Small Oasis

Aww Louise - we are so glad that you had such a great time! You've given us some ideas of what to do on our next Spanish adventure too! I can't believe how much you've done in the time - cycling to Marbella too! You know there is a very good motorway right? 🤣

We'd love for you to come back sometime - thanks for being super guests and looking after the place ❤️ lovely pics too xx

We were very excited to welcome our first ever guests for a 10 day stay and thrilled with our first AirBnB review as a 5*! 🌟 super exciting!

You definitely need a car as it's only 1km from the beach and nearest chiringuito, but up a very steep hill! The plus side is unbelievable views of the mountains and sea 🌄🌊

Our new favourite beach - the sand is softer and whiter here (much of the coast is volcanic sand). A smooth slide into the sea with few pebbles. Wider and quieter than other local beaches. Excellent playpark for kids and an inflatable water park for bigger kids (there are many of these along the coast during the summer). A couple of chiringuitos too. Kids were on scooters and we ran along Sabinillas promenade until we arrived here for a pit stop.

We had a lovely day exploring Gibraltar and the rock! It took 30 mins from our apartment to parking at Fo-cona car park in La Linea (€13 for the day), then we walked through border control (remember your passports!). We bought tickets in advance online for the cable car and nature reserve as it was slightly cheaper and you can skip the queue a bit. We got there early (opens at 9.30am) so we barely had to queue, but the queue was down the street when we came back down the mountain at 15.00ish. Being a bit stupid, we decided to walk to the cable car station along Main Street - it took a good hour in the heat with a 3 year old - when we could have got a free shuttle bus with our ticket 🤣🙈 We know for next time! Definitely get the shuttle bus 🚌

The cable car was great - super speedy as it only took 6 mins each way and super views. We went straight for an early lunch at Top of the Rock restaurant. I had a really lovely focacia and chips and there were the usual kids' meals, which included an ice cream; all of which were reasonably priced for its location and stunning vistas. Clear plates for all of the kids too!

The kids loved the Barbary Macaques and they caused much hilarity! We saw lots of babies hanging onto their mothers too, which our kids really loved 🐒 we also saw huge butterflies, lizards and all sorts of birds.

However, be warned, it was A LOT of walking up and down hills in the heat. Bring plenty of water with you. As an alternative, there are guided tours available and you can go up via a taxi.

One of the definite highlights was seeing St Michael's Caves, where the stalactites were illuminated beautifully and there was a light show in the auditorium every 7 minutes. It was also cool in there so a welcome relief to visit in the middle of the day.

There are some WWII tunnels and other war attractions, but they are right the other end of the nature reserve and the tunnels are currently closed. So we left those this time, but we'll definitely go back and visit them next time. There is a hop on hop off bus to explore the rest of the peninsula including Europa Point; you'd need this - it's not really walking distance.

Shattered but happy kids; we also had a fabulous day, we're just going to ache tomorrow 🤣