SteveThe glitz, the glamour, it has to be Monaco! In truth, quite a bit of the French Riviera is loaded with glitz and glamour, but Monaco holds the crown! If you are spending any time on the Riviera then Monaco is a must-see destination. The challenge is that it has the perception of being expensive. In some cases rightly so. So without further ado, here’s how to enjoy Monaco in a day. It certainly doesn’t need to cost the earth!
How to get there
When we visited Monaco we based ourselves in nearby Nice. Nice is a huge city, with lots to see and has a very cool old town. More on that in a future post. One of the benefits of being based in Nice is that the hotel prices are substantially less than in Monaco. Another is that you can easily catch a train from Nice to Monaco! In fact, the train line runs right across the Riviera so it’s easy to get to and from most places.
The price of a return ticket is just over €8 according to the trainline as I type this, but it might be a little more if buying at the station. This is exactly what we did when we decided to go to Monaco. The journey itself takes around 25 minutes. I’m sure you could get a taxi to Monaco, or even a helicopter for that matter. As we live in the real world (sometimes!), a train seemed the best option for us.
How to enjoy Monaco in a day
Where to begin, and I appreciate this is going to be based on our own tastes. After getting off the train in Monaco, we found some steps down to Sainte-Dévote Chapel.
Once in front of the church, I immediately recognised where we were. Being a huge F1 fan, and knowing the track around the streets of Monaco, I just couldn’t believe I was standing at the first corner of the F1 race track.
Getting around
Monaco is a pretty small place – technically speaking it is less than a square mile in size, so it was easy to get around the principality. We mostly walked around when we visited, as it was such a glorious day and we were keen to soak up the atmosphere. It would also help us to get our bearings a bit whilst on foot. We spent quite a while walking around the marina, and admiring the views.
That said, we did indulge in a hop-on/hop-off bus tour. We used this company for the tour, and they offered a circular route that allowed us to take the weight off a bit. Yes yes, I know Monaco is a small place but who wants to be hacking around all day in the August heat! The tour followed some of the race track too, although running backwards mostly. We like a bus tour, especially one with an open deck. You get to see so much more, and with Monaco traffic slowing everything down we got to see quite a bit.
With limited time in Monaco, we had done a bit of research and picked out some key things we wanted to see and do whilst there. The bus tour took us around to most of these places too. The route starts at the marina and goes on to the Japanese gardens, Casino Square, the Prince’s palace, the Oceanographic Museum to name a few of the stops.
Monaco Oceanographic Museum
High on our list of places to visit was the Oceanographic Museum. We both like to see sea life and have been to a number of aquariums on our travels. Not to mention exploring the red sea in Egypt too!
The museum was much larger than I expected with several zones to wander around. The most colourful was the tropical seas zone. We love to see pretty fish and coral, and the museum had these in abundance. For those that like more ‘substantial’ marine life, there was a shark zone too!
Monaco has a reputation of being a millionaires playground so we were expecting to pay through the nose for food and drinks during the day. That said we found a bit of a hidden gem in Monaco. On the rooftop of the Oceanographic Museum was a brilliant restaurant. It wasn’t too busy, and the food was not only excellent but was also reasonably priced. I mean it wasn’t McDonald’s prices, but more than acceptable for a rooftop bar overlooking the sea and Monaco’s marina!
I think we spent as much time dining as we did enjoying the view and taking pictures. Having lunch here was one of the best tips I can give when visiting Monaco.
Casino de Monte-Carlo
We used the hop-on/hop-off bus to get to Casino Square, which was on the other side of the principality. It was a real hustle and bustle there, with lots of tourists gawping at the sights and supercars looking for parking spaces. We wanted to visit the casino as it was supposed to be very grand and historic.
It turns out that if you are a resident of Monaco you are not allowed to gamble in the casino which was a bit odd. Then again, with the number of affluent tourists staying I’m sure they do alright! It was early afternoon when we visited and so it wasn’t too busy. In fact, most of the table games were not even open.
We were actually surprised to be allowed in (make sure you have your passport with you by the way). Amy looked great in a summer dress, but I was wearing a simple t-shirt and shorts. Inside the casino looked very posh, and I felt underdressed, to say the least. Mind you, I did find a video poker machine and managed to win €20!
Casino Square
Casino Square is a tourist attraction all by itself. Three sides of the square are occupied by the casino, Hotel de Paris and Café de Paris. We fancied a bit of people watching and luckily managed to grab a table outside at Café de Paris. Most people here were also people watching, looking for celebs most likely. We didn’t eat here but fancied a nice cold drink instead. It is a very glamorous place, and the prices reflected this.
One of the most amusing things we spotted was all of the supercars trying to get parked. There is only a very limited amount of parking in Casino Square, and both the hotel and casino had very busy valets! The nicer cars got pride of place, whilst the almost as nice cars were driven off to a car park somewhere out of the way.
Shopping
Just by the side of casino square is where you will find all the posh shops. There is an area of shops with brands I’ve never heard of, yet with no prices on items in the window, I knew it was not for me! All of the usual high-end shops are there, like Van Cleef and Arpels, Fendi, Richard Mille etc. If you forgot your Rolex as you wander around the principality, then worry not – they have you covered!
Wandering around
Like most places, we thought the best thing about Monaco was simply wandering around and getting a feel for the place. Some of the best views are to be had as you walk from Casino Square down to Beau Rivage. This leads down to where we started earlier on our day trip, right by Sainte-Dévote.
For such a small place, we felt like we had done lots of walking around. Especially since we took a bus tour for an hour or so as well! We did come across some small well-manicured gardens as we wandered around that were lovely.
The best views are all around the marina. You could spend hours gazing at the millionaire’s yachts from so many different viewpoints.
What we missed
We spent almost a full day in Monaco and had a great time exploring. We had ticked the boxes for the key things we wanted to see on the day, but we did miss out on some others. For instance, we didn’t explore the Japanese gardens, the Prince’s palace, the beach, or even the area of Fontvielle. Sounds to me like an excuse to visit again!
For us though, this is how to enjoy Monaco in a day. One or two key things to tick off a list, and the rest of the time exploring and playing it by ear. It’s sometimes the best way. We hadn’t planned on eating lunch at the restaurant on the top of the Oceanographic Museum, but it turned out to be an inspired call. Neither had we planned on a bus tour, but it gave us a great perspective of the principality. Also, we learned what it must be like to live and drive around in Monaco!
