Checked In: Monte Carlo
the land of €32 salads and tax evasion
Last summer I took a girls trip to Europe, anticipating a “Dua Lipa summer” of beaches, linens, and gallons of Aperol Spritz’s. Considering where we should go, my friend suggested a few days in Monte Carlo which I quickly vetoed. Reasoning: there genuinely is not enough to do to fill a few days worth of itinerary. The city of Monte Carlo is boring. Beautiful, luxurious, swanky, yacht-filled, and romantic… but compared to other European cities, boring. To be fair the city doesn’t have much to work with. You can stroll from one end of Monte Carlo to the other by foot in just 45 minutes (which I would highly recommend as uber’s are exceptionally expensive.) Many tourists who visit Monte Carlo come in on day trips, check a few to-do’s off, and head back to France or Italy which are only a short drive out of the teeny-tiny country of Monaco. I would say that is the right move if you’re exploring Europe and genuinely trying to absorb as much culture, carbs, and cafe’s as possible.
There are two sides of a coin in the purpose of tourism: for the sake of discovery or for the sake of decadence. Monaco falls under the latter. The city doesn’t arouse your curiosity, it caters to your indulgence. For me the culture there is more so a personal anthropological study of the ultra rich and that is fascinating. Many Monte Carlo travelers come to attend a tennis match when the weather is nice, to take a spin on the yacht on a free afternoon, or to sit in a dark casino that even Monégasques are forbidden from because of it’s iniquity.
All that being said, I do like the city. Each time I’ve visited, I happen to get the same taxi driver at least once during the trip who belts opera in his minivan the entire drive. I LOVE HIM and cannot wait until his next performance. The food is delicious, the people watching is scrumptious, and as I discovered last year the vintage shopping is top-tier.
If you plan to make a trip to Monte Carlo: here’s whats on my menu.
Breakfast is a watery omelette at the hotel or an espresso & pastry.
Lunch
Marche De La Condamine — A glorious little market with produce stands and a number of food options including a freshly-made pasta bar where you can pick your pasta type and sauce. I recommend the truffle gnocchi.
Here, also try a barbagiuan which is a crispy fritter filled with cheese and veggies, and pissaladière: a flatbread topped with caramelized onions, olives, and anchovies. Delicious Monaco specialties that I still can’t pronounce!Le Louis XV – Alain Ducasse — Mediterranean cuisine with three Michelin Stars.
La Vigie Lounge & Restaurant — Nice views of the sea and good seafood.
Dinner
Cipriani — I know, I know. It’s a chain! But it’s fancy and has good pasta. They also have a salad of cucumber, avocado, and corn that I’m weirdly obsessed with.
Le Train Bleu — French culinary in the Casino de Monte-Carlo.
Marlow — Never thought I would be going out of my way to eat British food but the restaurant is aesthetic and they have a lobster roll.
L'Abysse Monte-Carlo — A French chef & Japanese chef met and had a baby (a restaurant baby.) Sometimes on long Europe stretches I find myself in a dire need for any food that isn’t a meat/carb plate so it’s precious to find good Japanese.
Blue Bay Marcel Ravin — Another Michelin-starred pick with a €60 asparagus appetizer. Luxury asparagus.
Casino de Monte-Carlo — I’ve never actually been inside here because casino’s give me nausea but the outside is iconic and usually has cool cars parked out front if you’re into that (I assume they are cool because they are usually surrounded by middle age European men taking photo’s of them). Have coffee at the plaza of Cafe de Paris next door.
Larvotto Beach — I am never here during beach weather that would be comfortable for an American, but anything above 50° F and the Europeans are out in full swing. And they’re in speedo’s.
Saint Nicholas Cathedral
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild — If you are in Monaco more than one day, this is a nice day trip.
Walk around Le Rocher (old Monaco)
Oceanographic Museum — This is my favorite “activity” in Monte Carlo. It’s a cool mixture of a small aquarium and historical museum.
Monaco Cathedral — The resting place of Princess Grace aka Grace Kelly aka the muse of Hermes’ Kelly bag. A holy site of fashion exclusivity if you will.
Princes Palace of Monaco
Musée d’Anthropologie Préhistorique — Also visit the Exotic Garden next door.
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco
Jardin Exotique de Monaco — Gorgeous collection of succulent plants.
Monte Carlo Masters & Monaco Grand Prix — Season-permitting, wallet draining. Basically the nirvana’s of attending a live sporting event.
My trip to Monte Carlo last year was my first understanding as to why people gatekeep. I had made a TikTok documenting my experience vintage shopping which is now sitting at 5.4 million views, and has thus made the store selections there significantly more sparse (I only know this because one of the store owners dm’ed me after the video went live that her stock was nearly cleared out after the 2024 Monaco GP).
Monaco’s residents are incredibly wealthy, 1 in 3 people are millionaires, and therefore there are a lot of rich women who are able to consistently offload their hoards of designer goods. Admittedly, I usually don’t have the patience or energy to sift through vintage stores to find something decent—but each of these stores were filled to the brim with amazing shoes, bags, jackets, belts, and everything in between that were reasonably priced (especially if you are used to getting swindled by mid-tier viral vintage stores in NYC or Paris). If my haul from that day was a concert tour, this one was era’s-level and I left that trip with an extra suitcase.
Le Dressing (two locations near each other) — this is where I hit the jackpot
The Queen Bee
Vintage Store Monaco
Monte-Carlo Antiquités
Monte Carlo, 2007 — For the same rapture as watching Crazy Rich Asians while on a flight to Singapore.
To Catch A Thief, 1955 — The year this Hitchcock released, Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier III of Monaco at the Cannes Film festival. She starred in two more films the following year, and then left acting to focus on her royal duties. People seem to have feelings about this but if I married a prince I would also probably refuse to ever work again and just enjoy royally existing.
Casino Royale, 2006 — I felt I had to include this but truthfully had never seen a James Bond movie until yesterday when I rented this on Amazon Prime.
The Rich Have Feelings, Too | Vanity Fair, 2009 — A satirical piece by Tom Wolfe on how the rich experience travel. I would say that the White Lotus is the modern day fiction of “wealthy people are ridiculous,” although Mike White admitted that he studied the cast of Southern Charm to create the Ratliff family. Modern historical fiction, if you will.
I am not a travel expert, I just happen to travel a lot! Feel free to leave advice, criticism, or tips below. ♡