The border, which is the news
For more than a century the crossing at La Línea meant a fence, a checkpoint and queues that could run to hours. That ended on 15 July 2026.
An agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, announced in June 2025 and signed on 14 July 2026, began provisional application the following day, and the land border controls were lifted at midnight. The fence and the checkpoint, in place since 1908, were taken down.
Several things about this are worth stating precisely, because the position is more particular than the headlines suggested.
- The land border is open. Crossing between La Línea and Gibraltar is now unimpeded, with no physical barrier and no twin check.
- Gibraltar has not joined Schengen. Schengen rules instead apply at its external border — the airport and the port — under a tailored arrangement.
- Arrivals by air and sea face two sets of checks, carried out at the airport: first by British and Gibraltarian officers, then by Spanish officers acting for the Schengen area, with the order reversed on departure. Passengers arriving by ship are taken to the airport for this.
- For a British visitor flying in direct, this means the Schengen 90-days-in-180 limit applies, and Spanish officers can refuse entry to a non-resident who does not meet Schengen conditions. Gibraltar residents are exempt from both that limit and the EU Entry/Exit System.
- Ratification is not complete. As of late 2026 the treaty is applied provisionally: United Kingdom ratification, European Parliament consent and formal adoption by the Council have still to follow. Anything described here could be adjusted in that process, and the territory's own tourist information has not caught up — its published material still described Gibraltar as outside Schengen months after the controls went.
Money, driving and the runway
Three practicalities that catch British visitors, and the last one has changed.
- The currency is the Gibraltar pound, pegged to sterling and exchangeable at par. Bank of England notes and coin circulate freely and are accepted everywhere. The catch runs the other way: Gibraltar notes are not legal tender in the United Kingdom, so they should be spent or changed before leaving. Euros are usually accepted at poor rates.
- Traffic drives on the right. This surprises almost every British visitor, and it is worth knowing before stepping off a kerb.
- Cars no longer cross the runway. They did, at surface level, with barriers closing for aircraft — the detail every older account mentions. The Kingsway tunnel opened on 31 March 2023 and now carries the road under the eastern end of the runway. Pedestrians, cyclists and mobility scooters can still cross the runway itself, so the experience survives on foot.
The Rock
It rises to 426 metres at O'Hara's Battery — not the 420 of older accounts — and the Upper Rock Nature Reserve covers the whole upper part of it. There is a single entry charge and one ticket covers every attraction inside.
An important caution: the cable car has been closed for refurbishment, with no reopening date published. It is the way up that every guide recommends and it is currently not an option, so anyone planning a visit should check before arriving. There is a free shuttle from the border to the lower station, which does not always run on cruise-ship days, and the alternatives are a taxi tour or a long, steep walk.
The macaques
Around three hundred Barbary macaques live on the Upper Rock in five troops. "Troops" is the word; older accounts say "tribes", which is not a term used of monkeys.
They are usually described as the only wild monkeys in Europe, which holds. How they arrived is genuinely unknown: they derive from populations in Morocco and Algeria, the likeliest explanation is introduction during the Muslim period, and the one firm fact is that they were here before the British took the Rock in 1704. Older accounts stating flatly that traders brought them are asserting more than anyone knows.
Feeding them is a criminal offence and carries a fine. They are wild animals that bite and scratch, they will take a bag off a shoulder, and they should not be touched or crowded — though it is the feeding, not the touching, that is specifically illegal.
Inside the Rock
- St Michael's Cave is the largest of the natural caverns. It was prepared as an emergency military hospital during the Second World War but never used as one, which older accounts get wrong. Its main chamber has been a theatre since the early 1960s, seating several hundred, and it now also runs an immersive light and sound installation through the cavern every twenty minutes.
- The Great Siege Tunnels were cut during the Great Siege of July 1779 to February 1783, when France and Spain besieged the Rock during the American War of Independence. The purpose was artillery: the galleries were driven through the north face to reach positions that could fire on the Spanish lines, at the proposal of Sergeant-Major Henry Ince, and were dug by hand with sledgehammers, crowbars and gunpowder from May 1782.
Older accounts describe "a tunnel called The Notch, over 600 feet long". The Notch was not a tunnel — it was an outcrop of rock on the cliff face where a gun was wanted and no path could be cut, which is why the tunnelling was proposed in the first place. It was eventually hollowed into a gun chamber, St George's Hall. The first tunnel was 82 feet long, and the whole system reached about 900 feet by the end of 1783.
- The World War II Tunnels, a separate and much larger network, are shown on their own ticket.
In the town
- The Moorish Castle. The Tower of Homage and most of what is visible were rebuilt in the early fourteenth century, during the second period of Moorish rule; a fortification stood on the site far earlier. Older accounts present it as "one more example of the diversity of Andalucia", which it is not — it is in Gibraltar.
- The Convent has been the Governor's official residence since 1728. It was built as a Franciscan friary in 1531, and the friars did not leave at the British capture in 1704 as is usually said — they are recorded there as late as 1712. The garrison church beside it, renamed the Queen's Chapel under Victoria, is again the King's Chapel.
On the Changing of the Guard: the full ceremony now takes place only a few times a year. A smaller guard mount by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment happens at the main entrance on some days of the week. Older accounts present the spectacle as a regular fixture; it is not, and the dates are worth checking.
- Main Street is the duty-free shopping, which is much of why day visitors come, and it is very crowded when a cruise ship is in.
- Europa Point, at the southern tip, has the lighthouse, a mosque and the view across the strait to Africa.
The Governor
Older accounts say the Governor is "officially a British subject", which means nothing. The Governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government, represents the Crown, and holds responsibility for defence, external affairs and internal security; the post is conventionally filled by a senior retired officer of the armed forces. Domestic government is run by an elected parliament and a chief minister, whom the Governor formally appoints after an election. The role carries little weight in day-to-day matters.
The strait
Correctly the Strait of Gibraltar, singular. At its narrowest it is about eight miles — thirteen kilometres — between Point Marroquí in Spain and Point Cires in Morocco, and it runs some thirty-six miles long. Older accounts give "a dozen miles", which looks like thirteen kilometres mistaken for miles.
Dolphin-watching boats run from the marina, and the ferry to Tangier goes from Tarifa rather than from Gibraltar.
Position
Gibraltar has its own airport with direct flights from the United Kingdom, which is the simplest way in. From Malaga it is about an hour and a half by road, and the town is small enough to be seen on foot in a day. General practicalities for Andalucia itself are on the Andalucia page — but note that Gibraltar is a separate jurisdiction and those do not all apply here.