Hiring a car for Monaco, when I would and when I wouldn't

Hiring a car for Monaco sounds sensible until you do the maths. The Principality covers 2.08 km², you can cross it on foot with public lifts, and it won’t let a car on foreign plates up into the old town. Even so, there are trips where a car makes perfect sense. Here’s where to collect one, which rules change, and when I’d bother.

Where do you pick up a hire car?

Almost always at Nice airport, about 30 km from Monaco by road. According to the airport’s website, Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Enterprise, Goldcar and Sixt all operate there. The desks sit in the arrivals area until 22:00, in Terminal 1 to the right of the information office. The car itself, though, is collected and returned at the Car Rental Center, a 60,000 m² building beside Terminal 2, behind car park P5, reached on signed footpaths. After 22:00 you head straight there.

Inside Monaco I haven’t found rental offices with an official website at the station. Sixt does advertise a collection point in Monte-Carlo, at the Le Méridien Beach Plaza hotel, and another in Cap-d’Ail, which is already France. For me the airport is still the practical choice, because it’s where you land and where there’s most choice.

One warning I’ll keep repeating. The Foreign Office records thefts in the rental car parks at Nice airport while people load their luggage. One person loads, the other keeps watch, and the handbag never goes on the seat. The rest of the traps worth knowing about are in scams and safety in Monaco.

Is hiring a car for Monaco worth it?

It depends on the trip, and I’m fairly blunt about it. If you’re coming to Monaco and only Monaco, no. The official “Monaco Malin” leaflet says you can walk across it in under an hour thanks to its 79 public lifts, 35 escalators and 8 travelators, and the town bus costs €1.50 by contactless card. With a car, it would sit parked most of the time and cost you money, while from the airport the 80 express bus does the trip in under an hour. How to piece it all together is in getting around Monaco.

If the plan is the Riviera, it’s another story. Èze, La Turbie, Menton or the Italian border on one trip are far easier by car, and Monaco becomes one more stop. I’d also understand it with small children and lots of bags, straight from the airport to the hotel with no changes.

Driving in Monaco, what’s different

For British drivers, the first thing is that you drive on the right, and the second that, according to the Foreign Office, a UK licence must be accompanied by a 1968 International Driving Permit. According to Visit Monaco, the Principality largely follows the French Highway Code, with a 50 km/h limit, a 0.5 g/l alcohol limit and road signs like those in France. From the A8, exits 56 and 57 bring you in, which lead to a tunnel by the hospital, or at 58, on the Larvotto side.

The rule that catches people out is the one about the Rock. The Palace website says vehicles registered outside Monaco and the Alpes-Maritimes have no access to Monaco-Ville. A hire car from Nice could carry any French plate, so I’d plan to leave it below at the Pêcheurs car park and walk or take the lift up. Why you see so few Monegasque plates about town is explained in Monaco number plates.

Where to leave it

There are some forty public car parks in Monaco, nearly all underground, with the first hour free and a cap of €24 per 24 hours on the 2026 tariff. On the street there are about 1,000 spaces run by the Municipal Police, which electric cars use free while everyone else feeds a meter. My favourite for a hire car is Salines, at the entrance to the Principality, the cheapest and with a ticket that includes 10 bus journeys. Car park by car park, the fares are in parking in Monaco.

What I wouldn’t do is bring a car during Grand Prix week, when the circuit streets close and fill up with grandstands.

My advice, in short

Book from home, collect at Nice airport and use the car for the places the train can’t reach. If you’re only doing Monaco, the airport leg is compared in Nice to Monaco, and you’ll see the car comes near the bottom. And if what you’re after is a supercar for a bit of fun, that’s a different sort of plan, with the treats I would pay for in luxury experiences in Monaco.