A casino, a racetrack, and a country you can walk across

Monaco Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour on the Formula 1 Circuit

The single most practical ticket in Monaco, and the one that solves the country’s real problem: it is built on a cliff. The route follows most of the Formula 1 circuit and links the Rock, the Casino quarter, Larvotto and Fontvieille, so you can see everything without climbing anything. With nearly 3,000 reviews it is also the most road-tested option in the Principality.

• Follows most of the Grand Prix circuit
• Links the Rock, the Casino, Larvotto and Fontvieille
• Valid all day — hop off wherever you like

Monaco Sightseeing Boat Cruise

Monaco was built to be seen from the water, and fifty minutes offshore is the only way to take in the whole amphitheatre at once — the Rock, the Casino terraces, the apartment towers stacked up the hillside. It is also the cheapest way to get a proper look at the superyacht fleet in Port Hercule, which in summer is the real show.

• The full Principality skyline from offshore
• Superyachts in Port Hercule and Fontvieille
• Short enough to slot into any afternoon

Monaco Formula One Circuit Guided Walking Tour

The highest-rated tour in Monaco, and it is easy to see why. The circuit is a set of ordinary public roads for 51 weeks of the year — walking it is free, but doing it with a guide is what turns a street into a racetrack. You stand at the Fairmont Hairpin and understand why it is taken at 30 mph, you see how little run-off there is at Tabac, and you get a century of stories attached to each corner.

• Sainte Dévote, the Fairmont Hairpin and the tunnel
• The swimming-pool complex and the Rascasse
• How the circuit is built and dismantled each year

Oceanographic Museum of Monaco Ticket

Better than most aquariums, because it was never really meant to be one. Prince Albert I — a serious oceanographer as well as a monarch — built it into the cliff face in 1910 as a research institution, and Jacques Cousteau directed it for thirty years. The building itself, a monumental facade rising straight out of the rock above the sea, is as much of the attraction as the tanks.

• Albert I’s 1910 cliff-face building on the Rock
• Shark lagoon and Mediterranean species
• Rooftop terrace with views along the coast

Casino de Monte-Carlo

The building that paid for a country

The most famous gaming room on earth, opened in 1863 to save the Grimaldis from bankruptcy — and successful enough that Monegasque citizens have paid no income tax since. Charles Garnier, architect of the Paris Opera, designed the concert hall attached to it.

Oceanographic Museum

A prince, a cliff and Jacques Cousteau

Better than almost any aquarium, because it was never meant to be one. Prince Albert I built it into the cliff face in 1910 as a serious research institution, and Jacques Cousteau ran it for thirty years.

Prince’s Palace

Taken by a monk with a sword, 1297

A working royal residence on the site of a Genoese fortress. François Grimaldi took it in 1297 disguised as a Franciscan monk — which is why two sword-carrying monks still stand on the Monegasque coat of arms.

Grand Prix Circuit

A racetrack for one week a year

Run on public roads since 1929 and barely changed since: 3.3 kilometres of ordinary streets barriered off each May, including the slowest corner in Formula 1 and a tunnel taken at 280 km/h.

Jardin Exotique

Succulents on a cliff, and a cave beneath

Thousands of succulents terraced down a sheer cliff on the western edge of the country, with the best panorama in Monaco — and a prehistoric cave 60 metres below the entrance.