One square, two palace hotels, an opera house and the most famous casino on earth — all built from scratch, on purpose, in about forty years.
By 1860 Monaco had lost Menton and Roquebrune — and with them most of its territory and its tax base. The Grimaldis needed revenue, and gambling was already banned in France and Italy. In 1863 Prince Charles III granted a fifty-year gaming monopoly to a new company, the Société des Bains de Mer, and told it to build a resort on an empty plateau across the harbour.
It worked spectacularly. Charles Garnier — fresh from the Paris Opera — designed the concert hall attached to the Casino. The Hôtel de Paris opened in 1864 and the Hermitage followed. The railway arrived in 1868 and brought the whole of wealthy Europe with it. Within a generation the quarter, named Monte-Carlo after the prince, had made income tax unnecessary for Monegasque citizens — which remains true today.
Smart-casual gets you into the public gaming rooms; no shorts, sportswear, flip-flops or bare shoulders. The salons privés want a jacket after 8pm, and Le Louis XV expects one at any hour. Nobody will object to a dress and sandals in the Café de Paris.
Three of Monaco’s finest hotels are within a two-minute walk of the Casino steps.
Palace hotel ★★★★★
The address that invented Monte-Carlo. Opened in 1864 opposite the Casino, reopened in 2018 after a four-year, ground-up restoration that added a central patio and a top-floor suite with its own pool.
Belle Époque palace ★★★★★
The romantic one. A pink-and-cream Belle Époque palace a minute from the Casino, built around a Winter Garden whose glass dome is attributed to Gustave Eiffel’s workshop.
Independent luxury hotel ★★★★★
The design-led alternative to the SBM palaces: Jacques Garcia interiors, a Karl Lagerfeld-designed pool deck, and a Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant, on the garden side of the Casino.
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.
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 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.
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.
Garnier's opera house, the Belle Époque gaming rooms and the best people-watching on the Riviera. Compare guided tours of Monte-Carlo.
No. Monaco is the country; Monte-Carlo is one quarter of it, built from 1863 onwards around the Casino and named after Prince Charles III. People use the names interchangeably because Monte-Carlo is where almost everything famous is, but Monaco also contains Monaco-Ville on the Rock, Port Hercule, La Condamine, Fontvieille and Larvotto.
Yes, if you are 18 or over and carrying photo ID — Monegasque citizens are the ones who are not allowed to gamble. There is an entry fee for the private gaming rooms, a dress code (no shorts, sportswear or bare shoulders, and jacket-and-tie in the salons privés after 8pm), and a morning visiting slot when you can tour the rooms without playing.
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo inside the Casino building, designed by Charles Garnier; the Jardins des Boulingrins below the square; the Carré d’Or shopping streets; the Thermes Marins spa; and the terraces of the Café de Paris, which is the best people-watching in the Principality. The experiences page has guided options.
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