Just starting to plan the year and my wife hits me with, "Want to go to Monaco for the Grand Prix this year?" HELLYESHOLYCRAPAREYOUKIDDING????!!!?? Talk about one of my dreams! So I've read some of the older threads about staying in Nice and taking the train, tips for getting seats (I like the cafe idea), and so on. We looked at GP Tours but I might prefer to travel on my own too. We don't speak much French at all, but I'll learn as much as possible if this works out. We'd love to travel over a few days early and do non-GP tourist stuff, hit Monaco on Saturday and Sunday, and then do a few more days of non-GP stuff. Anyone got a "Monaco GP for Dummies" they want to share? I've seen someone say they budget 10k each person for the week, but that's just not possible for me. I'm a regular guy with a dream. So can it be done reasonably?
One tip: Go a week early and attend the Grand Prix Historique and take seats on grand stand K. VERY affordable and 10 x more fun than the "real" GP. When we go, we usually stay east of Imperia, Italy which is about an hour by train from Monaco (direct connection). I like it there, there are no crowds related to the GP, beautiful scenery and costs like zilch for a 3 room appartment for a week at a few hundred yards from the beach. Gives you ample time to visit all you want, relax and do whatever you want.
I stayed in Cannes, don't remember the name of the hotel, but it was nice and reasonable. And there was a topless beach nearby. I sat in the top row of stand K, could see the Mediterrenean, the swimming pool, and with a little bit of straining, a portion fo the front straight. You must find a restaurant called "Le Texan". Photos of John Wayne, Coors Lite, and refried bean tacos. A Grimaldi has something to do with that place. Its usually a boring race, but the most incredible setting. And you have to say you did it once.
Monaco has to be one of the races that a true F-1 junkey has to do in their life, but if you are not a guest of a sponsor... it can be a bit lonely... You really cant see much of the track, and if you want to be super cheap buy a race day ticket, and pay $25 - $50 for a seat on the rocks "Les Rocher Des Plouces" - other wise you should plump up for GP tours... otherwise it will be really confusing... if you want to go it alone... the hotel Ibis in Menton is ok, but very basic.... ( cheap ) or you can stay in Cannes... taking the train is a good idea, but on race day the station is very crazy...if you want to drive you could look for a place up in the hills on the "route Napoleon... towards Grasse... its about a 35 - 40 minute trip and take the bus down each day... I think Cap Menton is the station. If you stay in Italy, it really is along way each day... I would stay in Cannes or Nice... you can find plenty of cheap hotels if you stay up in the hills or on the north west side... take the bus to the station and 35 min later you are there. I think there is also a chopper service from Nice for like $200 each way which sounds crazy but for race day ... may be the best... and you will never believe who you will meet while waiting... over race weekend it leaves from the sporting club, and the Heliport....I think the botanical gardens are used also... you can be at Nice airport in 10 minutes! and take the train to Paris the same day... you arrive in Paris at 8:25 pm... not a bad deal. I've been 4-5 times, and have gone the hi hog... and cheap way... the best time I had was got there Wednesday night at midnight... ate at Chez Florio ( litte hole in wall joint - Mussles and Steak frites vin Rose... Yummy! ) slept on the piers in the harbor, woke up at 8 am and walked up to the sporting club to take a shower, and strolled the paddock for about 3 hours ... had breakfast with Liger, and finally got kicked out about 20 min before Practice. Did all this for free!!! my ticket was on the Start fininsh tribune... across from Princess Caroline... Monaco is amazing for how small and tight it is... Take lots of photos... if it was not for the race it would just be an other french seaside town... P.S. stay away from the casino... nothing but a rip off.... but do have dinner at Louis XVI... very good.
stay in nice. its very easy to get an inexpensive (2 star) hotel if you do a liitle searching on line. if possible go the week before to see the historics run. take the train back and forth. go to cafe grand prix on thurs. for practice great food, great view not too pricey. you can call them on the phone to get tickets. rent a car for qualy and race day though. on friday recon a good viewing spot if you sit on the covered hedges on the road up to the palace you have to get there early like 3-4 am. by driving you can beat the first train. tickets are cheap i think we payed like $40. if you do your home work early enough( like now) you should be able to do it quite affordably. no more than a week in vegas.
Wow, lots of great information. This is the race I've dreamed of attending, not just for the race but the setting, experience, everything. I'll have my wife with me so sleeping on the pier isn't really an option. Actually she was looking at one of the GP Tours packages where you sleep on a yacht in the harbor and it really wasn't too pricey considering. If we attend the historics the week before, we'll have to do the race on the cheap, so it looks like out of town and a train ride. I really like the idea of Italy, take some time to see other things at the same time. Jack got any direct recommendations? The train ride doesn't bother me and for race day we'll be going early anyway. I'll study French as much as I can, but is it difficult if you don't speak much? I can say "I'm sorry, I don't speak French" with a pretty decent accent and that got me by pretty well last time I was in Paris. People were very friendly as long as I made the attempt.
I would not worry about speaking French just for Monaco... Everybody speaks english... sometimes better than we do! Learn Merci ( thank you) , si vous plait ( Please), Je Veux prendre....un ( I would Like to have...a ) - important in a restaurant and bar... and Parlez Vous Francais...its important not to use tu... always use Vous... the French on the Med... are not as prickly as they are in Paris... Monaco is full of tourist, so you just need to beware of all the ususal tourist scams... this also goes for Nice and Cannes... matter of fact for all of the Riveira... watch out for pickpockets on the train from Italy... from Monaco to The Modena is only about 6 hour car ride.. over some of the best mountain roads ...or you can take the Cost de sole... to Genoa and turn inland...have a nice time
The train that runs along the coast makes it incredibly simple (and quick) to get to and from Monaco without having to find and pay for somewhere to park. My advice is to head down to the public beach and chill for an hour or three after the race, it lets the foot traffic at the station die down somewhat, and it's one of the only F1 tracks where you can be at the beach within 3 minutes! Stars and Bars, by the harbour, is a nice place to go grab a bite to eat in the days leading up to the race, and if you're in the area and are catering for yourself, the Carrefour in Fontvielle is a good place to see the teams buying all their food.
Jon makes some good points, but be sure to allow ample time to train in to town on race day, as the trains fill up fast and early. It really does make sense to wait out the crowds before taking a train out after the race. I stay in MC, but always marvel at the human and vehicular traffic that clogs the streets for hours afterwards- grab a beer and/or meal before heading out and let the crowds subside.
One thing very important : this year (like 2005 BTW), the Festival de Cannes ended the same week than the Monaco GP : Believe me, there will be 2 x more Ferrari and other exotic cars in the Monaco's streets. To give you appetite : http://community.webshots.com/user/lemans67 I will be there this year, from thursday : if you see a crazy guy just behind a Ferrari on a red/yellow bike with a camera in one hand, it's me !!
Mark, I'll dig up the contact details of the apartment building guy where we always stay. The guy probably spends the winter in Milano again and I have no idea if he reads his email during the winter (probably does though). Don't expect any high standards, it's pretty basic but with a price to match. The guy is great and something of a carnut himself. When I showed up there the first time (had booked the apt. through an agency) he was already waiting outside the building as he had heard "a particular car" driving up the hill (my 1964 Fiat 2300S coupe). I had not taken a garage as according to the agency, there weren't any free ones. When he saw the car, he immediately yelled that such a car should be garaged and yanked out his BMW motorcycle to clear a garage box for the Fiat. Needless to say that that was a "gift of the house" so we got that garage for free for the full three weeks that we stayed there. When I call him up for lodging, I just need to say "Hello Edo, it's Jack Fiat" and he knows who I am... LOL! The train ride is an event by itself as it is VERY scenic, sometimes you have the sea at a couple of feet from the train on the left (riding towards Monaco i.e.) and a huge mountain face going straight up on the right, also at a couple of feet from the train. It runs along the old Roman SS1 "Via Aurelia" which is basically the coastal road from Genoa to France and after which the Lancia Aurelia was named. My main reason for taking the train though is not having to worry about where to park your car in Monaco. I remember having to walk for miles because there simply wasn't a single free spot left closer by. Don't worry too much about speaking French. Most people (and that includes the apartment building guy) do speak English as all the others have outlined, you just have to make do with the accents which can be very funny. Just watch a couple of Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers and you'll get the idea... The advice to "chill" for a couple of hours after the race is a good one as the trains are VERY crowded going out of Monaco right after the race. Use that time to chill or soak up the atmosphere which is great. Personally I like the Historic GP better than the "real" one as the latter is usually pretty boring as there is so little room for overtaking plus in the Historic you'll see some amazing driving in vintage machines and an open paddock so ample opportunity to take pictures and talk to the owners / drivers and admire the machinery. The Historic is a bi-annual event so if you like historic racing, your timing couldn't be better. If you are on a tight budget, the idea of taking a "seat" on the "Rocher" or Rock is the best. Priced reasonably and to be honest... you see more of the track than anybody on the grandstands as you overlook the harbor... You also have view on a couple of the ultra large TV screens so bring you binoculars! The Rock does have a couple of downsides though. 1) The seating is free so be there early! At 6 AM the best spots are taken already, by 7 AM the crowds flow in, by 8 AM you'll have a hard time finding a spot at all... 2) You sit on the ground (soil) so take some cushions or whatever to make it somewhat comfortable. 3) If it rains, you sit in the mud... 4) It's quite steep and can be quite a climb plus the steepness does have its effect on the stability of your seating... 5) You are further away from the track than anybody else (both vertical as well as horizontal). I Googled for a couple of pictures so that you can see the "seating arrangement" and view from the rock. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.balaam/Rocher.jpg http://www.bestofvip.com/monaco-grand-prix-f1/place-tribune/photos-tribunes/tribune-t-l-k.jpg The second picture also shows the K grandstand (very near the Tobacconist's corner) which I would advise for the Historic GP. To give you an idea of pricing for the various seats (just Googled it and did no real searching for the lowest price): Sunday (raceday) Rock: 81 Euro's / 98 US$ Low on Grandstand K: 474 Euro's / 574 US$ High on Grandstand K: 552 Euro's / 668 US$ (also found a site which sells the Low K tickets at a staggering GBP 820 or US$ 1447 (!) so shopping for tickets DOES pay off!) Prices are PER TICKET of course. If you're willing to pay the money for it, take K. It has the best view of any of the grandstands as you can see the cars coming out of the chicane right after the tunnel, they'll come speeding towards you, turn left right in front of your nose and you see them take off into the swimming pool chicane. Most of the other grandstands are VERY close to the track and we got free tickets a couple of years ago for the grandstand right after the swimming pool chicane and all we did for the duration of the race was watching F1 cars popping up out of nowhere (you couldn't look into the chicane), speeding by at 10 feet away for 1.5 seconds and disappearing into the Rascasse turn during which time you brain was struggling to figure out whom that was that just sped by and if he had changed position since the last time that you saw him... but heck! the tickets were free! ;-) This picture gives a panoramic view from the top of K. http://www.bestofvip.com/monaco-grand-prix-f1/place-tribune/photos-tribunes/K-780.jpg This is the view that we had with our free tickets: http://www.bestofvip.com/monaco-grand-prix-f1/place-tribune/photos-tribunes/T-780.jpg Food & drinks. A lot can be said about that and many advice's have already been giving. I usually just sit on a terrace drinking a beer and watching the amazing array of fans that roam the streets of Monaco and eat in Italy. For my taste the restaurants on race day are WAY too crowded but that is just my personal view. I'll PM you the details of the apt. guy.
I'll give the appartment guy some free advertising... ;-) http://www.residenceorchidea.com/uk/index.html Telephone numbers etc are on the website. If you call them, make sure that you talk to Edo.
Note that when Jack says seating on the Rocher is "free", he means "open", necessitating that early arrival he mentions- they're far from "free" in a monetary sense, but much cheaper than good grandstand seats. IMHO, since I'm coming from the US it's worth my while to spring for good (grandstand K) seats, but if you're on a budget they may be too pricey. Ira (GP de Monaco attendee each year since '92)
That's indeed what I mean, "open", not covered (see picture link), not pre-arrangend etc. Fight for your right for seating there!
we always sit on the rocher or the road up the hill to the old town where the palace is. true you must get there early which is why we rent a car for sat and sun and drive over. we get there like 3 am and haven't had a problem with parking or finding our spot. there is a hedge on the left side of the road going uphill that they cover with a steel cage and plywood top. we put our folding chairs up there and relax in the shade. the spot we use is about 20 yards up the road from a small vendor stand. from where we sat we could see the cars leave the tunnel, go through the chichane, down thru tabac, round the pool and into rasscase where we lost them but again onto the front straight. we could also see into the ferrari pits ( guess not this year though) albiet through binoculars. across the harbour is a BIG screen that was also viewable with binocs. if you will be there for the historics you'll be able to find a perfect spot. a seat in the grandstand is expensive, crowded and hot. opt out for the thursday in the cafe grand prix formerly La Raccasse. a/c, cold champange, great food, big screens and inches from the cars and sit on the hill for race day. i think i'm talking myself into going again.
Jack, that's great info. Thank you very much and it sounds like exactly what I want. Any time I visit any race, I rarely sit in the grandstands because it's crowded, uncomfortable and hot. This is it! I'll be making some calls in the next few days and hopefully will start getting the arrangements made. There is a budget, but it's not a shoestring so we can do some nice things, but I'd much rather have an experience than being directed through on a tour.
the last time we were there on thursday practice at the grand prix restaurant when the f1 cars left the track so did all the gp tour folks. we stayed for the rest of the afternoon eating and drinking and watching the rest of the support activities. the only tour they offer that looks good is the itailian gp trip with phil hill. that seems worth the price. monaco seems a liitle pricey for what you get.
I haven't been there each year, but nevertheless I've been there quite some times too ! As you know, it was great that we met back in 1999 (and then each year til 2002). Haven't been there for 4 years, but this year I will finally return, including the Historic Grand Prix! So, Ira and Cyril too: let's have a nice meet in Monaco this year! Grtx, Edvar And for galleries of my visit to Monaco in 2002 (also incl. Historic GP): http://community.webshots.com/album/65667955xNiPKN http://community.webshots.com/album/65664705EDsjMV http://community.webshots.com/album/65750874VZgExj http://community.webshots.com/album/65662432XjdzqG And for 2003 (made by my brother Arvid): http://community.webshots.com/album/75665578agPeIe
Hi Edvar, When's the Monaco GP? Same weekend as the Historic version? Maybe I'll go too, if work permits me. Mille Miglia is probably out of the question this year and so is Goodwood Ciao, Peter
Hi Peter! The Grand Prix Historique de Monaco is May 20th - 21st 2006. The Formule One Grand Prix de Monaco is May 25th - 28th 2006. I will go there with Arvid. The week in between we would like to spend in Italy (one day Maranello and probably some nature/culture/photography days close to Maranello). Maybe we can arrange something together. See you next weekend at the FCN Annual meeting?? EDIT: See www.acm.mc for more details about the races, including information about tickets ...
Edvar- Just back from Cavallino, and looking forward to seeing you (and Arvid?) at Monaco in May. Ira
