I have stayed at many hotels in the IHG group over the years, including a number of Holiday Inn Express locations. This is easily one of the better ones, although the whole modus operandi of HIE is actually good.

The notion of a free breakfast is not common, by any means, and the HIE breakfast is generally good. The location in Gibraltar is one of the first I have come across where they actually offer bacon with the scrambled egg and sausage/beans. I don’t know why so many of them shun bacon – after all, a cooked breakfast is not a cooked breakfast without bacon.

So all credit to the HIE in Gibraltar for this. Otherwise, there is little to distinguish this venue from others in the series. You know what you will get, a compact but well-appointed room with not-too-much clothes storage space, but a double bed, flat-screen TV, shower room and a small movable desk and chair.

It all works and this one is not much more than two years old, so it is all still pretty pristine. What separate this one (apart from the bacon) is the staff. They were all very accommodating, professional and downright friendly!

The hotel is across the runway, a walk of 10 minutes or so, on the first street you will come to. It is close up to the towering Rock, so on one side your room widow will have a view of the Rock face, which is interesting in itself, for you can spot the little apertures where the 50 kilometers of tunnels have gun emplacements dating back to the Great Siege.

We had a couple of days on that side and then asked to be moved to get the other view, which the hotel was happy to accommodate. That side overlooked the huge graveyard, the airport runway and the border and hills of Andalucia beyond. Some critics have complained about the ‘depressing’ graveyard aspect. It is actually a very interesting place to visit and has significant numbers of Commonwealth War Graves sections. We can watch the aircraft manoeuvre to land on the comparatively short Gibraltar Airport landing strip and we can follow the streams of people and traffic crossing the runway (when it isn’t closed for aircraft movement). Most of the businesses in Gib are served by people living across the border in the town of La Linea.

Criticisms of the HIE? Few. Perhaps the absence of somewhere to it out in the sun (there is a small terrace on the first floor but it is at the side of the building opposite a housing block and the gap acts as a wind tunnel!). It is not a full-service hotel so you cannot expect more, but a little thought might have installed a sundeck on the flat roof, perhaps?

Overall, nothing but thumbs up for this location.

This is rather new hotel and so it is nice and clean. It is 15 minutes walk to the nearest beach, same 15 minutes to the casemates square and has supermarket across the street.
We spent 7 days there on the holiday and cannot fail the hotel in any way - if we will need to visit Gibraltar again, I will not hesitate to stay there once more.

We decided to get married in Gibraltar as it would be a lot easier than in Spain. Part of the requirements was that we had to stay 1 night in Gibraltar either the night before or the night of the wedding. We opted for the night before and chose the holiday inn express. We had to pop in during the day to have a confirmation email sent to the registrar. We were greeted by Milly on the reception who could not have been more helpful. She sent the email whilst chatting to us and when she found out we were getting married she was so nice and showed a real interest. We arrived at 18:30 that evening and although we were 30 mins late for check in it was not a problem and the staff were attentive and very friendly. We had a very comfortable night, the room was very clean and the bed comfortable. In the morning we went to breakfast and although complying with social distancing etc there was a great selection of cereals, toast. Croissants, jams etc. There was also a great hot choice and the portions were very generous. When it came time to check out Milly was on duty again and she greeted us remembering this was our big day and saying she was excited for us and said please pop in again even if we are not staying in the hotel even just to say hi. On the whole you know what to expect from Holiday Inn but Milly and the other staff we had interactions with have definitely made our stay memorable and we will definitely stay again!