Monaco keeps stacking up reasons to visit, and its hotel game is right at the top of the list. A veteran Côte d'Azur writer for Condé Nast Traveller UK reckons the Principality now holds some of the best hotels in Europe, and after three decades watching the place evolve, they've whittled it down to seven standouts. The headline picks: Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo for straight-up luxury, Fairmont Monte Carlo for location, and the Port Palace as the boutique option.
The city-state itself has recently grown — literally. Mareterra, a new eco-district built on reclaimed land, has added six hectares of coast to a country the size of a large park. It comes with private residences designed by heavyweights Renzo Piano, Tadao Ando and Norman Foster, plus a public green park, restaurants, luxury boutiques, a small marina and a sea-facing promenade. The quirkiest detail: a meditation grotto lined with pink and violet quartz.
Beyond the new development, Monaco's nightlife has loosened up its tuxedo-only reputation. Casino Square now hosts live rock and jazz at the New Moods Music Bar and Cuban beats at Amazonicó — a far cry from the historic Opéra de Monte-Carlo, though that Belle Époque hall has form too: Prince played a legendary stripped-back gig there in August 2009, bathing the gilded Salle Garnier in purple light.
And here's the part most visitors miss: it's not all superyachts and red sports cars (though yes, both are present and accounted for). Head to the covered market at Place des Armes, where locals queue for barbagiuans — Monegasque fried dumplings stuffed with spinach, rice, cheese and leeks — washed down with locally brewed beer. Add tropical gardens, streets planted with bitter orange trees and a reliably sunny climate, and the old Monegasque proverb taught in local schools starts to make sense: Gò avü tutu qué chi vòu — "I have everything I want."
Who is this for? Monaco works for a long weekend of glamour, a Riviera road-trip stop, or the F1 Grand Prix in May if you plan months ahead. The hotel list mixes grand old dames with smaller boltholes, so you can splash out on a sea-view suite or keep it comparatively modest while still sleeping five minutes from the Casino.
One caveat: this is not a budget destination by any measure, and rooms book out fast around Grand Prix and the yacht show. But as the writer's favourite painterly endorsement goes — courtesy of Edvard Munch, of The Scream fame — once you've been bewitched by Monte Carlo, you have to go back.
