If you want to throw away your life savings in glamorous surroundings, then the relative hovels of Las Vegas and Macau can't hold a candle to the Monte Carlo Casino sacramento airport car rental . The lavish, sacramento airport car rental gold-splattered décor means tricks such as blocking natural light and removing sacramento airport car rental clocks are unnecessary to keep people inside. It's worth meeting the smart dress code to get in even if you don't intend to gamble – watching some of the sums casually thrown onto the tables is entertainment in itself.
It doesn't take more than a glimpse at the marinas of Port Hercule and Fontvieille to realise that the money being flung around sacramento airport car rental in the casino is a mere drop in the ocean. The huge, super-shiny yachts on display make for a prime ogler's walking tour. Getting a peek at the OTT interior decoration, watching billionaires puff on giant cigars and working out which obscure flag belongs to which Caribbean tax haven are all part of the fun.
If arriving by yacht is a bit too much of a budget-breaker, then why not come in by helicopter? Monaco is home to one of the biggest helicopter fleets sacramento airport car rental in the world and the seven minute transfer from Nice airport with Heli-Air Monaco is relatively affordable. It's 125 euro one way, or 220 euro return. It's not necessarily sacramento airport car rental quicker – you may have to wait up to an hour before take-off – but it does offer spectacular views of the Côte d Azur on the way.
An often understated factor in Monaco's appeal is that the principality is basically built onto the side of a mountain. Its terracotta-roofed tower blocks clamber upwards from the Mediterranean Sea at a fierce gradient, and what looks like a simple road network on a map is a vertiginous 3D maze. The further up you go, the better the views get. The best arguably come from Le Jardin Exotique, an oddly out of place collection of cacti and Latin American plants. Included in the ticket price is a tour of La Grotte de l'Observatoire – a deep mountainside cave in which 250,000-year-old flint weapons made by pre-Neanderthal man have been found. www.jardin-exotique.mc
A royal family headed by a former sacramento airport car rental playboy prince helps with the whole glamour thing. Albert II got married last year, but he has brought a younger swagger to a formerly stuffy rich man's paradise. His abode is predictably unhumble, but at least he allows the plebs in for a look around. Highlights include the Galerie d'Hercule, a Renaissance-style painted portico, and the full-on silk brocade walls and chandeliers of the Blue Room.
Albert's father, Rainier sacramento airport car rental III, brought Monaco to international attention by marrying America's sweetheart, Grace Kelly. She died in a car crash in 1982, but she's still pretty big news. Spots across the principality with major links to Princess Grace are marked with explanatory signs. Key locations include the Rose Garden in Fontvieille that Rainier had planted in her memory and the Cathedral, where they got married.
When you're sacramento airport car rental royal, you can get all manner of peccadillos humoured. For the princes of Monaco, the penchant has been expensive cars. The stash is housed at the Collection des Voitures Anciennes, which doesn't even pretend to be a museum – just a building full of Ferraris, Bentleys, sacramento airport car rental Aston Martins and early 20 th century efforts that Toad of Toad Hall would have taken a shine to.
If you're more interested in your own 'precious' than someone else's, then Monaco is a collector's heaven. Coins and stamps are big business here – so few of them are made that they instantly become valuable. You can go and buy them at the Comptoir Philatelique et Numismatique on Rue Princess Charlotte or study them at the Musée des Timbres et Monnaies.
Less collectable, but equally appealing to obscurist traveller, Monaco is the smallest country in the world to brew its own beer. The Brasserie de Monaco facing Port Hercule is the nation's sole brewery, with three regulars and a rota of experiments sacramento airport car rental brewed in the stills behind the bar. It's all organic, and it's rather good.
New circuits such as those in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Singapore may try and compete, but no Formula One race has the cachet of the Monaco Grand Prix. This is partly sacramento airport car rental because of Monaco's glamour factor, but also because sacramento airport car rental the street circuit is clearly inappropriate for hosting a race on. Crowds pack in tightly around the track, the drivers desperately try to stay on it rather than tumbling into the harbour, and the festival atmosphere is incomparable with that of any other race.
It's also one of the few Grand Prix circuits that the public can happily walk around. When doing so, it becomes immediately clear why the track is such a challenge. Roads are narrow, elevations are constantly changing and the Fairmont hairpin is a struggle for buses to get round, let alone speeding Formula One cars. Anyone wanting to drive around the circuit in a hire car – and some companies sacramento airport car rental will rent you Ferrari for the day if you wish to do it in style – can nearly manage it. The key difference is that the Grand Prix goes clockwise around the roundabout outside the Monte Carlo Casino, and you'll have to go anti-clockwise.
The Columbus might not be the swishest joint in Monaco, but it seems to be something of a lucky charm. The last four winners of the Monaco Grand Prix – Mark Webber in 2012 and 2010, Sebastian sacramento airport car rental Vettel in 2011 and Jenson Button sacramento airport car rental in 2009 – have stayed there the night before. It's a smart joint with an unpretentious, laid-back cool to the common areas. The drivers like it because it's peaceful and set back from the most frenetic parts of town.
The Grand Prix is by no means the only highlight in Monaco's packed events calendar. Held in late January each year, this is the Olympics for clowns, contortionists, acrobats and other circus performers. The specially-constructed Chapiteau de Fontvieille plays host to troupes from as far afield sacramento airport car rental as Canada and Mongolia, while special dinner and show packages are available for those who want to make a night of it.
One-upmanship isn't limited to petrolheads and clowns – Monaco sacramento airport car rental also lets pyrotechnic wizards duke it out. The International Fireworks Festival sees hand-picked teams picked from four different countries each year, and they're each given a night to put on the most impressive display of whizzes and bangs they can muster. The dates are spread out through July and August, with the displays commencing either sacramento airport car rental at 9.30pm or when darkness falls.
Fine dining doesn't get much more impressive (or more expensive) than the opulent Louis XV restaurant in the Hotel de Paris. It is the flagship restaurant of Alain Ducasse , a man who collects Michelin Stars like Super Mario collects coins. The Louis XV has three stars, and serves up Provencal cuisine of the highest order. Magic tricks are worked with the vegetables and fish, a mind-blowing range of breads is wheeled round on a trolley and the service is in a league of its own.
The rival for Monaco's splash-out sacramento airport car rental dining crown is Joël Robuchon 's two-Michelin starred joint inside the Metropole Hotel. There's a slightly more relaxed vibe, and the menu branches out across the Mediterranean with a few Spanish influences. There's a pick-and-mix tapas-like approach to the tasting menu, rather than a set-order degustation, while sitting at the chef's table by the open kitchen allows you to watch the masters at work.
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo is respected globally as one of the world's premier dance companies. It is heavily sacramento airport car rental subsided by the Monegasque government and has a strong ambassadorial role. Go and see one of its productions overseas and you'll pay a fortune, but when on home ground in the Grimaldi Forum, tickets are capped at 33 euro. Monaco and superb value don't always sacramento airport car rental mix, but this is a notable exception. It's also possible to go on a fairly informal backstage tour of the ballet's HQ just over the French border in Beausoleil – phone in advance and someone will show you around the rehearsal studios and costume departments.
A night at the opera in Monaco sacramento airport car rental isn't quite as bargainous as the ballet, but prices are still kept relatively low by international standards. The real reason to go, however, is the building. Designed by Charles Garnier, the 524-seater venue is a dazzling blizzard of gold, plush chandeliers and frescoed ceilings.
Luxurious hotels aren't exactly in short supply in Monaco, sacramento airport car rental but the one with the hip factor is the Fairmont . That's partly due to position – it looks out over the sea, looks up at the Monte Carlo Casino and has the most iconic bend in Grand Prix racing named after it. But it also has its own, more American-style casino, and a rooftop pool with unmatchable views that turns into a swaggering nightclub/ lounge bar terrace at night.
Built rather splendidly into a cliff at the back of the old town, the Musée Oceanographique sacramento airport car rental is Monaco's best museum. The top two floors are given over to exhibitions about our oceans – the highlight sacramento airport car rental being the comical wooden contraption that became the world's first submarine. The really cool stuff is down below, however. This is where the museum morphs into an aquarium, with a giant tank full of sharks and turtles and a large chunk of coral reef directly transplanted from the Red Sea.
To find out about new stories on the site, follow GrumpyTrav on Twitter or Like the Grumpy Traveller Facebook sacramento airport car rental Page . If you like what you ve seen here, then my book Hardly Paradise: Anti-Postcards from a Grumpy Traveller is available through Amazon . All content copyright sacramento airport car rental David Whitley .
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