Monaco

Nestled on the bottom of a Alp on the French Riviera, Monaco joins Singapore and the Vatican as one of the few remaining city-states in the world. Basking in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, Monaco takes up a tiny 0.78 square miles and is a playground for the rich and famous, with yachts and supercars always in easy view.

So, What's Special?

Monaco is probably the world's best known tax haven, and has the highest property prices per square foot of any city, anywhere. Almost everyone living here is rich by any standard, and the city drips wealth. It holds 2 harbours, a palace, a casino, many prestigious clubs and bars, several shopping malls and billions worth of luxury cars in it's tiny frame. As a place to view obscene wealth, it's hard to compare with anywhere.

Our Experience

Our trip had us within the Monaco borders for over six months, living in the lap of luxury on board a superyacht in the famous Port Hercule.

From here, we got to see how soulless Monaco really is. The niceties are skin deep, with quite a hostile atmosphere as people judge each other based purely on their bank balance. It really is amazing that the most densely populated city in the world can have such a lack of humanity. It lacks the charm of any of the world's great cities: there is nowhere to go and mingle with 'normal' people, no nice open areas to go and relax, nothing that makes it a good place to be.

As a spectacle, it's brilliant. It's like a theme park: it gives you an experience that is totally different from anything in your normal life. But you wouldn't want to live there.

Our Advice

First off, getting around in Monaco isn't like travel in the rest of western Europe. There's no Uber in the city borders, buses are intermittent and taxis are prohibitively expensive (over 10 euros for even a few minutes, and that's if you can find one). Instead, a poorly signposted network of amazing underground tunnels, elevators and lifts wire the city together. Trying to navigate this without a decent grasp of French is pretty difficult.

I would suggest walking pretty much everywhere. Nowhere takes too long to get to here, and there are some impressive sights to see along the way.

Beyond that, the place is so small there's not much to tell: you'll need a lot of euros to survive long-term here, the bars are expensive and the food is better in Nice. Speaking French will carry you a good way here, but the area is so multi-national that there often isn't a common language.

Monaco also runs it's own system of national holidays, so check a list on Google to make sure you don't pitch up and everywhere is shut!

To Summarise...

It is well worth coming to see the sights and catch a glimpse of how the rich like to blow their wealth. It's very densely populated and can get quite busy, but events like the Monte Carlo rally, F1 Grand Prix and Christmas markets are well worth visiting if you're here at the right time. This works best as a day trip.