Gibraltar but terrified of monkeys - what to do?

[Jilliebean28]

We are going to Gibraltar and would like to see the island. I am, however,  absolutely terrified of monkeys.  Can anyone suggest excursions that do not include seeing them?   Thanks so much.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

Basically, they are just in one area (up on the rock), so if you stick to the town I doubt you'll even see any.  And if you take a taxi up the rock, I don't think they will bother your taxi.  And if you don't want them even getting a chance, I would tell the driver about your fears, ask if you can keep the windows closed, etc.  There is more to the rock than the monkeys.  We took a taxi up and went a couple places that had no monkeys, at least as far as I remember.  Our pictures are here: https://pbase.com/roothy123/iberian_sojourn__portugal_spain_gib&page=all  (No need to sign in or anything, just click and view - Gibraltar pics are two thirds down, with annotations of what you're looking at)  

[John Bull]

As the poster from Maryland has said, the monkeys are only on the upper Rock - so nowhere in town, Catalan Bay, at Europa Point, etc. 

You can very easiy explore the town on foot.

For Europa Point  and/or Catalan Bay you'd need a taxi or bus- mebbe include them in a 7-mile 25-minute sea-level cirumnavigation of the Rock by taxi, starting at the Cruise Terminal & getting dropped off in Casemates Square at the end of Main Street and a simple 20 minute walk or bus hop back to the ship .

 

But you'll miss the joys of the upper Rock. Consider taking a standard upper Rock taxi/van tour from the Cruise Terminal.

You can stay in the vehicle if you wish, although of the four stops I don't think there are monkeys at the Pillars of Hercules, there are usually only one or two at St Michael's cave & they don't go i the cave, sometimes there are one or two at the Great Siege Tunnels  but again they don't enter.

They mainly congregate at feeding stations, one of which is on the tour route. It's a single-lane road with usually a short line of vans - folk walk up the line  of vans to the feeding station. As the van at the front goes, the rest move up, so in about 10 to 15 minutes their van reaches the front, they board & continue.  You certainly won't want to get out of the vehicle there, but drivers are happy for folk such as yourself (you're not the only one) to stay in the van - you do get to see the monkeys, they climb all over the vans, but you're safe inside & they're more interested in windshield wipers and radio aerials and such 😀

At the end of the tour you have the choice of baling out at Casemates Square or being taken back to the ship.

Despite your fears I think you'd get pretty full value out of an upper Rock tour. 🙂

 

PS Yes, you' got it right - they're actually monkeys, not apes. Tail-less Barbary macaques to be precise.

 

JB 🙂

[Jilliebean28]

On 1/15/2022 at 10:47 PM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Basically, they are just in one area (up on the rock), so if you stick to the town I doubt you'll even see any.  And if you take a taxi up the rock, I don't think they will bother your taxi.  And if you don't want them even getting a chance, I would tell the driver about your fears, ask if you can keep the windows closed, etc.  There is more to the rock than the monkeys.  We took a taxi up and went a couple places that had no monkeys, at least as far as I remember.  Our pictures are here: https://pbase.com/roothy123/iberian_sojourn__portugal_spain_gib&page=all  (No need to sign in or anything, just click and view - Gibraltar pics are two thirds down, with annotations of what you're looking at)  

 

On 1/16/2022 at 7:05 AM, John Bull said:

As the poster from Maryland has said, the monkeys are only on the upper Rock - so nowhere in town, Catalan Bay, at Europa Point, etc. 

You can very easiy explore the town on foot.

For Europa Point  and/or Catalan Bay you'd need a taxi or bus- mebbe include them in a 7-mile 25-minute sea-level cirumnavigation of the Rock by taxi, starting at the Cruise Terminal & getting dropped off in Casemates Square at the end of Main Street and a simple 20 minute walk or bus hop back to the ship .

 

But you'll miss the joys of the upper Rock. Consider taking a standard upper Rock taxi/van tour from the Cruise Terminal.

You can stay in the vehicle if you wish, although of the four stops I don't think there are monkeys at the Pillars of Hercules, there are usually only one or two at St Michael's cave & they don't go i the cave, sometimes there are one or two at the Great Siege Tunnels  but again they don't enter.

They mainly congregate at feeding stations, one of which is on the tour route. It's a single-lane road with usually a short line of vans - folk walk up the line  of vans to the feeding station. As the van at the front goes, the rest move up, so in about 10 to 15 minutes their van reaches the front, they board & continue.  You certainly won't want to get out of the vehicle there, but drivers are happy for folk such as yourself (you're not the only one) to stay in the van - you do get to see the monkeys, they climb all over the vans, but you're safe inside & they're more interested in windshield wipers and radio aerials and such 😀

At the end of the tour you have the choice of baling out at Casemates Square or being taken back to the ship.

Despite your fears I think you'd get pretty full value out of an upper Rock tour. 🙂

 

PS Yes, you' got it right - they're actually monkeys, not apes. Tail-less Barbary macaques to be precise.

 

JB 🙂

Thank you both so much!  Great information.

[cleobella]

Hi John,

Just wondering about the standard Taxi tour you mentioned.  It sounds like they pick up at port and can drop off near the downtown shopping area?  Is this something you arrange upon arrival or is there a way to prebook?  You mentioned they stop at four attractions, do they wait if you want to get out of the taxi, look around or maybe go into the cave?  And do you need to have attraction tickets prebooked or is that included?  Sorry if I'm flooding you with  questions but it sounds great and your info is always very helpful!

[John Bull]

Best to pre-book if you want an entire van (normally a max of 8 passengers) - you can then tailor the tour to your wishes.

 

But to simply join a van tour at the cruise terminal there's no need to pre-book - just make sure you're off the ship with the herd, the taxi marshals will put you in a van. If you're late off you may have a wait while the van fills, or you might even find that the vans have gone in search of other trade.

 

Pillars of Hercules is usually just a photo-stop of 5 minutes or a little more, the other stops are about 20 minutes & that's long enough for pretty-well anyone

Admissions to the Upper Rock nature reserve, to St Michael's cave, and to  the Great Siege Tunnels (yes, certainly time to go inside both) are included in your van fare , there's no admission charge for the Apes Den.

There's usually a line of vans at the Apes Den - its a single-lane road with nowhere to pass. So you walk to the feeding station from the back of the line, and as each van leaves your driver moves up and picks you up when he gets to the front. They've been doing it for years, and it works very well.

Give yourselves time for the great elevated views at all the stops - south across the Straits to Morocco's Atlas Mountains at the Pillars of Hercules, west across the Bay of Algeciras and Atlantic at St M's cave, same at the Apes Den  plus east across the Mediterranean if not clouded, and north across the airport & Spanish border at the Gt Siege Tunnels. 

The driver will then offer to take you back to the ship but also give you to opportunity to bale out at Casemates Square at the bottom (northern) end of Main Street to explore the town, grab a snack, down a pint at a pub or whatever, before a 20 minute walk back to your ship.

I'm not up-to-date on fares, but they're fully inclusive unless you want to tip the driver.

 

The tour fro the cruise terminal is the same as the "standard" tour offered by 

https://www.rocktoursgibraltar.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMItL-e06PD9QIVwwyLCh0-oggnEAAYASAAEgKHefD_BwE

 

JB 🙂