Bristol Hotel
Gibraltar's oldest hotel, opened in 1894, with a walled subtropical garden and a heated pool two minutes from Main Street. It is also the lowest-scoring hotel on the Rock, from more reviews than almost anywhere else. Both facts are load-bearing.
- Opened
- 1894
- Rooms
- 60
- Setting
- Cathedral Square
- Parking
- Free
- Stay Score
- 7.1
- Reviews
- 1,452
Our verdict
Written 2026-07-19
The Bristol is the oldest hotel in Gibraltar, the best-placed, and the worst-rated. All three are true at once and you should decide on all three.
It opened in 1894 — nearly forty years before the Rock Hotel — and still stands on Cathedral Square beside the Gibraltar Museum and the Anglican cathedral, two minutes from Main Street. Sixty en-suite rooms, mostly twins. Behind it sits a walled subtropical garden with a pool that is canopied through the winter, so it works in February as well as August, and a garden bar that opens twice a day.
It also has free parking inside the city walls, with no reservation needed. In a territory where parking is genuinely difficult and expensive, that is not a footnote — for anyone driving across the frontier it may be the deciding factor.
Then the number. 7.1 from 1,452 reviews makes this the lowest-scoring hotel in Gibraltar by some margin, against a market median of 8.9, and with the third-deepest review base in the territory. That is not a small sample or an unlucky run; it is a settled verdict from a lot of people. The rooms have not kept pace with the address.
So: book the Bristol for the garden, the square, the parking and the price. Do not book it expecting the building's age to have been charmingly preserved rather than simply accumulated.
What it gets right
- Free, plentiful parking inside the city walls — genuinely rare in Gibraltar
- Walled subtropical garden with a pool that works year-round under its winter canopy
- Two minutes from Main Street, beside the Museum and cathedral
- Opened 1894 — the oldest hotel on the Rock, and it looks it in the good sense outside
What it gets wrong
- 7.1 is the lowest hotel score in Gibraltar, from 1,452 reviews — a settled verdict, not a blip
- Rooms are the consistent complaint; the address is doing the work
- Mostly twin-bedded, which suits couples poorly
- Bottom quarter of the market on the same scale as every other listing here
Our tip · Why you would book it
Free, plentiful parking within the city walls. That is genuinely scarce in Gibraltar and worth real money if you are driving over the frontier — it is the single strongest reason to choose the Bristol over a better-scoring hotel.
Our tip · What to expect
A 7.1 from 1,452 reviews is not noise. Book this for the garden, the location and the parking, not for the rooms — guests who arrive expecting a modern hotel are the ones writing the low scores.
Our tip · The pool
Covered by a transparent canopy through the winter, which makes it genuinely usable year-round. Almost nowhere else in Gibraltar can say that.
Photos
Photos: Booking.com
5 room types
Every room here looks over the Bay of Gibraltar except the Rock View. Rates vary by date and room grade — check current prices before booking.
| Room | Sleeps | Bed |
|---|---|---|
| Single Room | 1 | Single |
| Twin Room | 2 | Two singles |
| The most common grade here — the majority of the 60 rooms are twins. | ||
| Double Room | 2 | Double |
| Triple Room | 3 | Three singles or double plus single |
| Family Room | 2 adults + 2 children | Double and singles |
| Cots on request. One of the few genuine family options in central Gibraltar. | ||
Facilities
Garden and pool
- Subtropical garden, residents only
- Swimming pool, canopied and usable in winter
- Loungers and shaded areas
- Garden bar, 11:00–14:00 and 17:00–23:00
Practical
- Free parking, no reservation needed
- Free Wi-Fi
- Two minutes on foot to Main Street
- Next to the Gibraltar Museum and the Anglican cathedral
In the room
- En-suite bathrooms
- Air conditioning and heating
- Mini-fridge
- TV and hairdryer
Also offered
- Free motorcycle parking
- Express weddings
- Breakfast
About Queensway Quay
A gated marina on the western shore below the old town, with a row of restaurants along the quay that Gibraltarians rate above anything at Ocean Village. Residential and calm in a way the other marinas are not. The trade is distance: it is a longer walk into town and the buses are thinner on the ground.
We track 6 places to stay in Queensway Quay. Compare them
Walk times
Estimated from mapped distance, not measured on foot. Gibraltar is steep — the return leg uphill takes longer than the number suggests. The cable car base is listed as a landmark: the cable car itself is closed for rebuilding until 2027.
- Main Street
- 4min
- Cruise terminal
- 18min
- Cable car base
- 11min
- Spanish frontier
- 33min
What reviewers consistently say
Our summary of recurring themes, written in our own words. We do not reproduce review text.
- The garden and pool draw the warmest comments, often from guests who were otherwise unimpressed.
- Room condition and dated fittings are the dominant criticism across a very large sample.
- Location and free parking come up repeatedly as the reason people booked and would return.
- Staff are described warmly even in low-scoring reviews.
Where this score comes from
We do not reproduce other sites' review text. We do tell you exactly where the number comes from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Bottom quarter in Gibraltar
Gibraltar's median is 8.9, with the middle half of the market between 8.5 and 9.3. Guest ratings bunch up near the top of the scale, so 7.1 means less on its own than it does against the local market.
7.1median 8.910
Benchmarked against 140 ranked Gibraltar properties, 2026-07-19.
Booking.com rating as read on 2026-07-19 — our final Booking snapshot, since the feed that supplied it has been discontinued. Other platforms may score this property differently; we use Booking's rating consistently rather than picking whichever number flatters a listing.
Read the originals on Google or Tripadvisor. We would rather send you to the source than quote it back at you.
The facts
- Opened
- 1894
- Rooms
- 60
- Building
- Colonial, white facade
- Layout
- 1 bedroom
- Sleeps
- 4
- Area
- Queensway Quay
- Aspect
- Inland
- Address
- 8–10 Cathedral Square, Gibraltar
Reviewed now
What guests say right now
The current ratings for The Bristol Hotel, shown unchanged. Read 1 September 2026, from 16 recent reviews.
- Everyone agrees on the location — beside the cathedral, steps from Main Street, and the garden and pool are unexpected for the price.
- The charitable reviews frame it honestly: an old-fashioned, old-British hotel that is clean, spacious and good value if you take it for what it is.
- Friendly reception staff earn regular mentions even in middling reviews.
Worth knowing. The critical reviews describe the same hotel without the goodwill: dark, dated decor, amateurish maintenance, basic breakfast, and rooms that vary widely — including reports of mustiness. One recent review describes a seriously unprofessional staff encounter; another, a rude manager.
Worth knowing. At 3.0 on Tripadvisor across a thousand reviews, the record is genuinely mixed — the worst hotel numbers in Gibraltar.
The numbers make it Gibraltar's weakest-reviewed hotel, and we won't dress that up. What the reviews actually describe is a time-capsule: the right guest — priced-in expectations, charmed by faded British colonial — leaves happy; the guest expecting a standard modern three-star leaves angry. Book it knowingly or not at all.