If you have landed on a travel page that still shows the Gibraltar Cable Car whisking visitors to the summit in a few glorious minutes, that page is out of date. As of the summer of 2026, the cable car is closed. It shut its doors on 18 November 2025 and it is not carrying passengers at all. This is not a short seasonal pause and it is not a maintenance closure that lasts a week or two. The cable car is in the middle of a complete rebuild, and the current expectation is that it will not reopen until some point in 2027. We wrote this guide because thousands of people are searching every month and hitting stale results, and the honest, current picture matters when you are planning a trip. Here is the good news that most of those old pages fail to mention: the Top of the Rock is still very much open, the famous monkeys are still up there, and there are several straightforward ways to reach the summit while the cable car is out of action. We will walk through all of them below. | Question | Answer | | Is it open right now? | No. It closed on 18 November 2025 and is not running. | | When does it reopen? | Expected around 2027, after roughly a two year rebuild. | | Why is it closed? | A full reconstruction, the biggest overhaul since 1966. | | How do I get up now? | On foot, or by official taxi and Rock tour. | | Ticket price for the top | Upper Rock Nature Reserve is roughly £30 for adults, less for children. | | Can I still see the apes? | Yes. The Barbary macaques are still on the Upper Rock. | The original cable car opened back in 1966 and ran for close to sixty years. After that much service, the whole system reached the end of its working life. Rather than patch it again, the operator chose to replace it entirely, which is why this is a full closure rather than a quick fix. The rebuild is being led by MH Bland, the same company connected to the original installation nearly six decades ago. The work covers everything: the towers, the cabins, the lower station at the foot of the Rock and the top station up at the summit. It is being described as the most significant overhaul the attraction has ever had. > The cable car is not being repaired. It is being rebuilt from the ground up, which is exactly why the closure is measured in years and not weeks. When it does reopen, the new system is set to be a serious upgrade rather than a like for like replacement. The plan swaps the old three tower arrangement for two modern towers designed to sit more naturally in the protected landscape. Capacity is the headline change. The previous cable car moved somewhere around 260 people per hour. The new one is designed to carry up to roughly 1,150 people per hour, with much larger cabins holding around 80 passengers each. That should mean far shorter queues in peak season. There is also a focus on better access for visitors with mobility needs, and on energy efficiency, with solar power feeding into the running of the system. So while the closure is frustrating if you were counting on the ride, the version that returns in 2027 should be a genuine improvement on what came before. Yes. This is the single most important thing to understand. The cable car was only ever a way of getting up the Rock. It was never the attraction itself. The Upper Rock Nature Reserve, which is where all the famous sights sit, remains fully open to visitors. That means St Michael's Cave, the Great Siege Tunnels, the Skywalk, the Moorish Castle, the various viewpoints and, of course, the Barbary macaques are all still there waiting for you. You just reach them by a different route for now. For the full lay of the land, our [Rock of Gibraltar guide](/blog/rock-of-gibraltar-guide) covers what to see once you are up there. There are two main ways to reach the summit while the cable car is down. You can walk, or you can take an official taxi and Rock tour. Which one suits you depends on how much time and energy you have, and whether you would rather have a driver do the climbing for you. Walking up is free, apart from the reserve entry fee, and it is genuinely rewarding if you are reasonably fit. There are several pedestrian entrances into the Upper Rock, including routes from Jews' Gate, the Moorish Castle area and Devil's Gap. From the town it is a steady uphill effort on paved roads and paths. The most famous walking route is the Mediterranean Steps, a steep and scenic path that climbs the southern and eastern side of the Rock. Allow somewhere between one and two hours depending on your pace and where you start, and wear proper shoes. It is a workout, but the views back across the bay and the Strait are the reward. Take water, especially in the hotter months. > If you have the legs for it, walking up beats the old cable car ride for atmosphere. You earn the summit, and the views on the way up are ones the cabins never gave you. If walking is not your idea of a holiday, the official taxi tours run by the Gibraltar Taxi Association are the easy answer. Dri