La linea

hi, is la linea safe for English people to live? I think gib is out of my price range to rent a property so im looking at places to live in la linea and comute into gib. is this a vise move? as iv heard the spanish are getting a bit violent about the border again. thanks in advance

Hi nuffz,

La Linea is safe city for foreigners in general as Spain is interesting to keep everything in order. Of course if you go to poor districts late evening you can get into trouble. I have friends and colleagues who live in La Linea, nobody of them got any problem living there. It's closest place to Gib and there is a good choice of different flats. That's the best option if you care about time you spend for getting at work and if you like night life and bars.

ok thank you for replying. can you explain the last few sentences again please. also. on average how long is the que into gib every morning as we are going to be commuting every day. I thanks again nuffz

The time you spend in the queue depends on how do you get to Gib:

1. There is no queue for pedestrians, just walk through without stopping (in / out)
2. There is no queue if you go in by bicycle but usually you spend around 5-15 minutes in the queue when you go back. There is a separate lane for bicycles.
3. If you have a bike / moped then it's the same quick to get in, but there could be a queue for getting out (10-20 min to several hours)
4. Taking car is the worst idea. It's not a problem to get in (15 minutes in average) but it's unpredictable how much time you spend in the queue in the evening. It could be 20, 40, 50 minutes or sometimes several hours.

My choice is bicycle :)

Usually people chose La linea because:

- it's close to Gib
- there is quite a lot of places to go for a beer or diner
- you aren't obligated to have a car

Personally I live in Santa Margarita. It's 10 minutes drive to the border but you can find better quality apartment or house for relatively the same price in La Linea. And it's much quite and beautiful comparing to La Linea

thank you for your help! Are there bus services in la linea and the surronding towns that drop off close to the border?

Yes, there are buses but I didn't see any of them passing near the border. Most of them goes to the center that's 5-7 minutes walk from the border.

The queues at the frontier are very variable.

Whilst at the moment pedestrian queues may not exist this is not always the way. The Spanish delight in creating long pedestrian queues in the hotter months, particularly August when people have been forced to wait under a very hot soon for hours.

The best way at the frontier is to be flexible in the way you travel so you can adopt to the situations as they develop

thank you both for your help. I will be in gib/spain in the middle of may. I will happily buy you a drink for your help. I I'm sure I will have many more questions before then!