9 Monaco Hotels, and Which Ones the Circuit Runs Past

Monaco is 2.08 square kilometres. It is the second-smallest sovereign state in the world after the Vatican, roughly a fifth of it is land reclaimed from the sea, and it has around 39,000 residents on a hillside that drops into the Mediterranean.

There is no room in it for a bad hotel. Land at that scarcity does not get spent on three-star inventory, which is why almost the entire hotel stock sits at four and five stars and why the list below is the list rather than a selection from a longer one.

The week the roads become a circuit

For one weekend in late May the Grand Prix runs on the public streets. The circuit is not built for the race — it is the road network, closed and fenced, running from the Place du Casino down to the harbour, round the Fairmont hairpin and through a tunnel under the hotel terraces.

Which means the hotels are not near the track. Several are on it. Rooms and terraces overlooking the circuit are sold as grandstand seats at multiples of the ordinary rate, minimum stays of four or five nights apply, and the whole principality books out roughly a year ahead.

If you are going for the race, that is the entire booking problem. If you are not, avoid the last week of May, when rates across the Riviera rise in sympathy.

The quarters

Monte-Carlo, around the Place du Casino, is the centre of gravity: the 1863 casino, the opera house, the grand hotels and the shopping.

La Condamine and Port Hercule is the harbour, where the yachts are and where the circuit runs along the waterfront.

Larvotto, east, has the only real beaches — artificial, rebuilt, and the only place in Monaco you can lie on sand.

Fontvieille, southwest, is entirely reclaimed land: built out over the sea from the 1970s, with the marina, the stadium and quieter hotels.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, immediately over the French border, holds two properties that belong in any Monaco list — one on the cliff above the principality, one on a private beach below it.

The nine below are grouped that way.

Monte-Carlo and the Place du Casino

The centre, on the circuit.

Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo occupies the building that opened in 1864 opposite the casino, with a cellar cut into the rock holding hundreds of thousands of bottles, several restaurants and rooms over the square. It is the address the principality was built around.

Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo sits a moment away behind a belle époque facade, with a glass-domed winter garden attributed to Gustave Eiffel's workshop and a covered walkway through to the thermal spa.

Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo occupies a position on the hill above the casino with a Karl Lagerfeld-designed pool courtyard, a Joël Robuchon restaurant and the most contemporary interior of the grand hotels.

Fairmont Monte Carlo sits directly on the hairpin, the slowest corner in Formula One, with rooms above it and a rooftop pool that becomes the best seat in motorsport for one weekend a year.

Larvotto and the beaches

East, with the only sand.

Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort occupies a low building on the Larvotto peninsula with a sand-bottomed lagoon pool, a spa and a stretch of the seafront. It is the family answer in Monaco.

Le Méridien Beach Plaza sits on Larvotto beach itself with a private stretch of sand, a pool and rooms facing the water rather than the town.

Port Hercule and Fontvieille

The harbour and the reclaimed quarter.

Port Palace occupies a position above Port Hercule with rooms looking down over the yachts and the harbour section of the circuit.

Columbus Monte-Carlo sits in Fontvieille with a garden, a pool and the quietest setting in the principality, on land that was open sea fifty years ago.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

Over the border, above and below.

The Maybourne Riviera occupies a clifftop at Roquebrune with a cantilevered pool and a view down the coast that takes in the whole of Monaco, Italy and Cap Ferrat at once. It is the most dramatic position on this coast.

What we have left off

The apartment rentals in Monaco are excluded, and in a principality where residency is the point they are a very large share of the accommodation. They are apartments rather than hotels.

What to do

Walk the circuit. It takes about forty minutes on foot outside race week and the gradients explain the racing better than any broadcast.

See the Oceanographic Museum, built into the cliff face below the palace and directed by Jacques Cousteau for over thirty years.

Go up to Monaco-Ville, the old town on the rock, for the palace, the cathedral and streets that predate everything below them.

Visit the casino, which requires identification and a dress code after a certain hour, and note that Monégasque citizens are not permitted to gamble in it.

Take the coastal path to Cap Martin, or the bus along the Corniche to Èze and Villefranche, which are fifteen minutes away and a different world.

Practical notes

Nice airport is about thirty minutes by road, seven by helicopter, and the transfer is straightforward. The train from Nice takes twenty-five minutes and runs frequently.

May to September is the season. The Grand Prix weekend in late May and the yacht show in September are the two weeks to book far ahead or avoid entirely. Winter is mild, quiet and much cheaper.

Monaco is walkable but vertical. A network of public lifts and escalators connects the levels and is free.

Questions people actually ask

Are the hotels really on the track?

Several are. The circuit is the ordinary road network, and terraces overlooking it are sold as viewing positions during the race weekend.

Is there a beach?

At Larvotto, and it is artificial and rebuilt. Monaco is a cliff, not a coastline.

Do you need to dress up?

For the casino after evening, yes. Otherwise the principality is less formal than its reputation.

How many nights?

Two. Three if you are using it as a base for the Riviera.

If you only book one