Travel report: Monaco
Country ranking by area: #196
Country ranking by population: #192
Date of visit: July 2016
A day trip to Monaco
Monaco – together with Vatican City – was the country, in which I spent the least time. I visited the country on a short day trip from Nice and spent approximately three hours in it. But that’s okay. It is the second smallest country by area after Vatican City and the sixth smallest country by population after Vatican City, Nauru, Tuvalu, Palau and San Marino. Therefore, one afternoon is more than enough to see the whole country. Interestingly, the country leads the ranking when it comes to the most densely populated countries in the world.
This microstate on the Mediterranean coast is not part of the European Union, but it participates in some EU policies. The currency is the Euro and there aren’t border controls between Monaco and France. Formerly an antique trading centre, the country is now a tax haven and famous for its casinos and a Formula One track race. It’s also a constitutional monarchy with Prince Albert II as head of state.
That’s why it is no surprise that Monaco attracts the rich from all over the world, who call Monaco their new home. You cannot blame them though. Decent weather year-round, a beautiful city and you don’t have to give too much money to the government. That doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me.
Many people visit Monaco on a day or half-day trip from Nice or Cannes. So did Matt and I. We spent five days in Nice, but there is no point in spending all the time in the French city, as there are nice things to see and do outside of Nice. We decided to visit two or three different cities during these short holidays.
My priority was Monaco of course, as I haven’t been to that country yet. (We also visited Antibes and Aix-en-Provence the days after.) I just started collecting countries a few months ago, and Monaco seemed to be a low hanging fruit, because it can be easily combined with holidays on the Côte d’Azur. I didn’t have high expectations to be honest, I knew that it was a super small state and also an expensive one. But I also knew that the country would be a beautiful one.
How to spend a few hours in Monaco
Matt and I arrived in the early afternoon in the second smallest state of the world. The first thing we noticed was that Monaco is more a huge harbour than a city. That’s why it didn’t take us long to see almost all of the city. As Monaco is known as the country of the rich, we expected it to be super expensive. To our surprise, prices weren’t higher than in Nice. Still expensive but humane at least.
People who are interested in yachts will love Monaco, as there aren’t many better places in the world to spot luxurious boats. We spent maybe an hour to check out some of the world’s largest yachts before heading to old town. Old town was my favourite part of the country. It’s also very small, but there are many charming, narrow alleys with shops. The best thing is the viewpoint though where you can see the harbour from above.
If I had to give a recommendation about how to spend a few hours in the second smallest state of the world, I would suggest to do the exact same thing that we did. Have lunch somewhere, stroll around, go from the harbour to old town, and then head back to the place you came from. A little add-on would be to staying one night in the country, going to a casino, doing some shopping of luxury brands or maybe renting a yacht if you can afford it.
My travel experience in Monaco
Generally, Monaco is a lovely place with clean streets, nice houses and did I mention that there are a lot of yachts? In addition, some parts of the city are free of cars and pedestrian areas only, which is a huge plus for me.
Anyway, it was definitely one of the most uneventful trips I have done so far. I wish I could tell something more interesting, but it’s actually as I described it: we went to this country, had lunch, explored the tiny city and drove back to Nice afterwards. That’s it. It took us three or four hours in total (without getting there and away), and this was okay to us.
Will I revisit Monaco? I’m not so sure, as the country is so small and I think I have seen all of it. Besides, there are other interesting towns and cities in that area which I haven’t seen yet. So going back to the country isn’t my highest priority. However, the exception might be experiencing Monte Carlo at night, because nightlife is pretty good from what I heard.
Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!
