Spain/Portugal/Gibraltar - Best Spanish city for a day trip to Gibraltar

Next September I am doing a 2 week vacation in Spain with my wife and kids (ages 2 and 4). We are flying into Madrid and will go to Barcelona. I want to see Gibraltar and am looking for the best option. Is it including Seville on the itin and renting a car for the trip? I know there is a bus option but it seems too long. What about going to Marbella, it seems like an easier drive. What about a train or perhaps a tour bus from there. Any other suggestions?

It is a very easy trip via train.

From Seville you train to Algeciras. Make sure you stop on the way to see the Moorish hill town of Ronda, which is on the way.

Here are the instructions from Wikitravel, which is basically how I remember it.

" From Algeciras you can get the bus to Gibraltar. When you walk out from the harbour (with ferries), turn left, walk along the main street for about 100m and then turn right. Continue about 200m along this street to the small building with railroads. There is a small sign for the bus stop. This bus can get you to La Línea for about €1.6 and it goes every 30 minutes during the day. You will arrive at the bus station about 500m from the border with Gibraltar."

It is a local city bus, and maybe takes about 20 minutes.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Gibraltar

Very helpful info for me (I'll be going to Gibraltar this week).

Thanks.

If you're in Madrid, fly to Gibraltar direct with Andalus www.andalus.es (site works best in internet explorer).
Currently in winter flights:
GIB>MAD are early in the morning (weekdays).
MAD>GIB is in the early evening (weekdays + sundays).
(plane overnights in GIB)
[Having said the above, they are also operating some extra services at present for the season.]

Just noticed you are not visiting until September, the new terminal at Gibraltar will possibly be open by then, and flights to BCN might well be in operation as well.

Regarding the other options you mentioned. I think driving from SVQ would be painful with young children.


NOTE ALSO: There is a newly launced ferry service between Algeciras and Gibraltar. Operates 5 x day on weekdays. 3 x on Saturdays. No service sundays. Kids might enjoy this. Plenty of big ships to see - and possibility of dolphins.



Basically your options in total are:

1. fly to Gib - most convenient option. [Currently only Spanish airport with flights to Gib is MAD, but new terminal under construction in Gib, BCN will certainly be back on the cards shortly. Otherwise would need for fly via UK.]

2. fly to Malaga (from anywhere in spain), or take high speed train from Madrid to Malaga.

From Malaga you can get to Marbella on direct express bus (45 mins).

From Marbella you can either get a bus to La Linea (for the Gib border), or to Algeciras (the city on the opposite side of the bay of Gibraltar).

Or stay in the Marbella area or elsewhere on the costa del sol, from where there are trips organised.
But note plenty of people prefer to do their own thing and take the public buses from Marbella and elsewhere on the costa - this is advisable because the organized tours tend to be very rushed and leave Gib VERY early in the day to get people back to the beach.

3. Take the train to Algeciras (from MAD and other inland locations. Note no train service from Malaga/costa to Algeciras).

From algeciras to gibraltar (including if you arrive by Bus from the costa or the train from inland): Either take the bus as outlined above to the border, or take the new ferry service I mentioned above.

- When in Gib, do consider one of the taxi tours of the upper rock. Check that they will include the Caves and Great Siege tunnels as well as monkeys. And if you really want a treat ask about including the WW2 tunnels as well - but there will be a further surcharge for this and it might need to be done separately - well worth it. Although the taxi tour might seem expensive, it is proabably one of the best ways to do it, and check the upper rock nature reserve fee is included etc so you get to know your total price in advance. Yes, seems a lot up front, but will probably enjoy it more.

If you are going to be in Gib for a night etc, then I might advise differently. Upper rock taxi tour though is strongly recommended if you are on limited time.

Thank you for the great responses. I have a lot to consider. $37 flights in and out of Malaga make it an attactive option. It just means making a Madrid, Barcelona, Seville trip into a Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella trip. I do have SPG Platinum and there is a Westin in Marbella so this might be better with the kids. It just means I will have to visit Seville some other time.

Is there ferry service from Marbella to Morocco if we wanted to do another day trip? Or could you do a half day in Gibraltar and half day in Morocco all in one day?

Is there ferry service from Marbella to Morocco if we wanted to do another day trip?

Not from Marbella, it is more of a yacht marina type of place!
The next big port is back to Malaga.

Do not however that the distance between Europe and Africa widens significantly as soon as you are East of Gibraltar.

As a result most of the ferry services, and certainly the quick high speed ones, cross at the strait where it is narrow.

There are ferry services from Algeciras to North Africa, both Morocco and Spain's north african enclave of Ceuta.
[Their other enclave is Melia, but it is further East, and might have Malaga services. It also has a proper airport so is less reliant on longer distance ferrys, than short hop Ceuta.]

However the fast ferry services to these locations go from Tarifa which is further west.

I really do suggest if renting a car is possible that you go in the Tariffa direction, compared to the costa dell sol - east of Gibraltar, to the west the Tarifa area is still relativly unspoilt with some amazing beaches and incredible wind (plenty of kite surfers etc, and green wind farms galore).

Or could you do a half day in Gibraltar and half day in Morocco all in one day?

I'd say this is non viable. But back to back would be more credible.

And if you did want specifically to do both, I'd contemplate doing Gibraltar on the morning of day 1, early afternoon head/drive to the Tarifa area and stay overnight there. Day 2 take a ferry trip to Morrocco.

Alternativly, if staying at a hotel even in the Marbella area, I believe there are organised tours to Morocco availbale. But it probably does mean a VERY early start - drive along the coast before the ferry.

If you are fine with driving and want to do your own thing, I'd say go in the Tarifa direction for somewhere to stay.

Remember, if you are talking about visiting "Morocco" on a day trip from Spain you are talking about visiting Tangier. Tangier is not Morocco, but it is interesting enough. Be prepared to be harassed. Not sure about navigating with two small children.

If you want a small taste of North Africa but still in Spain, suggest you visit Ceuta.

$37 flights in and out of Malaga make it an attactive option. It just means making a Madrid, Barcelona, Seville trip into a Madrid, Barcelona, Marbella trip. I do have SPG Platinum and there is a Westin in Marbella so this might be better with the kids. It just means I will have to visit Seville some other time.

While I do understand your reasons, I would choose Sevilla over Marbella any time. (And if it basically comes down to a choice between Sevilla and Gibraltar, Sevilla still wins. No competition there...)

Edited to add: apparently the Westin in Marbella will leave SPG soon, see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starwood-preferred-guest/827574-deficiencies-westin-la-quinta-marbella.html (Edited to add: apparently the Westin in Marbella will leave SPG soon, see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starwood-preferred-guest/827574-deficiencies-westin-la-quinta-marbella.html.).

Tangier is not Morocco, but it is interesting enough.

:confused:

Getting some great information here. Right now I am thinking I will just cut out the ferry to Africa whether to Tangier or Ceuta. I was just in Egypt earlier this year and my kids will just have to wait till they are older to say they have been to Africa.

Instead we will go from Barcelona to Marbella for a couple of days. I will rent a car there to drive to Gibraltar for the day and than drive that evening to Seville. We will spend a full day in Seville before flying back to Madrid. I want a good family photo with Gibraltar in the background. I was thinking the best spot would be the ferry over to Tangier but think I can get it by driving to Algeciras on the way to Seville.

Tangier is not Morocco, but it is interesting enough. Be prepared to be harassed. Please explain as:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Tangier (disambiguation).
Tangier
طنجة Ṭanja
TangierLocation in Morocco
Country Morocco
Region Tangier-Tétouan
Population (2008)
- Total 700,000
Tangier or Tangiers [pronounce[1]] (Ṭanja طنجة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, Tânger in Portuguese, and Tanger in French) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 (2008 census)

I will rent a car there to drive to Gibraltar for the day and than drive that evening to Seville. We will spend a full day in Seville before flying back to Madrid. I want a good family photo with Gibraltar in the background. I was thinking the best spot would be the ferry over to Tangier but think I can get it by driving to Algeciras on the way to Seville.

We did something similar this summer. Flew into Malaga from London and spent a few days in Marbella - really enjoyed it. Having a car was helpful to explore the area. We were able to go to a few different beaches during the days and be on our own schedule for dinner out in Puerto Banus. It also gave me more options on where to stay (i.e. the options to use points are a little removed from the main areas).

We then drove from Marbella to Seville in a day, stopping in Gibraltar. It was very easy to get to. In fact, the highways in Spain were amazing - well maintained, several stretches looked new, and good signage. There is a large, secure underground parking lot right across from the border - much better to park there, walk across the border with your passports, and then take a bus or taxi into the main town.

In terms of timing, we went end of August, so had lots of daylight to work with. We intended to leave Marbella early, but probably did not get out until after 10 AM. Got to Gibraltar for a sit-down lunch, walked around most of the town, and got up and down the rock. Still made it to Seville before sundown. And of course best part about Spain is you can get into a city at 9 PM and you have not even missed dinner! Though not sure how that works with the kids?

If you have time in Gibraltar, go to the top of the mountain. The cable car has a little wait, but the views and the monkeys are worth it. You can also hire tours that drive you up there. We could have spent a little more time there, but really glad we did not skip it. For your photo, there will be plenty of good views with the "Prudential Rock" shape as backdrop if you pull over on the main road into Gibraltar (coming from the highway). I did not realize there is a massive harbor at Gibraltar too - so the whole thing is surrounded by water so you have a clear view as you approach. Just pull over at one of the scenic viewpoints where someone else is already pulled over taking pictures.

We ended up driving to Madrid from Seville because our travel day was the last Sunday of summer and the advance purchase fares for train tickets on renfe.es were sold out (everyone returning from holiday) - making it cheaper to drive ourselves. Plus we wanted to spend a night/day in Toledo. If you are not connecting to fly out of Madrid the same day you should really check out the AVE trains - high speed and probably much quicker than getting in and out of an airport. If you purchase in advance it can be very cheap (search some of the other threads on here about RENFE). We took the AVE train from Madrid to Barcelona - got the advance fare and it was very easy. The train only tales 2.5 hours for Seville-Madrid. I think it was just slightly longer for our Madrid-Barcelona segment (we ended our trip in BCN and flew from there back to LHR and onto LAX).

Please explain as:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Tangier (disambiguation).
Tangier
طنجة Ṭanja
TangierLocation in Morocco
Country Morocco
Region Tangier-Tétouan
Population (2008)
- Total 700,000
Tangier or Tangiers [pronounce[1]] (Ṭanja طنجة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, Tânger in Portuguese, and Tanger in French) is a city of northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 (2008 census)

Understood. Fully disambiguated! I meant this as some people mean "New York City is not the United States," or "London is not England." No question where they are located. :)