Our cruise ship stopped in Gibraltar in mid-July and we had a super time on a tour we booked with Gibraltar's Inside Out Rock Tours. I realized about a month before the trip that we had actually booked two tours. I booked the all-day tour with Inside Out Rock Tours - Gibraltar, Carl Mesilio and my wife booked a half day tour with Gibraltar Rock Tours, John Lopez. I needed to cancel one and we decided the full day tour would be the better option. I cancelled the tour with John Lopez.
The tour was for a full van, party of 8. There were 3 of us, so to offset the cost I was advised that on the website, Cruise Critic you can post inquiries about the excursion to see if others that will be on the ship are interested. Sure enough, I filled the other 5 slots and we had a full van. Here's where it gets fun.
We all met at the cruise terminal with a sign that had my name on it. We met our parties for the first time and met Carl. Carl assigned us to a van and a driver whose name was John. It seemed a little coincidental so I asked John what his last name was. It was Lopez. I thought now this is interesting and as it turns out Carl had more vans than drivers so asked John, who was not as busy as Carl that day for help. John was superb leading Carl's tour. Carl and John are both tour company operators and long-time friends and residents of Gibraltar who help each other out as the need arises.
We had a great day and saw most everything there was to see on Gibraltar including the Pillars of Hercules Monument, St. Michael's Cave, Europa Point with fantastic views of Morocco, Pillars of Hercules (mountains), O'Hara's Battery, the monkeys, WW2 Tunnels, The Great Siege Tunnels, The City Under Siege, The Moorish Castle, 100 Ton Gun, Runway and lastly The Prudential advertisement rock shot near the border.
We had a great day and very nice time. John provided excellent commentary and navigated the van perfectly through all of our stops. My only comment about the tour is that is was a full day and there were no stops for a quick bite or snack. Everything else was absolutely perfect including the weather. We give hats off to John Lopez who was working for Carl of Inside Out Rock Tours Gibraltar. I can give both companies 2 thumbs up. read more