Top Travel Days of 2024, A Stop at The Rock of Gibraltar
As soon as we got our passports stamped, walked into Gibraltar, and met our gregarious guide, John Lopez, I knew we were in for a treat. Within moments, John was commenting on our daughter, Melanie’s latest purchase in Marbella, a sweater adorned with very large strawberries. “Ah, you’ll be easy to spot in a crowd,” John joked in his slight British accent.
The next four hours was a whirlwind of a tour on this unique spit of land at the southern edge of Spain, told by us by the best possible guide, someone born and raised in Gibraltar. Who better to explain the complex history of this British protectorate of some 38,000 people surrounding this jagged monolith that rises 1,300 feet high. As we drove alongside the Rock of Gibraltar, stopping to visit a long cave, a labyrinth of tunnels used by military from the 1800s through World War II, and, of course, see the adorable monkeys that Winston Churchill loved having here, John would weave rhapsodic tales of his youth combined with the rich history of this place (while placing those same monkeys atop our kid’s heads). We would learn that this was the spot where Britain’s hero Lord Nelson sailed his fleet directly into the Spanish cotillion winning the famous Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Gibraltar is also where the Spanish dictator Franco cut off this piece of land from 1969 until 1985, placing a lock on the border so no one could cross, upset that the British would never give the land over to Spain. That was during John Lopez’s youth, where he would spend his boyhood with friends going through every tunnel in the storied Rock.
Our family of four was on the sixth day of a 9-day trip that brought us to Barcelona, Marbella, Gibraltar, and Malaga in the beginning of April. Gibraltar seemed like the least interesting locale when we put together the itinerary. But our son, Jake, insisted on going and it ended up being memorable.
On the outskirts of 
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In my 20s, I was fortunate to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef, bike the entirety of the Big Island, whitewater raft down an unchartered river in British Columbia, and backpack in the Mojave Desert. Then we had our first child and suddenly all my outdoor gear was collecting dust in an apartment closet. Going stir crazy one day, I called my dad who gave me the wise advice to simply bring my son with me on my adventures. Next thing you know, I’m biking the hills of Vermont with Jake on the back of the bike, helmet covering his sleeping body. You don’t have to give up your life of adventure once you have children. Indeed, kids thrive on the excitement and unscripted spontaneity of each outdoor challenge. It also doesn’t hurt that many of the finer outdoor activities are located amidst some of the most exquisite scenery on the planet. Now I travel with Jake, 17, and Melanie, 15, as much as possible, and they’re the ones teaching me how to improve my sport. 
When Mount Erciyes poured lava over central Turkey thousands of years ago, the volcanic ash formed a surreal, lunar-like landscape consisting of cone-shaped “fairy chimneys” and layers of soft volcanic rock called “tufa.” Early Christians found the pervious terrain ideal for escaping persecution by Romans and Arabs. When wet, the tufa could be easily carved like soap to make caves out of the pinnacles as well as underground cities descending hundreds of feet below the surface. Tunnels were carved into the soft volcanic rock that venture a mind-boggling 7 and 8 levels underground. They lead to rooms that were used to sleep, eat, pray, along with advanced ventilation systems and a well to retrieve water.