We only had one full day in Monaco and wanted to make the most of it.
As I alluded to in the last post, our accommodations were… dated. We were staying in an older building, and the kids’ bed (a pull-out couch) wasn’t going to win any awards for comfort.
The views were spectacular, though!
Starting the downward climb; this was the first of many, many flights of stairs we’d tackle that day.
We did manage to find one elevator on the way down. I’m fairly certain it was the only time the kids took an elevator while we were in Monaco. Apparently there are just under 100 public elevators (and over 30 escalators) scattered throughout the city. They’re built into cliffs and buildings to help people deal with so much vertical terrain, but they were either out of our way or impossible to find.
In the interest of transparency you should know that our day did not start particularly well. As soon as we left the apartment you could tell everything was slightly off-kilter.
My confidence was bolstered a bit by the fact that I had a plan for the morning, including a specific breakfast stop. (I tend to “wing it” when it comes to food while traveling, so this was unusual for me.)
Unfortunately, when we got to the cafe, THE COFFEE MACHINE WAS BROKEN. The horror. We were all counting on coffee and hot chocolate. They told us it would be fixed in 15–20 minutes, so we grabbed some pastries and waited for liquid emotional support.
To be fair, the pastries were incredible and it was easily the best pain au chocolat I’ve ever had (from a little spot called Art Cafe in the train station). But emotionally it was a tough stretch.
While we were sitting there, we ended up unpacking everyone’s feelings. One kid was really missing home and feeling hurt by a friendship situation. By the end of the conversation, two out of four members of the family were in tears (hint: both were female).
In the moment, it felt pretty heavy but it cleared the proverbial air.
Like a good rainstorm, everything felt fresher afterward. We got to the bottom of some lingering mood challenges, and while none of us would have chosen to start the day that way, the hugs at the end felt redemptive.
Looking back, that emotional reset was a turning point for me on the whole road trip. It wasn’t one single issue, just an accumulation: lack of sleep, sadness over leaving Vienna (which had started to feel like home), homesickness (for Canada), weather changes (cold/hot; foggy/sunny), travel fatigue, mismatched expectations. It had all built up, and we needed that release.
With dry eyes and improved mental states, we headed out again. On the way, we passed Marche de La Condamine, which I’d originally planned to visit later. Since breakfast hadn’t gone as expected, we pivoted and grabbed brunch at the market.
And it was delicious!
I got a chicken shawarma, the kids got burgers, and John found a little grocery store nearby and came back with a handful of the most incredible clementines and a giant bottle of water. We sat, ate, and people-watched.
The kids were worried we wouldn’t find any arches for their photos, so we grabbed these shots just in case. I’ll have to do a roundup of statue poses at the end of our trip. We haven’t managed to capture them in every country, but it’s definitely adding up to a respectable number!
Next, we climbed up to “The Rock” (Le Rocher), which is the historic heart of Monaco that juts out into the Mediterranean.
We passed the Prince’s Palace which is home to the Grimaldi family. They’ve ruled Monaco for over 700 years!!! If you time it right, you can catch the changing of the guard at 11:55 am. I’d originally planned to fit this in, but we ended up missing it which was no big deal.
We grabbed a few souvenirs; Indy collects snow globes and so we said he could get one on the trip. He chose to pick one from Monaco—it’s a race car with a snow globe on top. Both kids also got slot-machine key chains that actually work, in a nod to the famous casino.
From this vantage, you get incredible views over Port Hercule, Monaco’s main harbour. It’s lined with enormous superyachts, owned by royalty, tech moguls, celebrities, and anyone else with a lot of money to fritter away. It’s also the central hub for the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the most famous (and glamorous) races in Formula 1, and our personal favourite to watch on TV. Seeing the grandstands and starting grid being set up in real life was so cool.
The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate, where Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III, is also on The Rock. (They’re both interred inside the church, too.)
We passed the famous Oceanographic Museum, dramatically built into the side of a cliff, but decided to skip it this time.
But we did stop at the viewpoint overlooking Port Fontvieille. Gorgeous!!!
This statue, called The Cloak of Conscience, was so cool! It’s carved out of a single piece of marble.
At one point, we ended up near a public bathroom with a giant sign saying they were free, but inside there was a woman cleaning who was clearly expecting tips. I usually carried cash, but had zero with me at the time.
After using the bathroom, as I went to leave (feeling stressed and self conscious), she yelled after me in French. I’m not great at translating, especially when someone is talking aggressively at a fast pace, but her tone said it all.
The bathrooms were free! I had no cash! But the whole situation was so awkward and unsettling.
Gah.
I had to reset my emotions yet again…
From there, we made our way toward Fort Antoine. It has a great view over the harbour and zero crowds.
The kids were thrilled to sit down, and we entertained ourselves taking ridiculous perspective photos. (For the record, John approved me publishing these shots.)
I was DYING of laughter at the ones of Indy picking his butt.
Indy has eagle eyes for screws on the ground and he’s always so concerned a car will go over them and get a flat tire. Here he is picking up yet another screw! There are many strangers in the world that have Indy to thank for their intact tires 🙂
We walked down toward the marina and wandered along a big chunk of the Grand Prix circuit itself. If you’re even mildly interested in Formula 1, this is so cool. The race happens on city streets, and we were walking on them which felt totally surreal.
The 2026 race is happening in early June so preparations were in full swing.
We wanted to get to the main beach (Larvotto) on the outskirts of the city. The easiest way to get there was via a tunnel (which also happens to be part of the F1 circuit).
It was hot and we were so thirsty. We came across a convenience store in the tunnel. Usually, I’d opt for water, but this time I grabbed a Coke Zero and it was one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Not only did it quench my thirst, but that little hit of caffeine helped propel me through the rest of the day. Also, the shade of the tunnel felt AMAZING after the unrelenting heat and sunshine.
En route we stopped at the famous Fairmont Hairpin outside the Fairmont Hotel, which they claim is the “world’s most famous bend.” It’s definitely the most famous corner in Formula 1. While we were sitting there watching traffic navigate the turn, we’re 90% sure we spotted another driver (Fernando Alonso) drive past in an Aston Martin. SO COOL!!!
From there, we headed to the beach. Larvotto is Monaco’s main public beach and it was undergoing some pretty extensive “renovations.”
We weren’t exactly prepared for a beach day, but Indy and I decided to at least put our feet in the Mediterranean. Belle and John stayed back in the shade with our shoes.
It was early April but HOT. The water was cool, but Indy kept going deeper and deeper, and eventually asked if he could swim.
I knew what that meant… a wet kid for the rest of the day. But I also realized I’d likely never be back at a beach in Monaco with him.
So I said yes!
It was absolutely the right call. He swam, did handstands, and had such a great time!
Eventually, we made our way back to the downtown core (spotting several fancy cars along the way), climbed 100s of stairs to get back to our apartment, got Indy to shower, fed the kids, and then John and I headed back out for a twilight walk.
Monaco at night is a completely different experience. Cooler, quieter, and it was almost eerily empty. It felt like we had the city (country?!) to ourselves.
This was the back of the casino (not a single person in sight).
The colourful roof of a building on the waterfront.
There are so many sculptures in Monaco!
We retraced most of our route from earlier in the day, but definitely walked faster (no kids in tow, no crowds, and a better sense of direction). This part of the F1 track was empty.
The yachts in Port Hercule looked even more impressive at night. These things are huge, and the one I’m standing by was not even close to being the biggest.
Where’s an “h” when you need one?
We went back to all the same viewpoints we had visited in the afternoon, but this time they were ALL empty.
We stayed at Fort Antoine for a while and watched the sky change colour.
This statue looked even cooler at night!
As did the cathedral.
Port Fontvieille.
The route we took to get off The Rock dropped us back to the same market where we ate lunch. I bought a salad, but John wasn’t overly hungry and opted to get a gelato. When he came out raving it was the best gelato he’d ever had in his life, I decided I had room for dessert, too.
OH MY GOODNESS.
The chocolate mint gelato was AMAZING. For anyone visiting Monaco, I admittedly only tried gelato at one place, but I would 1000% recommend Santo Gelato. It felt like the perfect end to an unforgettable evening.
Alas, what comes down has to go back up even though I had zero desire to climb another stair for the foreseeable future.
We went on a wild goose chase trying to find some escalators and elevators (no real luck, but did get a cool picture of a seemingly endless moving sidewalk).
One stair at a time we tackled the climb and eventually got back to our apartment tired, but very satisfied.
Your turn.
- Does a “good cry” usually help you reset your mood?
- What’s your favourite flavour of gelato? I think it’s impossible to beat a delicious scoop of chocolate mint.
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Such a great read and your photos are amazing! I especially loved the views overlooking Port Fontvieille, absolutely gorgeous.
Monaco really delivered the full experience… stairs, emotions, yachts, Formula 1, and gelato 😄
I can well imagine how that good cry helped reset things. Road trips are intense, and even more so when they’re part of a bigger trip away from home. And the image of all of you waiting for the coffee machine to be fixed like it was life support… only funny in hindsight!
Walking parts of the F1 circuit must have felt surreal. Indy must have been in heaven!! So glad you got to experience Monaco so fully!
Monaco was stunning! I can’t imagine battling the crowds and heat in the middle of the summer, but highly recommend a visit in mid-April.
I really needed to cry!
We stayed at the cafe for over an hour and the machine still wasn’t fixed. Argh.
It was so surreal to be walking on the track and I cannot wait until the race happens in a few weeks. It’s going to feel so much more real and exciting being familiar with the route and having walked it a little over a month before. That is one of the true joys of travel, is having things that are so far away from your normal life feel familiar and relatable.
That water is so blue! I think the stairs would cripple me, so no Monaco for me.
A good cry doesn’t necessarily make me feel better, but allows me to move on. I’m glad you guys could let some of those dammed up emotions out and still have a lovely day.
GAH COFFEE MACHINE BROKEN??????? That is a rough start to the day.
I’ve never had good gelato. I’ve just had “meh” and “it’s OK” gelato. Clearly I need to go to Monaco ASAP.
I know, right. When you go to a coffee shop you WANT COFFEE. Oh well. We survived and lived to tell (write) about it.
Oh, Birchie. Get yourself to Italy, STAT. Or Monaco. There is NOTHING like delicious gelato. And Italy (or close to Italy) is about the best you’re ever going to find.
This looks pretty spectacular. Monaco was one of the places I visited with my parents when I was 10. I bet this was a dream come true for Indi, though.
When the F1 is on in Melbourne, we can hear it from our house. The sound travels quite a distance depending on the wind, although we are only about 8K from the track. Albert Park is a great place to run, so we find the whole thing pretty disruptive. It seems like every year they take longer to clean everything up and dismantle all the fencing.
Indy loved it, and maybe John even more! Walking the F1 track was really, really cool.
Hmmmm. You might just have a visitor sometime. We would LOVE to see an F1 race and I didn’t realize you were so close to the Australian Grand Prix. We’re looking at all sorts of options for seeing a race.
I can only imagine how disruptive it is. In general, I try not to think about how horrible it all must be for the environment (shipping all those cars and people). To be fair, I feel the same way about music tours (e.g. Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour). But, living nearby I’m sure is a nightmare 🙁 That’s one of the nice things about Monaco. It’s a street circuit, so things like the main grandstands stay in place, so I suspect it’s much less disruptive.
Oh 100% a good sobfest helps turn everything around. I think it is like a release valve. Sometimes, when I am feeling particularly emotionally wired, I will put on a song that I know will make me cry – around Christmas, it’s White Wine in the Sun. This past week I had an absolute breakdown to Buy Dirt (I wrote about it in my blog) but that wasn’t exactly on purpose, as you shall see. Anyway, sometimes you just need the reset. I always feel better after a good solid sob.
A COFFEE SHOP HAD A BROKEN COFFEE MACHINE. That would probably make me have a breakdown. I am such a terrible addict!
That mint chocolate looks divine!
I know you would feel me on this, my friend.
I was nodding along to your blog post (and clapping for Rob deleting the song).
The coffee machine thing was the final straw that broke my back. I needed caffeine. But, it all worked out in the end.
This was really interesting, because Monaco is a place I’ve thought of probably zero times in my life. I mean I’ve heard of it, but wasn’t even sure where it was or if it was a city or country? As you’ve gathered by now, I’m not into F1 racing…. but now I’m kind of intrigued.
It sounds like the day was fun, after the rough start. Weirdly, I’m more of a cryer at happy occasions (weddings, graduations). I don’t usually get sadness or stress out by crying, which I’m realizing makes no sense. Maybe there’s something hooked up wrong in my brain.
A well-timed Coke Zero is a magical experience!!!
I sometimes cry over happy things, but not very often. Sometimes I FEEL so happy that I could cry, but the tears rarely actually come.
I don’t drink colas very often, but this was truly magical! I know you’ve had them after epic races before and I can only imagine how good it tastes.
What a wonderful day! What an exhausting day! You put your feet in the Mediterranean! Indy swam! A lot of F1 talk I don’t understand! All those stairs! Yachts for days! I think the biggest yachts we saw were in San Tropez, and they were not as big as the ones you show in Monaco. A good cry can be so therapeutic and constructive, especially if it comes with a good talk to get ones feelings out. Well done you. Expectations while traveling are tough…I’ve had meltdowns over expectations that I did not even know I had. (Eating in a restaurant that I last ate at with my mom, but didn’t happen and I was kind of heartbroken, but then we eventually got there and it had totally changed and it was all for the best but I didn’t know it ahead of time and gah.)
It was such an epic day! High highs (and a few lows).
Crying + talking is the winning combo for me. Usually there’s a bit of talking, then a good sob, and then a bit more talking.
Expectations are hard to manage at the best of time and when you’re on the go and out of routine, it becomes even more pronounced.
Loving your photos, learning about places, and as always, in awe of your family.
Are you keeping track of your steps? All you do is walk walk walk walk (and eat, of course, many treats, kind of envious here)
Now I want to look up gelato, to learn the difference between it and ice cream.
I know nothing about racing and am rather dumbstruck that a car race happens in town.
That statue has beautiful fabric folds but it looks creepy like the Grim Reaper.
I’m not keeping track of steps. It felt a bit too overwhelming!! Some days it’s a lot, and other days it’s almost none.
It IS so creepy, and I agree it looks like the Grim Reaper. The craftsmanship is also incredible; that someone can create a work of art out of a single chunk of marble just astounds me.
We often tell our study abroad students that if there’s a day/weekend/week where they feel overwhelmed/homesick/depressed, that’s completely normal! Eat ice cream in bed and wallow for a bit and then get back out there! You’re human, but human in a new place and it’s So Much to your system. So, if it makes you feel better, it’s completely normal!!
Engie, I NEEDED TO READ THIS COMMENT. The last couple of days have been so overwhelming for me here in Helsinki and I have had little to no energy, the kids are sick with fevers, and I just want to… I don’t even know what?
I have wallowed and it helped so much and I’m slowly feeling myself come back into mental alignment.
THIS DID MAKE ME FEEL SO MUCH BETTER.
Yes to a therapeutic cry! What a fun day, tho, after all. Did you get a sense of why the streets were empty at night? Were you in a downtown area that bustled during the day, but closed up in the evening?
I have no idea where everyone was in the evening. It was surreal how quiet things were… maybe everyone was at the casino? I suspect, too, that a lot of people stay outside of Monaco (in Nice, for example), so there is probably a pretty big exodus of tourists by early evening?
I can only imagine how the emotions build up on a trip like this! Glad you got a cathartic cry in and, by the sounds of it, a very cool day in Monaco!
It was… a lot. I’m so glad we had the cry early in the day which offered a reset so we could go onward and upward (literally).
I went on a day trip to Monaco many years ago when I went to Nice with a friend. I remember not enjoying all the cars, but I clearly need to give it another chance, for the gelato alone!
Crying can really help!
The gelato was amazing. I suspect all the stairs we’d climbed that day made the sugar taste even better, but the flavouring was so fresh and it was so creamy. I wish I could snap my fingers and go back and have it this very second.
Monica is such a pintoreque city! isn’t it even real?! hahah… my fav ice cream is mint with chocolate chunks, and Belgium chocolate.
a good run is usually what resets my mood the best and fastest.
Loving all your trip recaps, although haven’t commenting lately, I still follow them and feeling inspired to visit Europe soon again.
It looks like a fairytale!!! Especially the port areas.
Mint with chocolate is so refreshing.
Thanks for such kind words, Coco. I love reading all your trip recaps, too!!
I hate when I have one of those overly emotional days while I’m on a trip because I feel like I should be so much more grateful about getting to do something like travel! But also – we are not robots and emotions are very much a normal part of life, even while traveling. I’m glad things got better after a long talk and cathartic cry. <3
Monaco looks incredible! And what an insanely cool experience for Indy!
YES! I’m not a robot. Such a good reminder. I’m allowed to be human.
Monaco was beautiful.