Sitting in a typical English pub, sipping on a pint of bitter, grazing on some scampi and chips and keeping up-to-date with the day's football scores would be a typical Saturday afternoon and not much to write home about.

However, throw in blazing sunshine and a view from the bar stool of dolphins leaping out of warm Mediterranean waters and then it's my kind of holiday.

Luckily, it's incredibly easy to make such a dream reality.

Gibraltar offers the Brit abroad the perfect hassle-free break, with the advantages of good weather and fascinating local history and culture without the usual hassle of having to change money or learn a foreign language - though of course with the apes renowned for their thieving ways, travel insurance remains as important as ever.

It's so easy to hop on a cheap flight to the south of Spain and live the whole 'Red Lion by the Sea' lifestyle for a week or two before heading back to the colder, more expensive and monkey-free alternative.

However, while there are worse ways to spend one's time on holiday than to play board games with ex-pats and fellow tourists in a pub before moving on to an evening's beer-fuelled karaoke, The Rock also boasts some fascinating historical secrets.

Given that Gibraltar's history has been defined by its status as the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea, I really shouldn't have been surprised to stumble upon the impressive fortress walls enclosing the town centre, though the Moorish castle to which they led stood in stark contrast to the Little Britain picture I had of the place before I arrived.

To get a true appreciation of the historical significance of the outpost, from the times of Neanderthal Man all the way to the current imperial tensions, a visit to the Gibraltar Museum is a must, and not just for a respite from the scorching midday sun.

Armed with a head full of local trivia, I spent the afternoon paying a pilgrimage to the spot where Lord Nelson's body was brought ashore after the fateful Battle of Trafalgar – far fewer tourists and pigeons than Trafalgar Square in London – and the size of the place meant it was just a short stroll from here to the most southerly tip of Gibraltar for a look at the impressive Europa Point Lighthouse and the legendary Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim mosque.

After a ploughman's lunch in the local pub, it was off to the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

Again, my preconceptions meant I expected to see just a load of tourists bothering Gibraltar's most famous residents, the semi-wild apes.

However, I was again surprised to find a serious nature reserve, rich and diverse enough to keep even the keenest bird-watcher busy, while the large military guns keeping watch over the Mediterranean below served as another useful reminder of The Rock's rich history.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of my trip was that I soon found out that a quick weekend away was insufficient to do justice to all Gibraltar has to offer – after all I hadn't managed to head out to check out the highest concentration of dolphins in all of Europe or take a diving tour of the many ships that never made it past the guns and jagged rocks.