La Línea de la Concepción, a Spanish town just across the border from the British territory of Gibraltar, is a nice though somewhat sleepy place. It’s more of a dorm room town to Gibraltar where many people who work on the British side live as it is more affordable. Gibraltar has very pricey real estate and a high cost of living being a retirement place for many well-heeled Brits and with its limited area.
However, La Linea has a great and much cheaper marina, Alcaidesa Marina. With decent service (including hard standing, repair and maintenance services, and an Acastillage-Duffusion chandlery), it is a great place to dock.
View of the Rock of Gibraltar from the Alcaidesa Marina
La Línea de la Concepción has a number of nice local food places, and we tried a few of them. We had two dinner places that quickly became our favorites – both walking distance from our marina. One was La Bodeguiya, a small tapas bar which was always full of locals (always a good indicator of great food).
La Bodeguiya
Our other favorite was La Chimenea. A little more upscale from La Bodeguiya yet still very cozy with great food and full of people! Great tapas! However, I’ve just learned that due to COVID, La Chimenea is closed until further notice. Let’s hope it will reopen soon and will still provide its great food experience!
We had a favorite bakery too, Cafe Modelo, where we were getting our breakfast pastry and breads.
Cafe Modelo
As great as our stay here was, we had to continue on to Lisbon to meet our daughter Eva who was arriving there pretty soon. So we had to leave this friendly town, its marina, and restaurants to continue on to Portugal. We cast off on October 1st, 2019 to sail north to Lagos in Portugal.