The Rock of Gibraltar rises 426 metres directly from the sea. It is visible from the Costa del Sol on a clear morning, from Morocco across the Strait, and from passing ships 30 miles out in the Atlantic. Up close, it is larger and stranger than most visitors expect - a limestone monolith riddled with tunnels, caves, and centuries of accumulated military history, with a resident population of wild primates and views that stretch to two continents.
The Upper Rock Nature Reserve, which covers most of the Rock above the town, is the main reason people come to Gibraltar. This guide covers everything you need to visit it properly in 2026 - including the significant changes that have happened in the last twelve months.
Cable car: Closed November 2025 for major renovation. Not expected to reopen until approximately 2027.
Mediterranean Steps: Closed indefinitely following a rockfall in May 2026. Assessment ongoing.
Nature Reserve ticket: Adults £30, children (5-11) £22, under-5s free. Covers all attractions listed below.
Private vehicles: Not permitted in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. Taxi, walking, or guided tour only.
Border: Open since April 2026 - no passport checks at the land crossing from Spain.
Getting up the Rock
With the cable car closed, the options are: taxi tour, walking, or a guided eBike tour. Each suits a different kind of visitor.
Taxi tour
The most popular option for first-time visitors and anyone on limited time. Licensed taxis operate tours of the Upper Rock on the one-way system through the Nature Reserve, stopping at the main attractions. A standard tour takes around 90 minutes to two hours and typically costs £30-40 per person. Your driver provides commentary. Taxis wait at the border crossing and along Main Street - agree a price and inclusions before you get in. This is the most efficient way to cover the ground, particularly if the cable car is your usual reference point for the visit.
Walking
Three pedestrian entrances access the Upper Rock: Jews' Gate (southern approach), Moorish Castle (northern approach), and Devil's Gap. Each involves a serious climb - allow 45 minutes to an hour to reach the main sites from any of the entrances, on uneven paths with significant gradients. The reward for walking is the absence of crowds at the quieter stretches and the physical satisfaction of arriving at elevation under your own effort. Wear proper footwear. Bring water. Do it early - the Rock in the afternoon heat of July or August is hard work.
Note: the Mediterranean Steps, the most dramatic walking route on the southern face, are currently closed following the May 2026 rockfall. Check GBC News for reopening updates before planning a route that includes them.
Ride the Rock - guided eBike tour
Our own Ride the Rock experience takes small groups through the Upper Rock on eBikes with a local guide. You cover the same ground as the taxi tour with more flexibility - stopping where it's worth stopping, not where the one-way system allows - and a guide who can put what you're looking at in context. It's the option that tends to produce the most from a visit to the Rock. Suitable for most fitness levels; the eBike handles the gradient.
"The Rock in the afternoon heat of August is hard work. The Rock at 9am, before the cruise ships arrive, is a different place entirely."
What the Nature Reserve ticket covers
A single Nature Reserve ticket (£30 adults, £22 children 5-11) covers all of the following. Buy it at any of the Reserve entrances or at the attractions themselves.
St Michael's Cave
A network of limestone caverns at around 300 metres above sea level, with stalactites, stalagmites, and a staged light show that reveals the full scale of the main chamber. The caves have been known since at least the Roman period - Neolithic tools, arrow heads, and jewellery were found during the first formal archaeological excavation in 1867. During World War II the entire cave was prepared as an emergency military hospital. The Lower Cave, discovered in 1942 during that preparation work, is accessible on separate guided tours and is dramatically larger than the main cavern most visitors see.
Allow 30-40 minutes. The cave is cool year-round - a useful respite in summer - and the acoustics are good enough that it's occasionally used as a concert venue.
The Great Siege Tunnels
The most underrated attraction on the Rock. During the Great Siege of Gibraltar (1779-1783), when combined Spanish and French forces blockaded the territory for four years, the British garrison began tunnelling through the northern face of the Rock to create gun emplacements that could fire down on the besieging forces. The work was done by hand, under fire, with 18th-century tools, by a Sergeant-Major named Ince who started with a crowbar. The result was a network of tunnels and artillery positions that gave the defenders a decisive tactical advantage.
Walking through them now - past the original embrasures cut through solid rock, with the bay visible through openings that were designed to aim cannon - is one of the genuinely striking historical experiences available in southern Europe. Allow 30-40 minutes.
The World War II Tunnels
A separate network, vastly larger than the Great Siege Tunnels. By the end of World War II, Gibraltar contained over 50km of tunnels carved through the Rock - enough to house the entire civilian population, a functioning town, a military headquarters, a hospital, and the strategic command centre from which the Allied invasion of North Africa was planned in 1942. Winston Churchill, Eisenhower, and de Gaulle all visited. The tunnels open to the public show enough of this to convey the scale of what was built underground and why. Allow 45-60 minutes.
The Barbary Macaques
Over 200 Barbary macaques in six packs across the Upper Rock. They are the only wild primates in continental Europe - their presence in Gibraltar has been uninterrupted since at least the 18th century, when their population and British sovereignty became linked by legend. (Winston Churchill, during the war, ordered the population replenished when it fell to seven. Whether he believed the legend or simply understood its psychological value is a matter of debate.)
The Apes' Den is the main viewing area but the macaques roam freely throughout the Reserve. They are habituated to humans and entirely unintimidated. Secure all bags, sunglasses, food, and anything else they might find interesting before approaching.
The Skywalk and Windsor Suspension Bridge
The Skywalk is a glass-floored viewing platform cantilevered over the eastern face of the Rock, with a sheer drop to the Mediterranean below and views across the Strait to Morocco. The Windsor Suspension Bridge crosses a gorge on the upper slopes. Both are included in the Nature Reserve ticket. The Skywalk in particular is one of those installations that earns its place - the view is genuinely vertiginous and the glass floor makes it more so.
O'Hara's Battery and the 100-Ton Gun
O'Hara's Battery sits near the summit - a military emplacement with a history running from the Napoleonic era through to the Cold War. The 100-Ton Gun, one of the largest muzzle-loading rifles ever built, is located just outside the Nature Reserve proper but covered by the ticket. It was installed in 1882 to defend the harbour against ironclad warships and weighs exactly what the name suggests.
The Moorish Castle
The Tower of Homage, the surviving element of the medieval Moorish fortification built after the Islamic conquest of 711 AD, stands on the northern face of the Rock. Gibraltar changed hands repeatedly between Moorish and Spanish forces over the following centuries before the Anglo-Dutch capture of 1704. The Tower's walls still bear the marks of cannon fire from those sieges. The view from the top across the bay and toward Spain is excellent.
What most visitors miss
Europa Point. The southernmost tip of Gibraltar and technically outside the Nature Reserve, but the most dramatic viewpoint on the Rock. The Strait is 14km wide at its narrowest here - on clear days the Rif mountains of Morocco are visible in detail. The Ibrahim-Al-Ibrahim Mosque and the Trinity Lighthouse both stand on the point. Most taxi tours include it; if yours doesn't, ask.
The Lower Cave at St Michael's. The main cave that most visitors see is the tourist-accessible upper chamber. The Lower Cave, discovered in 1942, is larger and more dramatic - accessible on separate guided tours booked through the Gibraltar Tourist Board. If you have any interest in caves, it's worth the additional cost.
The view from the water. Everything above is the Rock seen from the Rock. The version of it that tends to stay with people is the Rock seen from the Strait - the full limestone face rising from the sea, the town at its base, the cloud cap forming on the summit when the easterly wind picks up. Our Gibraltar by Sea experience takes you around the Rock's full coastline by private boat, including sea caves on the southern face that are inaccessible any other way.
The Upper Rock tells you what Gibraltar is. The water shows you what it looks like.
Our Ride the Rock eBike tour covers the Nature Reserve with a guide who can put it in context. Gibraltar by Sea takes you around the coastline nobody walks. Between the two, you'll see the Rock the way most visitors don't.
See All ExperiencesPractical tips
Go early. The Upper Rock in summer heat is demanding, and the cruise ship crowds arrive from 10:30am. Being there at 9am makes a real difference to both the experience and the photographs.
Wear proper shoes. The paths in the Nature Reserve are uneven, steep in places, and occasionally wet. Sandals and flip-flops are a mistake.
Bring water. There's nowhere to buy it inside the Reserve.
The macaques are wild animals. They look approachable and they are - but they bite when provoked and steal without hesitation. Keep bags closed and don't feed them.
The Levante cloud cap - the cloud that forms on the eastern face when the easterly wind blows - is dramatic from below and cold and damp when you're inside it. It forms quickly and dissipates quickly. If it arrives while you're at the summit, give it twenty minutes.
Useful links
Upper Rock Nature Reserve - official information and ticket prices
Visit Gibraltar - guided tours and Lower Cave bookings
GBC News - Med Steps reopening updates
Gibraltar Chronicle - local news and cruise ship schedule