Where to stay in Monaco: the areas, and where our ten hotels sit

This is the Monaco of the photographs: the Place du Casino and the Jardins des Boulingrins, with the Casino and the Hôtel de Paris on the square and the boutiques of the Carré d'Or and One Monte-Carlo around it. Four of our ten are within five minutes' walk of the square: the Hôtel de Paris on it, the Hermitage one terrace down towards the port, the Métropole a street back on Avenue de la Madone, and the Fairmont below on the Grand Prix hairpin.

It is a district of slopes and stairs, gardens and hotel frontages more than everyday streets, with the Opéra Garnier inside the Casino complex and many of Monaco's best-known restaurants, and it is at its liveliest after dark. It is also part of the racetrack: the Grand Prix circuit runs past the Casino and round the Fairmont hairpin, so in race week you sleep beside it. Light sleepers should ask for a room away from the square.

Buses 1, 5 and 6 stop in the Place du Casino, and the station's Monte-Carlo exit, which has a lift, is 13 minutes' walk. The harbour is 9 minutes below you and Larvotto beach 15 minutes east. The Rock is the long walk: the Palace is 22 minutes each way.

Larvotto is Monaco's seaside: a beach that is largely public and open all year, redesigned in 2021 by Renzo Piano, with a promenade along it, the Grimaldi Forum and the Japanese Garden at the Monte-Carlo end and a marine protected area offshore. The promenade now carries on past the Forum into Mareterra, the new district on land reclaimed from the sea. It feels like a resort strip rather than a town: beach restaurants, cafés and the sea.

Both of our hotels here are about the water. Le Méridien Beach Plaza, at the eastern end of the public beach, has the only private hotel beach inside the principality; Monte-Carlo Bay fills its own peninsula at the far end with a sand-bottomed lagoon and four hectares of garden.

Buses 5 and 6 run along Avenue Princesse Grace to their Larvotto terminus, and both call at the Place du Casino; at night the N1 runs east along the port and the seafront, in that direction only, until after midnight, and until nearly 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. The trade-off is distance: the Casino is 15 minutes' walk from the beach, 19 from Le Méridien and 23 from Monte-Carlo Bay, and the Rock is more than half an hour away.

The Condamine is Monaco's practical middle, wrapped around Port Hercule below the Rock: the market on the Place d'Armes every morning, Rue Princesse Caroline pedestrianised and lined with shops and terraces, restaurants looking out over the yachts. It is the most central base for sightseeing: from the Place d'Armes the Palace is 5 minutes up the hill, the Oceanographic Museum 11 and the Casino 19.

It is also the easiest for arrivals. The station's La Condamine exit, with a lift, is 4 minutes from the market; lines 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 all stop at the Place d'Armes; and the Bateau Bus crosses the harbour from Quai des États-Unis to Quai Antoine Ier. In Grand Prix week the port becomes one of the nerve centres of the circuit and the district an open-air party, which is either the reason to come or the reason to leave.

None of our ten is in the Condamine: the hotels around the port are small, from the Miramar's 14 rooms to the Port Palace's 50, and for a room below grand-hotel prices we would rather cross to the Columbus in Fontvieille, with its heated outdoor pool and quieter streets, and walk over for the market. The Hermitage looks down on the port from the terrace above.

Fontvieille is the Monaco built on land reclaimed from the sea, on the far side of the Rock: the Port de Fontvieille marina, the Princess Grace Rose Garden and a landscaped park, the Stade Louis II and a shopping centre with the everyday chains. It is residential and built around neighbourhood life rather than visitors, and the Columbus looks over the rose garden.

The heliport is here too. Monacair's shuttle from Nice airport lands every 30 minutes in daylight after a seven-minute flight, which is handy on arrival and worth remembering when you choose a room. For a swim, Plage Marquet, over the border in Cap-d'Ail, is 13 minutes' walk from the port.

Lines 3, 4 and 6 start at the Fontvieille shopping centre, and line 6 runs past the heliport and the port to the Place du Casino and on to Larvotto. The station's Fontvieille/Le Rocher exit, which has a lift, is 12 minutes on foot from the port and the Palace 15, uphill. The price of the calm is Monte-Carlo: the Casino is 29 minutes' walk from the port and 30 from the Columbus, so evenings there mean the bus or a taxi.

Beausoleil is the French town on the slope directly above Monte-Carlo, founded in 1904 as a Belle Époque resort and climbing from 40 to 560 metres above the sea. From the Marché Gustave Eiffel, partly covered in ironwork, the Place du Casino is 8 minutes' walk, less than the walk from Larvotto beach. The market is open every day from 7am to 1pm with about twenty stalls, and the Riviera Palace, a former grand hotel of 1903 listed as a historic monument, is a reminder of what the town was built for.

What you gain is a French address within walking distance of the Casino; what you pay is the climb. Monaco is below you, so every evening ends uphill, and the higher streets are a bus ride rather than a walk: an on-demand bus, booked ahead, links them with the market, the Casino and the station.

None of our ten is in Beausoleil: for Monaco without grand-hotel pricing we would choose the Columbus, which keeps you inside the principality, on level ground and with a heated outdoor pool.

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is the French commune between Monaco and Menton, and two of our ten are here at opposite ends of the slope. Monte-Carlo Beach sits at sea level at the far end of Avenue Princesse Grace, just over the border: a 1929 hotel of 40 rooms and suites with an Olympic-size pool and a private beach. It is seasonal: in 2026 it reopened on 13 April, and its pool and beach club run until 11 October. Larvotto beach is 17 minutes' walk along the shore and the Casino 30, or 7 minutes by car.

The Maybourne Riviera is on the cliff above, on the route de la Turbie, with Monaco laid out below it. The Casino is 10 minutes away by car and 48 on foot, and Roquebrune-Cap-Martin station 27 minutes downhill, which is why its complimentary shuttle to and from Monaco matters.

The commune is the reward: a medieval village whose castle has stood for more than 1,000 years, the five-kilometre Le Corbusier path around Cap Martin, and the small beach of Le Buse in Cabbé bay. Trains from Roquebrune-Cap-Martin station reach Monaco in under ten minutes. The trade-off is that Monaco becomes an outing rather than your street.

Èze-Bord-de-Mer is the seaside part of Èze, along the Basse Corniche coast road west of Monaco, beyond Cap-d'Ail. Our one hotel here, Cap Estel, is a five-star on its own two-hectare private peninsula, with the coast road behind the gate and the sea on three sides. The Casino is 16 minutes away by car.

Without a car it is slower but possible. Èze-sur-Mer station is 20 minutes' walk from the hotel, and trains take about 10 minutes to Monaco and about 15 to Nice-Ville; the regional 600 bus between Nice, Monaco and Menton also has a stop named Cap Estel. The medieval village of Èze is above you, by bus 83 from the station or by the Nietzsche path, 2.1 kilometres and 350 metres of climb, about an hour and a half on foot. Towards Monaco, the Cap-d'Ail coastal path runs 3.6 kilometres from La Mala beach to Marquet beach on the edge of the principality.

This is the base for a trip that treats Monaco as an evening out rather than home: the night ends with a train and the 20-minute walk back from the station, or with a driver. The hotel is open from May to mid-October, so check your dates.