A Dirtcheap Backpacker’s Guide to Monaco

A Dirtcheap Backpacker’s Guide to Monaco

What does a backpacker do when he/she visits a country which has the highest GDP per capita? What does he/she do in a country known only for its gambling business boasting the casino for which to enter one has to dress like James Bond or his girls?

Easy. He/she stays in France, sleeps in French beds, and takes a 1-euro-fare bus to Monaco for a day trip.

Taking the 1-euro bus ride from the French Riviera to Monaco is a travel experience on its own. The bus takes you through some of the most beautiful coastline views in the world.

If you’re a backpacker, chances are you did or will do all of the above. You don’t have the kind of income that needs to be wired off to hide in Monaco’s treasury. You might gamble in the Grand Casino, but you might not stay in the hotel offered by them. Just because you entertained the idea of entering Monaco’s famous casino doesn’t mean you will do it. Instead, to save the entrance fee and the effort of dressing up, you decide that the second-class American casino next door will do justice.

Monte Carlo casino

The American casino

What else?

You prepare your ham baguette lunch bought from stores back in France’s territory and will join a growing list of tourists who pack their own food and now having lunch in the garden across from the casino.

You won’t miss out on your quest to sample local cuisine. The truth is that Monaco is diplomatically Monaco but culturally France. There is no point to blow up your meager budget on Monegasque food when you can eat French food across the border in the French Riviera.

Monaco is so small that you can see a lot of sights in one day just by walking.

Walk around the streets of Monaco-Ville (Old Town), a medieval village that consists of mainly pedestrian streets and passageways, and see the Prince’s Palace, the Cathedral, the Oceanographic Museum, the City Hall, and the Saint Martin Gardens.

See the Circuit de Monaco that hosts the annual Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. If you’re lucky, you might see an actual car race too.

A car race

To control the impulse on spending the night in Monaco, you can tell yourself that “I can always come back tomorrow because the bus costs only 1 euro.”

Think French while in Monaco.  For once the French and I have something in common. That’s all I have to say. If you follow this backpacker’s guide to Monaco, the country can’t be any cheaper.

Monaco photos

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Fun facts about Monaco

• Monaco needs more space than only what necessary for the Pope. It is the second smallest country and most densely populated in the world.
• It is a city-state country where people live in one municipality.
• Monaco sits on the French Riviera, geographically part of France and defended by the French army.
• It collects no income tax and has the world’s highest GDP per capita.
• Out of 33000 people living in Monaco, 80% of Monaco’s residents are foreigners who flock here for the apparent tax-haven reason.
• Famous for Monte Carlo and its casino industry, yet it is illegal for Monaco’s residents to gamble in their own casinos. Why? Perhaps to make sure that only foreigners are in it for their ruin.
• To get into the Grand Casino, you must observe the strictly enforced formal dress code: no t-shirt, blue jeans, flip-flop or tennis shoes. Consolation prize: if you fail the dress code here, you can only go to the casual American casino nearby.
• Prince Albert is half-American. His mother is the late American actress, Grace Kelly.
• The Grimaldi family has ruled Monaco for more than 700 years, the longest continuously ruling family in Europe and probably the 2nd longest in the world after Japan’s imperial family.
• Prince Albert’s bride isn’t only a looker; she is a former Olympian from South Africa.