anna_h

Can anyone offer me some imprtial advice please.
I am planning a holiday travelling around Costa de la Luz and am thinking of flying home from Gibraltar. We would drop our hire car off at La Linea and the car hire office has said it is a 2 minute walk to the border crossing and the airport terminal. Does anyone know if the car hire offices are so close to the border? as we will have a large suitcase with us. Also if there are likely to be any border delays travelling into Gibraltar since this would be a disaster if we missed the flight.
The other option would be to drive an extra hour and fly back from Malaga.

Thanks to anyone who can offer advice.

Zeus

Never been there but I did see Gibraltor from a boat once. Maybe the following Fodors thread will answer your questions:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2

Zeus

Let's try that link again:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...braltor+border

AAFrequentFlyer

<b>http://www.andalucia.com/travel/airports/gibraltar.htm</b>

Wildfire

assuming you are arriving somewhere else,,
make sure you are allowed to do that.
Gibraltar has a somewhat limited number of
flights. Border delays,,,its a two minute walk into gibraltar from Spain, but i didnt notice anyone with baggage, wondering if that might not create a slowdown.
maybe malaga is better?

Gardyloo

Trveling <i>into</i> Gibraltar is no big deal (but coming out is no picnic) and the border is the runway - you have to wait for the planes to pass before you can walk/drive across the runway into Gibraltar. Don't know about your car agency; maybe go to a mapping site and dial in the address and see if it is indeed next to the border/runway. I wouldn't be surprised.

nytraveler

Gardyloo is correct - the border is the runway. And there seemed to be essentially no interest in who goes into Gibralter (we just had to wait for a plane to taxi past.) However, getting back into Spain took forever - they practically disassembled our car (mirror underneath, pulled out all the luggage and took out the back seat - everyting yu can think of - and this was 2 Americans in an obvious Hertz rental - I hate to think what they would do if you looked suspicious).

TopMan

Gibraltar and the presence of the British has been a thorn in the side of Spain since the beginning...they would love to have the place back...and they have acted &quot;accordingly&quot; in their &quot;enforcement&quot; of border crossings...as an irritant if nothing else and I suspect that won't change...so good thing you are going in and not coming back out.

Gardyloo

As a follow-up, however - Gibraltar (which we found fascinating and would like to return) is one giant duty-free zone, with excellent values (and the cheapest petrol in Europe.) Unfortunately, the cheap gas gets consumed during the hours-long wait queuing at the border for the (one, maybe two, but doing the work of one) Spanish border cop s-l-o-w-l-y looking at each car, parcel, his fingernails... in order to hassle travelers and dilute the effect of any bargains obtained in Gib. What a fascinating bit of holdover colonial silliness. I only hope the Moroccans do the same to people leaving Cueta, the little Spanish toehold on the African continent (to which their attitude is curiously different than that toward Gibraltar.)

Anyhoo, if you walk/taxi/shuttle into Gibraltar on your way home, you might consider going a little earlier and do any last minute shopping when you're there.

Georgine

Anna,

There is &quot;No Way&quot; I would &quot;walk&quot; from the car rental office in La Linea to the border crossing into Gibraltar.

You would be setting yourselves up as the perfect robbery targets.

The border crossing area going into Gibraltar from La Linea is a seedy area with lots of strange characters hanging about. We felt uncomfortable in a car with the doors locked!! Men were knocking on the car windows, trying to get us to talk with them; others were insisting ,in broken English, that we needed to &quot;park&quot; our car on the Spanish side of the border and they &quot;would park the car for us&quot;.

The whole scene reminded me of a bad day in &quot;Old Tijuana, Mexico&quot;.

Can you imagine the hassle you would get while on foot, with luggage in tow?

If I couldn't do it by taxi or have the rental staff drive me over, I won't do it---I would fly out of Malaga.

anna_h

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. It seems like the safest bet would definately be to fly out of Malaga.

Parota

There is a large parking lot on the La Linea side of Gibraltor. From there you may want to walk across the border. The car lines were long - even in December.

One thing, if staying at a hotel in Gibraltor, DON'T stay at the Continental. It's awful. No heat (it was freezing cold in December 2004), no electricity in bathroom, windows would not close, elevator didn't work. Had to call the police to the hotel as the management refused to take care of concerns, and were rude and obnoxious. Police suggested staying at the Bristol (the Bristol was great). We filed a report with the Tourist Bureau - they said the NEVER recommend the Continental (apparently the hotel used to be good but now is under new ownership).