Part way through the planning of our trip, our F1 mad boys (including Karl) mentioned how amazing it would be to go to Monaco, their favourite F1 track. Needless to say, I rearranged half of our trip to accommodate them, especially as I am more than a little interested in Formula One myself…
staying in nice
Now Monaco itself is VERY expensive and I didn’t want to stay too far outside the town centre so I opted to stay in Nice. The logistics in taking the train to Nice, dropping our bags off early at the hotel and catching another train out to Monaco in time for a walk around the track all seemed a bit daunting but we managed it all almost without a hitch!
I chose to stay at the Hotel Aston La Scala which was ideally positioned at the end of the shopping strip, about 5 minutes’ walk from the beach, the Promenade des Anglais and lots of restaurants and cafes. The hotel itself was lovely and reception staff tried hard but it was Friday night and we were positioned on the floor below the restaurant and dance floor. Despite me jumping up and down all night complaining about the extreme noise and the reception staff promising to get it turned down, the music, dancing and then scraping of chairs and tables as the venue was cleaned continued until after 1am. I realised later that other people had also complained online about the noise, which especially occurs over the weekend, so just check that you are not on the floor below the restaurant if you book. The manager apologised quite sincerely via email the next day and gave us a partial refund on our booking.
To be fair, I understand that the restaurant may be externally leased and the hotel staff have no ability to intervene to have the noise turned down. Either way, our sleep was greatly disturbed but we loved our trip to Nice and Monaco.
from nice to monaco
As we arrived at Gare de Nice-Ville, it seemed like a complicated trek from local station to local station to get us to our hotel. However, I thought to ask the lovely official looking ladies at the station and they were extremely helpful. They advised me to make sure that all my bags were held tightly as the area was rife with thieves. I passed that onto Karl and the boys and fortunately, we had no issues in the area.
They directed us to the tram that would take us all the way down the Avenue Jean Medecin which is full of traditional department and chain stores. With all our suitcases, we couldn’t fit on the first tram so we decided to walk rather than wait for another. It was quite a long walk down (18 to 20 minutes) and we were in a hurry to get to Monaco but it was a pleasant walk mostly along decent pathways that were quite easy to roll our suitcases along.
At the hotel, we were able to check in and then took the tram back to the Gare de Nice-Ville for the train to Monaco. We weren’t running on time and the train stopped at more stations than expected but we still got to Monaco around 3pm.
beautiful monaco
The first thing you realise about Monaco when you arrive at the station is that everything is quality – even the tunnel of the train station looked like it was made of marble! And the waterfront is full of spectacular boats. It really is delightful, especially on a sunny day with the sun sparkling on the water.
It was a short walk down to the waterfront where we picked up the Monte Carlo Grand Prix circuit. We walked through the tunnel (the boys biggest thrill), along the Avenue d’Ostende, around the hairpin and past the Casino de Monte Carlo (where some VERY expensive cars were parked outside!) and then back along the waterfront.
We stopped at a lovely bar and restaurant called The Roof on the Avenue d’Ostende and enjoyed a few very good quality wines before making our way back to Nice. It was a totally leisurely few hours with the boys knocking ‘walking the Monaco Grand Prix circuit’ off their bucket list.
The train journey back to Nice was only around 20 minutes so we were back in plenty of time for dinner. We walked across the beautiful Promenade du Pailon park, down Boulevarde Jean Jaures to the Promenade des Anglais. With the terrorist attack still fresh in our minds from July 2016, the year before, we were mindful of those terrible, needless deaths as we walked along the Promenade and down to the pebbly beach. For an Australian, it is hardly a beautiful beach but it does have a certain charm with its rows of sun lounges. Of course, if you want a sandy beach, you can pay to enter a private beach but it was dark when we arrived so it was hardly the time to sunbathe!
eating out in nice
We took a short walk along the Rue Saint-François de Paule to a nice little restaurant called Bistrot de l’Opera. It was one of the quieter restaurants along the strip and was quite arty inside with large murals and a decorative bar with pendant lighting. We liked it and, although the waitress initially seemed gruff (possibly due to the rudeness of other tourists nearby), she warmed to us when we spoke to her and took an interest in her lovely restaurant. It always pays to be nice to the staff and to try to compliment them and their food in their own language. As it was, she was Italian and we ordered yet more pizza but it was delicious and no-one was complaining about the repetition of our menu choices.
Walking through Nice at night back to the hotel was truly lovely. The plazas are spotless and beautifully designed with magnificent lights. It was quite magical.
Back at our hotel, we of course spent our sleepless night before getting up for our early morning train to Santa Margherita Ligure on the Italian Riviera.