Fontvieille

Fontvieille is the clearest illustration of Monaco’s central problem and its solution. With no room to expand inland, Rainier III added 22 hectares to the country in the 1970s by reclaiming it from the sea below the Rock — around a fifth of Monaco’s total surface is now land that did not exist within living memory.

What was built on it is deliberately un-glamorous: a second marina, the Stade Louis II where AS Monaco play, a shopping centre, the heliport, and the Princess Grace Rose Garden — four thousand rose bushes planted by Rainier in his wife’s memory after her death in 1982. It is the only genuinely large green space in the country.

For visitors this is the value quarter. The Columbus is a comfortable, design-conscious hotel overlooking the rose garden at roughly a third of Place du Casino rates, and you are still only a fifteen-minute walk — or one lift and a short stroll — from the Rock.

Best for

• Value
• Gardens and calm
• Football at the Stade Louis II

Getting around from here

Monaco’s public lifts and escalators — around 80 of them — do most of the climbing between quarters, and they are free. Bus lines 1, 2 and 6 connect the whole country for a couple of euros, and nothing on this site is more than a twenty-minute walk from anything else. Full detail in the Monaco travel guide.