Monaco - Visiting The Home Of F1 Street Racing!

Hello there!

Having completed my earlier travel posts on several interesting countries, such as Japan, Maldives, Indonesia and US, it's probably time to share about my recent Europe trip! If you are keen to find out which countries and cities I visited, you can read the quick summary here.

There is actually a back story behind this trip. My friend and I planned this trip a few years back and it was supposed to take place in Apr 2020, but as most of you would know, Covid 19 pandemic came and we had to cancel the trip due to all the travel restrictions and health advisories. So we planned for this trip in 2025 and it finally materialised!

Documenting all my entries for this 2025 Europe Trip:
Turkey - An Istanbul Adventure: From Blue Mosque to Bazaars
France - Exploring The Parisian Icons: Effiel Tower And Arc De Triomphe
France - Wandering Through Paris: The Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries
France - Strolling Through Paris: Notre Dame And The Seine
France - Climbing Montmartre: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur and Panoramic Views
France - Exploring Nice: Promenade des Anglais And City Strolls
France - Climbing Castle Hill: Breathtaking Views and Nice's Coastal Beauty

Of course, when one is at Nice, Monaco is a must visit! Monaco is actually just about an hour of train ride from Nice and it was a smooth train ride! It's nice that within these countries in the EU, there's not really the immigrations and we can just go from one country to another without stamping of passport. That's one interesting experience I realised.

Our first destination was Prince's Palace of Monaco, or better known as Palais princier de Monaco, and I thought with the help of Google Maps, it wouldn't be that difficult to navigate. But what hit me first was Monaco's terrain was so hilly!

There were so many slopes and stairs - what look like a small street to walk through turned out to be full flight of stairs! Lol!

We soon realised that it was the F1 season as well. We were about 2 weeks early but preparations were already in place, so there were quite a lot of road closures and diversions, which actually made our navigation more tricky. At times, we ended up on dead ends and had to uturn.

Finally we made our way to the "ground level" and there's so many boats and yachts here!

Saw some F1 posters as well!

The Prince's Palace of Monaco actually sits atop a hill and we realised that it did take some energy and strength to hike up, partly because we already went through numerous stairs and the weather was pretty warm as well. As we made our way, we got to admire some of the magnificent views of the Port Hercules as well.

As you can see, the terrain is quite hilly and uneven, which wasn't something I noticed when I was watching the F1 races on the streets via the TV.

Up and up we go!

There were some statues along the way as well.

Found this statue interesting, and did a Google search as well. It's François Grimaldi statue, a person which was disguised as a monk. The history is quite interesting to read, and if you are interested, you can definitely find it on the Internet or with AI tools.

Finally, the Prince's Palace of Monaco! Pretty grand as expected, but I would the views on his high ground were the highlight for me!

Here we go! Sharing the wonderful views of Monaco from the palace!

All in all, it was an intensive morning exercise for me, not just because of the amount of walking, but also because the terrain is quite uneven. Walking 10000 steps on level ground versus ups and downs is very different. But I got to experience Monaco first hand, after seeing it countless times on F1 via the TV. That said, the views were spectacular and it made all the walking, hiking, climbing worthwhile! So it's time to break for a quick rest and lunch before we continued exploring the rest of Monaco.

And that's all I have today! Have you been to Monaco? Let me know in the comments below!

Finally, thanks for reading my post in the community under World Map Pin!