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.
For 51 weeks a year the Monaco circuit is a set of streets you can walk for nothing. Sainte Dévote is a junction by a chapel; the Fairmont Hairpin is the ramp down from the Casino; the tunnel is the road under the Fairmont hotel. Knowing that is what makes the place extraordinary — you are standing on the racing line, in traffic.
It survives on the calendar despite being nearly impossible to overtake on, because the appeal was never the racing. It is the spectacle of threading a Formula 1 car between Armco barriers with a harbour full of yachts behind it. The tunnel, where cars go from daylight to dark to daylight at full speed, is the most demanding stretch of road in the sport.
A guided walk is the one tour in Monaco where the guide genuinely changes the experience — the stories are the whole point. Our Grand Prix page covers race week itself, including which hotel balconies actually see the track.
| When | Race week is late May; the circuit is public road the rest of the year |
|---|---|
| Free to walk | Yes — the whole lap, any time outside race week |
| Best corner | The Fairmont Hairpin, taken at about 30 mph |
Everything in Monaco is within a twenty-minute walk, but the country climbs from sea level to about 160 metres — use the network of roughly 80 free public lifts and escalators rather than the streets. Buses 1, 2 and 6 cover the whole Principality for a couple of euros. Full detail in the Monaco travel guide, and transfers from Nice airport in getting to Monaco.
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.
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.
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.
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