Monaco Off the Beaten Path: 5 Day Itinerary
Five days keeps the 4-day plan ’s spine, Monaco, Eze and Nice, and adds Menton, the last French town before Italy and the flattest of the three day trips. This is the point where the Riviera stops feeling like an add-on and starts feeling like the actual trip, with Monaco itself as the anchor rather than the whole itinerary.
| Day | Focus | Travel time from Monaco |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le Rocher, the Palace, the Cathedral, the Oceanographic Museum | none, on foot |
| 2 | Monte-Carlo, the Casino, the Jardin Exotique, the port | none, on foot |
| 3 | Eze, the perched village, the free Fragonard perfumery | 7 min train to Eze-sur-Mer, plus a slow bus or a 20-30 min climb |
| 4 | Nice, the old town, the Promenade des Anglais | 20-25 min direct train |
| 5 | Menton, the Belle Epoque seafront, the lemon-themed old town | 11-12 min direct train |
Book these before you go
- Book the Oceanographic Museum ticket ahead if traveling during Grand Prix or Yacht Show week
- Check rates on Booking.com for Nice as a base, or compare Monaco hotels if staying put
- Book the Eze and Monaco day trip to skip solving the Eze bus schedule yourself
Day 1: Le Rocher and the old town
Start on Le Rocher, the headland where Monaco began. Time the Prince’s Palace for 11:55am, when the Compagnie des Carabiniers changes the guard in front of Place du Palais, free, no ticket, no queue system, just show up. The State Apartments themselves are seasonal (30 March-15 October 2026), tickets EUR 13 adult, EUR 11 student, EUR 8 child (6-17); outside that window you still get the guard change and the square. Walk the Cathedral next (Cathedrale Notre-Dame-Immaculee), free to enter, where Grace Kelly is buried in the Grimaldi vault marked “Gratia Patricia,” and Rainier III is buried beside her since his 2005 death. Then cut into Le Rocher’s back lanes, narrow stepped streets away from the Palace-to-Cathedral crowd flow. Finish at the Oceanographic Museum , built into the cliff face below, founded 1910 by Prince Albert I (not 1906, a correction worth making since older copy gets this wrong). Adult entry is EUR 22.50, EUR 14 student/child, EUR 11 for visitors with disabilities.
Day 2: Monte-Carlo, Fontvieille and the port
Cross to Monte-Carlo, the resort quarter built from 1870 around the casino, not a synonym for the whole country no matter how often the two names get swapped. The Casino de Monte-Carlo has three separate tiers, not one flat ticket: the Atrium, the boutique, Cafe de la Rotonde and the Salon Rose are free to walk into any time, no ticket, no age limit. A paid morning heritage visit of the historic gaming rooms (before 2pm) runs EUR 20 with an audio guide and a relaxed dress code. The gaming rooms themselves, from 2pm, cost EUR 20 (includes roughly EUR 10 of credit), strictly 18+, with a real dress code, no shorts, no trainers, nothing casual after 7pm. Walk up to the Jardin Exotique above Moneghetti next: reopened 30 March 2026 after almost six years shut for cliffside repairs, EUR 12 covers the garden, the restored Observatory Cave and the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology. Inside the same grounds area is a small Japanese Garden near Larvotto, a quiet gift from Japan in 1994, few crowds, no ticket. Close the day at Port Hercule, 700 berths, yachts up to 130 meters, and Larvotto beach itself, Monaco’s only public beach, pebble not sand despite the name.
Day 3: Eze, the perched village next door
Take the train to Eze-sur-Mer, about 7 minutes from Monaco-Monte-Carlo station. The perched village itself sits well above that station, and the connecting bus up the hill runs infrequently, so budget 20 to 30 minutes total door to door, or skip the wait and climb the Chemin de Nietzsche, a steep 20-30 minute path the philosopher reportedly walked while drafting parts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Once up top, the Fragonard perfumery runs a free guided factory tour, about 30 minutes, no charge, tracing the process from extraction to bottling. The village itself is free to wander; only the botanical garden at the summit charges a small entry.
Day 4: Nice, the Riviera’s actual hub
Nice is roughly 20-25 minutes away by direct train, on the order of 60 departures a day, with advance fares from about EUR 5-7 one way. It’s worth treating as the region’s real hub rather than a side trip: cheaper hotels, the old town, the Promenade des Anglais, and the practical gateway airport (Nice Cote d’Azur, NCE) that every Monaco arrival routes through anyway, since Monaco has no airport of its own beyond its heliport. Spend the day on foot between the old town’s markets and the seafront.
Day 5: Menton, the easier walk
Menton is the last French town before Italy, about 11-12 minutes by direct train, fares from roughly EUR 3-4. Where Eze demands a climb, Menton is flat and easy, a gentler Belle Epoque seafront and a lemon-themed old town (the annual Fete du Citron draws crowds every February). It’s a smaller, lower-key day than Nice or Eze, worth it specifically if you want an afternoon that doesn’t involve a hill.
Is Menton worth a full day after Eze and Nice?
Yes, precisely because it’s different from both. Eze is a climb and a village; Nice is a city and a hub; Menton is neither, a flat seafront walk with a gentler pace and none of the crowd density of the other two. Anyone tired of stairs by day five will notice the difference immediately.
How many days do you actually need for Monaco and the Riviera?
Two for Monaco itself, comfortably. Beyond that it’s really a Riviera trip with Monaco as the base: three adds one day trip, five adds three, and the law of diminishing returns starts around day six or seven, once the remaining options (Ventimiglia’s Friday-only market, a longer haul to Cannes) get more situational than essential.
Buy a rail pass or a carnet of tickets only if the math actually works out; at these fares, single tickets bought station-side rarely cost more than the planning it takes to avoid them.