Monaco Travel Guide: What to See, Eat and Do in a Day

From luxury yachts to hidden gardens, Monaco is more than just glitz and casinos. In this episode of The Getawayz, we share what it’s really like to visit the world’s second-smallest country, where you can walk the whole place in a day, explore royal history, and still find quiet corners overlooking the sea.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome back.

SPEAKER_00 0:01

I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast. We're talking about one of your favorite places today.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I know, and it's the exact opposite of the weather here because when I think of this place, I think of warm and hot and beach and water, and it's freezing here, so all I want to do is take a hot shower, and that's the only water I want. But we are talking about Monaco today, which is a place that is very dear to my heart. I was in college and just at well, just after college, I guess, I was nanny in Monaco for a period of time. That was a very interesting period of time. But it did, it did make me love the little principality.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I've heard some very funny stories from that period of time.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Well, we won't get into the like weirdness of some of the things that happened there, but it is a really obviously a very famous, a very glamorous, a very interesting place.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yes. I've only been once.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Right, which was just two summers ago, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Two summers ago, and we only spent two nights. So one full day. That's it. I loved it. I don't have a lot to say. I can chime in on what I thought about the stuff, but I can't afford it. I can say that.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Well, but that's part of the fun, right? Is because it is the ultimate like wish fulfillment because you walk around in this incredibly wealthy, glamorous place, and you could be anyone. Yeah. I mean, it's it's just it's glamorous and fun and beautiful. It is and very clean. Yeah, it is one of the cleanest and safest places I think I've ever been. I mean, there's there are cameras everywhere that kind of keep everybody safe. There's and it's incredibly well kept. I mean, there's there's people cleaning constantly, even more so than Florence.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, no, definitely. Well, I didn't I I feel like I don't know for a fact that but it would be a huge crime and an offense against this the municipality to litter, which I feel like in Florence people litter, people just clean it up. But I feel like in Monaco it is a sin. Yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Now I'm gonna tell you what I know about Monaco before being there because it's only a few things. Okay. I know it's a tax haven that nobody pays taxes in Monaco.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Individuals don't pay taxes, yeah. Businesses do, but it's very, very low.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

So a lot of rich, rich people live there, so they don't pay their taxes, right? I know there's a crap ton of like expensive cars that you see there. I know the casinos because of James Bond and the race.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

There's the there's a race, the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix, which is Formula One.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

So that's all I knew about Monaco before we went.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

All right. So Monaco, like Aaron said, is a principality. It was established in 1861. It is protect it's interesting because they speak French, they use the Euro now, but they are considered their very own independent state.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

It's surrounded by France, though, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

It's surrounded by France, but the border of Italy is is 10 kilometers away. Yeah. So you're very, very close to the Italian Riviera, which you know we can talk about in later too, but the day trips are pretty fantastic, or other places to stay outside of Monaco and make Monaco a day trip. You have a lot of options. But it's also incredibly small. It's the second smallest country in the world, and it is only about three-quarters of a mile in total in area, which is about a little less than two kilometers. Well, I mean, for an entire country, that's kind of bananas.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

What's the smallest? Vatican City? No.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

No, I don't think it's Vatican City. Is it is it Lichtenstein? I'd have to look it up. I don't know what the I don't know what the smallest is.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

So a municipality is a country.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

It's an independent state. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Yeah. And the the Monacanese?

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Monegasques.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Monegasque, they have their own passports.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

They do. They have their own passports. They have their own everything. And it's, you know, you you sort of get all of the well, I mean, you're Monegasque. So you get all of the benefits of being French and Monegasque, you know, so that you've got like the, like I said, the French defense. Like if there's a war, France is protecting Monaco, you know, so it's like you don't have to have your own army. You don't have to have like you spend all your money on good stuff, not on, not on, you know, the the stuff that doesn't get used all the time.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Is Monaco part of the EU?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

I do not think. Well, it must I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

It's a good question, right? It is.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Well, should we look it up really quick?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, I'll look it up.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Okay, so I'll keep going and then we'll we'll circle back. So population is only about 38,000 people. Tourism is obviously incredibly high. They have that's where a lot of the wealth comes from, as well as the casino obviously brings in a ton. And the real estate is some of the most expensive in the world. And like, you know, the to the tax haven, businesses pay a small amount of tax, but it's very small in comparison to outside of Monaco. So where does Monaco get all its money? I just said tourism and the and like they also, I mean, they are a business place because people bring their businesses there because of the low taxes. But I mean, tourism and the casino brings in a lot of cash.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

So, some questions while my research is going poorly, which is why I didn't hear you say the tourist thing. I'm sorry. So my question is the casino then, unlike in Las Vegas, where the casino owners get the money, is it it's Monaco owns those casinos?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Yeah, the principality owns the casinos.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Which, okay, so let's start with the casinos, because obviously that's what people initially think of in the James Bond and and the the glamour and the glitz of the casino. So which I don't know if most people know this, but there are two casinos, and one is like the pedestrian normal kind of is that the one we went in? Yeah, where you can go in and you can't wear shorts, you can't wear flip-flops, you can't wear I mean, there's still like some rules, but you certainly don't have to be wearing like a ball gown and a tuxedo to go in. Yeah, but but much less so than the one that you've got to like go through 10 security guards to get in and like it's that's the one across the street with all the fancy cars, and that is fancy.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Do people wear ball gowns during the day there?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

I mean, I think it's Monaco, like you can kind of do whatever you want, but you certainly can't go in there like wearing jeans.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Right. Have you been in there?

SPEAKER_01 6:35

No, no, in fact, on my 21st birthday, I went to that was the first time, well, because the the age is 21 there. Oh, it is. Yeah. Or at least it was when I turned 21. That was a few years ago. But um, but yeah, because the family that I was working for gave me money to go to the casino. That was my present of like, here you're now you're officially living in Monaco because you can go to the casino. It's 18 now. Oh, it is? Okay. So I went in the little, like the you know, smaller one and blew my money really fast. It was it was different when I was there. And so now it's it's kind of adjacent to the bigger one, and it's you can kind of stand it because Dylan stood like at the doorway and we stood in like the lobby. Yeah. Yeah, because Dylan was only 16, and but we wanted him to experience well, and he wanted to like give input on where what machines we used and stuff. Yeah, but it's like it's slot machines, it's just like any other casino, it's just you're in Monaco. So, but just to make the differentiation that you know you don't have to go to the super fancy one, you can definitely go to the small one. And then right outside is where all of the big hotels are, where all of the slew of fancy, fancy, crazy cars that are parked so that you like have to walk through them, so it's all kind of part of the experience.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And yachts the size of cruise ships.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Well, we haven't even gotten down there yet. So, right around the casino is a beautiful park area where you can walk around. Monaco has a lot of sort of strange rules, too. Like you can never walk on the grass, even in a park, like it's just against the law. You can, you know, it's obviously a beach town and on the sea, but you cannot walk around in beach attire. Like you need to be covered up the whole time. Like men without a shirt, you'll you'll be ticketed. It's considered disrespect to the royalty royal family. Wow. So, and even like your dogs, like there's signs everywhere that say your dog can't walk on the grass. So that's so crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

I mean, it is beautiful then.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

It is, and that's how they keep it so beautiful, but but not so, you know, not so dog friendly, and not like much of Europe where dogs are running around on every piece of grass. Okay, so then if you go around to sort of the the seaside of the casino, it is like that's the famous view, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Oh my gosh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I mean, you're just standing and like the grounds are beautiful and you've got this incredible view. And then if you continue down there, you end up at the very famous port, which is where all of the yachts are parked, where uh everybody comes in and out. And you can either take an elevator to get down there or you can walk down there. But the elevator it's it's pretty steep. The whole the whole principality is steep. Is steep. Yeah. So be prepared for hills, be prepared for like, and it's all marble, so it can get like slippery. So you just kind of need to be ready for a hike that's not that easy.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Down by the port, there's this. I I'll have to figure it out, find out what it's called, and put it on the website when we put the post up today. But there's a restaurant. I'm I'm just gonna say random things as I think of them. There's a restaurant where we sat and watched all the boats and had like those big, giant, fancy drinks that cost like 25 bucks a piece.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Well, it was an ice cream store. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

I remember they had bar a bar and yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

No, no, they but it was we went there for ice cream and they had like these crazy creations of ice cream and then drinking.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

We went there for a drink, and then we took a line.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, because we saw how amazing the ice cream was.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

And they've got a very big cocktail selection, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yeah. But all around the port area, there are little restaurants, and they are they're good, they're expensive, obviously, because you're paying for the view as well as your the things on your plate. Uh, but but you get to just sit there and gawk at the yachts coming in and out. And I mean gawk, like they are incredible.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Like I thought when we went to Porto Cervo in Sardinia and saw those yachts, I was like, wow, these are some yachts. I had no idea because the yachts in Monaco are bigger than anything I've ever seen. Yeah, it's like a Jeff Bezos yacht.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

Yeah, and just coming in and out all the time. Yeah, I mean it's gorgeous. Yeah, it's crazy. So yeah, it's definitely like, you know, save up or just get a drink, even if just a drink is gonna be expensive. But go sit down there and just like soak it in because it's it's something you don't see anywhere. Yeah, maybe Porta Cherapeu's close, but like I've never seen that level of and you know, is it is it pretentious and weird? Probably, but you know that's what makes it cool. Yeah, I think. But I mean, you're not living there, you're just coming to to check it out for a minute, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Beach, I've never been thinking of being down there by the port.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

The beach is just on the other side of the casino. Yeah, and it is little rocks, so you have to bring like come some sort of like like a pad or uh I want to say a raft, but that's not what I'm what's the mat that you can put your towel on so that you're not getting, you know, the pebbles stuck to you. But the water is beautiful, and probably because of its rock, it being rock too. But the water is really, really beautiful, and there's plenty of services down there. There's restaurants, there's clubs, like everything is right there.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

The clubs are all right there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

And that's also where the Grand Prix goes right through there. So if you're a fan, you can kind of see what the where the track is, which is on the actual street. So you can kind of do that walk if you want to to. Okay, so continuing down from around the port, if you look up from the port, you will see the palace, which is kind of built on a hill. It was originally a fortress and it was built in like 12, 12, early 1200s, I think. And then they turned it into the palace in the 16th century. And that was when everybody they they redid it and you know turned it into a palace palace. So the the walls are still there, and you can still from when you're up there, you can look down and see all of the principality, which you know is only less than a mile, but still you have amazing views from up there. And pretty much everywhere in the principality you can look up and see the palace too.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Is that up where like the school was? Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

So you can get up there. There's some times of year there's a little train, there's also a bus, or you can walk, depending on on how you're feeling. There's really nice gardens up there. You can like have lunch up there. There's some a little few little restaurants, some little bit of shopping, and then you can do your tour of the palace too, which is like where the apartments are, and you know, obviously places that people aren't living.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

So can I assume that Monaco being so small and so rich that people are watching you everywhere you are? Yeah. Yeah.

unknown 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

I mean, I had, you know, obviously my experiences with that were a long time ago, but I got lost one time and some official person came up and said, Mademoiselle, it's not here. Like pointed me in the right direction. So weird. Yeah. So, you know, but you you get what you pay for, right? Like they all invest so much in that area that they want to make sure that everybody's safe and monitored and taken care of, you know, good, bad, or otherwise.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

But oh yes, it says it has a very low crime rate due to the police to resident ratio.

unknown 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

One to one.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah. No, it's crazy. Okay. So then the other things to do while you're there, if you're not a gambler or not a beach person, there is an oceanography museum, which has, as you would expect in somewhere like Monaco, like the latest in technology. They've got the VR, they've got an escape room. And it's yeah, it's just supposed to be like the growth. We didn't actually get in there, but it's supposed to be fantastic. And it's not expensive. I think it's 19 euro for adults and 12 for kids. And you should allow yourself about two hours for that.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Is there a mall there? Well, there's the shopping.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

There's shopping, but you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Nothing that I can afford.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

But I mean, great window shopping and and you know, pictures and stuff. But I mean, it is all it's it's Rodeo Drive.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Oh, okay. Do they decorate for Christmas?

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Hey, no, I've never been there at Christmas. I'm not gonna go back. But I'm I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do at bananas. Can you imagine the tree that would be in front of the casino?

SPEAKER_00 15:08

No, that'd be so amazing.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

But yeah, I have never been there actually.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Because Nice is really close. Nice is very close. And Nice has a really big Christmas market.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

So I would assume that like Monaco would.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Well, and their tourism's so high, so I would expect that they would. Other things to do there? The gardens. Monaco does gardens very, very well. They have a botanical gardens. It was actually closed when we were there. That's at the kind of at the top between like Fontvie and Beausoleil. And then Princess Grace has her, she now she has a Japanese garden, but when I was living there, she just had a rose garden and it's free. It's still there. It's free, and it's like just one of the most beautiful, peaceful places. Like that was where I went. I took the kid there all the time. I just love to go there and hang out. There's little benches you can sit, and when things are in bloom, like the smell is incredible. So highly recommend that. Okay, so I talked about it a little bit, but Fontvie is an area of Monaco that's sort of on the perimeter of like outside of the yeah. Well, it's it's not like there's a difference, it's just kind of an area of Monaco. Oh, okay. And then on the other side is Beausole, which is where we stay, yeah. Which is literally like, you know, you sneeze and you're in Beausole.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Like you want to know how you know when you're in Beausoleil? All you have to do is look down because there's suns on every panel of the cement or of the marble of the in Monaco.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Oh no, in Beausoleil. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

And when you cross over to Monaco, there's no more suns imprinted into the your walkway.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Well, you'll also know though, because things are a little cheaper.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

Uh that's why we stayed, we stayed at a hotel that said Monaco, but it was in Beausoleil.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Right. And it's, I mean, it literally doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Well, I mean, it took us three minutes to walk into Monaco from there.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

And there's cute shops up there in Beausoleil.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

Yeah, I got a great dress there. I did for my birthday.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Happy birthday.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

But yeah, I mean, if you're staying, you want to stay that close, I would definitely recommend looking at Beausoleil because it's right on. I mean, it's literally two seconds from Monaco proper.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

We stayed in the apart hotel, which is part of the a la cour, the Monaco Palace Josephine. And it had like a separate bedroom so we could all three share a room. And it was it was reasonable price-wise. It was like under$200 a night. And we were there in summer. Yeah. Yeah. And they have a pool. It was on the roof. We didn't go because it was full of children.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Oh, we don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

We don't do children.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

We did it.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

We've done children.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

But but and Dylan and I walked down to the beach from there, which was probably like a seven-minute walk and just swam in the sea and seven minutes down, 25 back.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah, no, it's definitely the hills will go, the hills will get you.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

And it does get hot in Monaco and Beau Soleil at the hot.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Which was a problem with Rex because he couldn't go in the grass, but then the marble floors are so hot. It was just like really, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah, does that tell you something? That basically all of Monaco, the sidewalks are marble. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, okay. So one other place to go, I don't if you are a fan of the church or a fan of Princess Grace or Rainier, they are the they're buried at the cathedral in Monaco. So that's and it's definitely beautiful. No, I think they're in a mausoleum. I've spent a long time. I think it's like a mausoleum kind of situation.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

So like kind of like a pope.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Yeah. I mean, but yeah, so you can go there. Like I said, there's tons of gardens everywhere, just kind of wandering around. Like it's so beautiful that you could go and, you know, you don't have to be part of the grand expenditure. You can find enough things that are affordable and beautiful and fun just walking around. Now, if you are staying, or if you wanted to do Monaco as a day trip from somewhere that might be a little more affordable, like I said, it is surrounded by great places. Like Saint Tropez, Nice. Saint Tropez is not close.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

So on one side you've got Montan, which is You don't like Montan. Well, but it's very it's on the Italian border. I don't like it because I dated a guy there that was weird.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Oh, because I see all these pictures of it. I might be a little biased. Montana and Marseille have always just been off limits for vacations. Yeah, well, there's reasons.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Okay, so Montan is uh, you know, lovely little seaside area. Just be careful, be careful of dating men there. But very Very close. So Italians come across all the time. We used to call it the invasion on the Sundays because all of the Italians would come in to Montan for the beach on Sundays.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Which I don't know why, because the Italian beaches are equally as beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Right. And then on the other side, you've got Ez, which is an incredible medieval rock city.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

It is. I don't think that's somewhere that you would base out of, though.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Well, you could stay at the bait, like around the bottom of there.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Yeah. It's it's gorgeous. I don't know. Is that a whole episode? Because that place was so flipping magical. And I don't know if it's a whole episode because it's literally like a you, a road that just goes up and then down, and then you've seen the whole thing. But it's definitely worth the trip, no matter where you are in the Italian um the French Riviera.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

And Lisa's had been talking about it for years since we moved over here. We have to go to Ez. You have to see Ez, as, as, as. And I was like, eh, okay, it is so worth it.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

It is so worth it.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

And it's something, you know, where you look at pictures and you still just can't get it.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yeah. Okay. So then there's Ez, then there's Nice, and then a little further away is Khan. But you can, you know, there's tons of little places that you could stay that are, you know, they're not going to be cheap, but they're certainly going to be more affordable than than in Monaco proper if you wanted to do a little a little day trip there. But you know, also Monaco's not somewhere you need to spend a week. You know, you can spend a night one full day there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

You could do one full day. Now, if you are traveling by car, you you could make it even a day trip from Provence because it's like two and a half hours.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

I mean it's a lot, but if you're in Provence, because there's a lot to do in Provence, you could well you could also just tag it Yeah, tag it on the front and not do it and like spend the night one one or two nights somewhere closer. But yeah, I mean that part of France has just so much to offer, and we'll talk more, we'll do another episode later about the specific to the Riviera, but Monaco just sort of deserves its own like salute because it is such a specific and different place. I mean, most of Europe is is pretty, I mean, there's not like a massive division in wealth. No, no, and then you go into Monaco and it's like you walk into a movie set and it's it's pristine and it's perfect and it's glamorous and it's like all of the yeah, all of that. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

It's like Switzerland on crack.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Because that that's that's a division of wealth.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean too, like just the beauty, like the sea view and the you know, like all of that, it just it all feels it all feels like a grand or or not real. Yeah, you know, like like it's a it's a movie set, you know.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

You like the south of France.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

I love the south of France, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

I preferred like the more villagey stuff up north from there. Have you been in the south of France? I've been to Nice. I didn't stay in Nice, but I've visited Nice. I've been to Monaco. Yeah, I guess maybe I haven't. Yeah. Was that me or you thought that was you? Did you guys hear that? My stomach is is rumbling.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Yeah, so there you go. That's Monaco all wrapped up for you. There is there's plenty to do, but you don't have to spend a ton of time. You can not be rich and still enjoy yourself.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

And yeah. If I'll I'll say that if you live in the Netherlands and you're taking the ferry from Sardinia or Sicily and you go into Genoa, Monaco is the perfect like little stop on the way back up.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yeah, no, and it's definitely, you know, it's a special place. It's worth a visit.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Well, we're gonna go outside and enjoy the rain and the cold after talking about this nice, warm, sunny, delicious spot.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

It's it's really kind of sad. Sad to be going outside to gray and and torrential downpours. But anyway, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Check out our website, www.thetaways with the Z dot com. And we'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

See you next week. Thank you.