Starting July 15 (15 July for our European friends), Gibraltar will align with the Schengen area. It will not become part of Schengen officially but will act as if it is. Mostly.
It means no border checks between Spain and Gibraltar. It also means entering Gibraltar from outside the Schengen area will mean going through both Gibraltar immigration as well as Schengen immigration.
So for anybody with 3+ months of available travel time, doing the 90 day dance to stay in Europe without exceeding the Schengen limit, will they or won’t they have Gibraltar as a refuge?
They won't.
If you enter Gibraltar from outside Schengen, you will go through both Gibraltar and Schengen immigration.
If you travel from a Schengen country to Gibraltar, you won't exit Schengen until you exit Gibraltar.
At least that what it seems since the border between Gibraltar and Spain, a Schengen country, will be open starting July 15.
I would love to visit some time, especially since I have an interest in British maritime history. And I could add it to my country list! (yes, I know it’s not a sovereign state, but I would still count it, same as I have Bermuda, Cayman Islands, BVI, and Hong Kong when it was British). I remember spending a night in Algeciras back in 1983 before taking the ferry to Morocco, seeing the Rock, and regretting that it was impossible (then) to visit it.
TIL there is/was an Officer in the British Army, "Keeper of the Apes", that was charged with the care of the Rock's macaque population.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_macaques_in_Gibraltar#Officers_in_charge
[snip]
Gibraltar's Barbary macaque population was under the care of the British Army and later the Gibraltar Regiment from 1915 to 1991, who carefully controlled a population that initially consisted of a single troop. The 'Keeper of the Apes' would keep the official records, maintaining an up-to-date register for each monkey, listing their births and names and supervising their diet, which they drew officially every week. The food allowance of fruit, vegetables and nuts was included in the budget, set by the War Office at £4 a month in 1944.[12] They would humorously announce births in the 'Gibraltar Chronicle': "Rock Apes. Births: To Phyllis, wife of Tony, at the Upper Rock, on 30th June 1942— a child. Both doing well."
