Monte Carlo & Monaco City, Monaco – 1 Day Trip

My dad who came with my brother and me for a portion of our Europe trip wanted to make a stop in Monaco. We set up a day to take the train from Nice to Monaco to explore the city. We were not disappointed, Monaco provides breathtaking views of the French Riviera, yachts that cost more than I’ll ever accumulate in my lifetime, and cars that I’ve only seen on tv during the exotic car shows.

At the time of writing this post EUR 1 = USD 1.22

Day 1 – Explore an Entire Country in a Day 06.27.2018

Taking Trenitalia again we took a day trip to Monaco to explore the city. This takes about 15 minutes and costs €5 one-way. I did book these in advance but there was no need the train was empty. The train going into Monaco is underground and is like something out of a movie. Once you arrive you head up the stairs and then take the lift to the top of Monaco and walk out to a breathtaking view.

The first thing to do when getting off the train is to walk east towards Monte Carlo and go to their Office du Tourisme de Monaco, to get your passport stamped (For Free). After that, we walked behind the building and through the casino garden. Directly at the end of the Garden is the famous Monte Carlo Casino. There were no requirements on being able to gamble, but I’m not sure what the table minimum was, I walked around the inside of the casino and then left.

The next step was to walk the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix track and to go thru the tunnel. Once we walked thru the tunnel we are at Port Hercule harbor. There are some nice restaurants along the harbor and a great place to stop is Le Pattaya. Continuing to walk along the harbor as we made our way up the hill to Monaco City.

At the top of the hill, there are great views of the harbor and some shops for souvenirs. We took a moment to stop at Cathedrale de Monaco and lit a candle for my dad’s side of the family (Catholic). The last stop was to see the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, I think you can go inside and take a tour but we did not.