dipped to seven.

St Michael’s Cave: A natural limestone cave system, the Cathedral Cave is the largest chamber, with stalactites and stalagmites of extraordinary density, that was prepared as an emergency hospital during the Second World War but never used. The cave is now a concert venue (the acoustics are excellent, the atmosphere haunting), and the light show projected onto the formations is surprisingly effective.

The Great Siege Tunnels: During the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783), British engineers dug a tunnel system through the limestone with sledgehammers, crowbars, and gunpowder, 30 metres of tunnel per week, an extraordinary rate for the time, to position cannons that could fire down onto the Spanish lines. The tunnels have been extended over the centuries and now form a 55 km network (the majority is closed to the public, but the original section is accessible). The embrasures (gun ports) cut into the north face of the Rock look out across the isthmus toward Spain; the view, and the realisation that men dug this tunnel by hand with black powder, is striking.

Europa Point: The southernmost point of Gibraltar (and of continental Europe, if you do not count Tarifa 30 km to the west on the Spanish mainland), with a lighthouse (built 1841, automated 1994), the Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque (a gift from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, completed 1997, one of the largest mosques in a non-Islamic country), and a view across the Strait to Jebel Musa in Morocco, one of the two Pillars of Hercules (the other being the Rock of Gibraltar itself). The Strait is only 14 km wide at this point; on a clear day, the African coast is startlingly close. The currents here, the Mediterranean meeting the Atlantic, the constant wind funnelling through the Strait, make it one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Sit on the sea wall and count the tankers. A new one passes every ten minutes.

Main Street and the Town: Gibraltar is a duty-free territory, and Main Street is a mile of jewellery, electronics, perfume, and spirits at prices that are noticeably lower than the UK or Spain. The architecture is a lively jumble of British colonial, Genoese, Spanish, and Moorish; the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Anglican, built 1825-1832, Moorish arches) and the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned (Roman Catholic, originally a mosque built in 1462 on the site of an earlier mosque) are both worth a visit. The Trafalgar Cemetery (burial ground for casualties of the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805, including sailors from HMS Victory) is small, immaculately maintained, and unexpectedly moving, the graves of men who died at sea, brought ashore to be buried in British territory, the inscriptions worn by two centuries of salt wind.

Practical Notes

Gibraltar uses the Gibraltar pound (GIP, pegged 1:1 to GBP; UK sterling is accepted everywhere, but GIP is not accepted in the UK, spend it before you leave). The official language is English; Spanish is widely spoken. The border with Spain can be slow, 30-60 minutes at peak times, longer during political tensions, and you will need your passport. The day trip from Spain (or a stop on a cruise) is the typical visit; overnighting gives you the Rock in the early morning and late evening, when the day-trippers have left and the macaques have the streets almost to themselves. The climate is mild year-round (average January temperature 13°C, average July 28°C), making Gibraltar a viable winter-sun destination within easy reach of the UK. The Rock Hotel (4-star, built 1932, Art Deco, the terrace view across the Strait is the best in the territory) is the classic overnight option. The fish and chips at The Landings Restaurant in Marina Bay, eaten with a view of the superyachts, is the most Gibraltar meal possible: British food, Mediterranean setting, African coast on the horizon.

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