Monaco is a principality of two square kilometres, an hour and twenty-five minutes away. The Rock and its old town, the prince's palace, the oceanographic museum and the Monte-Carlo quarter can all be seen on foot in a day. The city is built in tiers, and free public lifts do most of the climbing for you.
This is Monaco before Monaco. Le Rocher is the promontory where the Grimaldis settled in 1297, and it has kept its narrow lanes, its ochre façades and its village scale. You walk up from the port by the Rampe Major, or take the public lifts.
The prince's palace can be visited when the family is not in residence, with the state apartments and the courtyard. The changing of the guard takes place every day at 11.55 am in front of the palace, in white summer or black winter dress depending on the season; arrive a quarter of an hour early to see anything.
The neo-Romanesque cathedral holds the tombs of the princes, including that of Grace Kelly, always covered in flowers.
This is the visit that justifies the trip, especially with children. Built into the cliff face by Prince Albert I, a scientist and oceanographer, and opened in 1910, the Oceanographic Museum is as much a monument as an aquarium. Its façade drops eighty-five metres straight to the sea.
Downstairs, the aquariums: a shark lagoon where you can touch rays, Mediterranean and tropical tanks, a touch pool. Upstairs, the historic rooms with instruments, whale skeletons and the collections brought back by the prince's expeditions. And on the roof, a terrace looking along the whole coast.
Allow two hours, more with children.
On the far side of the port, the Casino de Monte-Carlo, built by Charles Garnier in 1878, can be visited in the morning before gaming opens, with its gilded rooms and its opera house. The Place du Casino, its grand hotels and its cars are a spectacle in themselves, best taken with humour.
The exotic garden, up on the heights, is worth the detour for its succulents and for the Observatory Cave, a cavern of concretions three hundred metres above the sea, the only cave in Europe where the temperature rises as you descend.
This is the real question. Monaco is vertical, and the principality has installed a network of free public lifts and escalators linking the levels: you go from the port to the Rock, from the Rock to Fontvieille, without walking up a single hill. Look for the signs, they are everywhere, and it changes the day completely.
For cars, the underground public car parks are numerous, charged and efficient. Avoid the Grand Prix weekend at the end of May at all costs, when the city is closed and saturated for a week, along with major event days at the Grimaldi Forum.
The train is a good option: Monaco station is underground in the middle of town, and the coastal line links it to Nice in half an hour.
This guide is part of the address book of a private estate in Puget-sur-Argens, 85 minutes away, available for weddings and family stays. It is not open to visitors.
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