Gibraltar holidays

Gibraltar is the small British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of Spain — 6.7 sq km of limestone-rock peninsula dominated by the 426m-tall Rock of Gibraltar (the upper section is a Nature Reserve home to the famous Barbary macaque colony, Europe's only wild monkey population). The territory has been British since 1713 (Treaty of Utrecht) but its strategic position controlling the Strait of Gibraltar has made it variously Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Visigothic, Moorish, and Spanish across 3,000 years of recorded history. The Moorish Castle (medieval), the Great Siege Tunnels (carved by British engineers during the 1779-83 siege), St Michael's Cave (the natural limestone cavern that doubles as a concert hall), and the runway crossing (one of the few airports in the world where a major road crosses the active runway) all sit within walking distance.

A 1-3 day Gibraltar trip is typically combined with a Spanish Costa del Sol holiday — most travellers visit Gibraltar as a day-trip from Málaga, Marbella or the Costa del Sol resort coast (the border at La Línea is a short walk to the Gibraltar town centre). Headline experiences: ride the Cable Car to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve (the Barbary macaques are highly habituated — don't feed them, don't bring food in bags), walk the Mediterranean Steps and the Skywalk (a glass-floored viewing platform), tour the Great Siege Tunnels, visit St Michael's Cave, walk the Main Street and grand Casemates Square, see the Trafalgar Cemetery (resting place of British sailors from the 1805 battle), and stop at Europa Point lighthouse (the meeting of Atlantic and Mediterranean, on a clear day you can see Morocco's Atlas Mountains 14 miles across the Strait).