What is the best way to gain from rise in Gold Price?

I wish to gain from what I perceive to be a likely rise in gold price. I would prefer to actually invest in the metal itself rather than a producer/ explorer

You can buy gold futures in the commodities market. You pay only a fraction of the full price. If the price of gold goes up before the contract expires, you can sell it at a profit. If you don't sell the contract before expiration, you will get delivery of the gold as bullion. At that time you have to pay the full contract price. Normally delivery will be to a custodian who will store the gold for you and charge a storage fee. You can request delivery to you.

Buy some!!!

Open an account with a financial spread betting firm and buy gold futures.

it sounds like your best bet is to buy krugerrands which are the most recognised gold coin in the world. u can buy them from ebay and sell them pretty much anywhere (jewellers, banks etc) because they are 1oz of pure gold. They also come in smaller sizes 0.1oz, 0.25oz, 0.5oz. They years of the coin dont matter but you WILL pay more for a 67,68,69 due to their rarity and the fact people collect the years and are willing to pay more, but as stated earlier they are all 1 troy oz of pure gold. Failing that, you can buy ISA's that invest in solely in precious metals.

Gold has already risen significantly in price, but may have more to come before the probable fall - in 1980 it was at $850/troy ounce, before falling away. Even now, 27years on, it has only recovered to $735. The web site below has info on many options for investing.

Most people do not have the stomach for futures investing. The risk from volatility is not for the faint of heart. Buying options on gold contracts at the money would be a much better choice.

For me buying stock on margin would be the way to go. The stock symbol NG would be a very good choice currently priced at about $10.00. You do not have to buy a full margin either to give you some additional cushion. Then all you need is the patience of Job to make a killing. Use Fidelity Brokerage Services as their margin rates are substantially lower than others. www.fidelity.com

The point is to make a good return buying any equity that is in an uptrend. Your investments do not have to be involved with gold. Then there are plenty of badly run companies that can be shorted as bad stocks on average go down much 2 to 3 times faster than they rise and is fun to do to. But you must be negatively bent to do it which I am not either.

I'm taking this as a serious question.

As a rule of thumb you should look at the dollar.
Gold is priced in dollars.
Simply put if the dollar goes down, Gold goes up. (and visa-versa)

Now don't go crazy at me, if this rule does not follow through every time.
This is because you have to look at world trade and other commodities, precious metals (traders who trade in gold trade in platinum as well) and other currencies to understand the reasons behind the price of gold and the dollar rate.

Now please don't fall to sleep when I say you have to look at oil as well, as this is priced in dollars too! (many things are)

It looks likely the oil price will continue to rise in the next few months, until we see a new levelling off when the onset of corn grain making ethanol a serious contender for petrol for cars.

If this happens oil will settle down at a new high, until then the strength of the dollar will be affected by oil prices. In this case it is likely the dollar may swing up and down at times to compensate for the oil price slight and sharp price rises. It's very hard to predict price hikes so look at them over say a few days. (Oil prices may fall on certain days, but generally they have to keep going up as demand is outstripping supply)

But if you can look at the dollar go down, and other major currencies (euro, yen, pound, China's yuan) currencies go down as well, the most likely effect is the price of gold will go up, (albeit temproraily) unless these investors see investing in oil and other precious metals go up faster!

But the main problem si not investing but how your investing, if you can access the traders directly that is best rather than going through a third party, that way you will be able to trade when the prices go up instantly.