Monaco's Exotic Garden is back, and I'd pay for the cave

For almost six years every guide to Monaco had to say the same thing about the Exotic Garden, that it was shut. Not any more. It reopened on 30 March 2026, refurbished and with the cave open again, and I’ve put it back into any plan for a stay of more than a day. Here’s what’s changed, what it costs and why I’d pay the extra €3 for the cave.

Is the Exotic Garden in Monaco open again?

Yes. The Mairie reopened it to the public on Monday 30 March 2026, after a free preview day for Monegasques and residents on Sunday the 29th. It had been closed for almost six years; local press dates the closure to 2020, though I haven’t found an official page with the exact date. What matters for your trip is that it’s open all year, except during the Formula 1 Grand Prix, on 19 November and on 25 December. For the rest of the country’s closing days, see Monaco opening hours and public holidays.

The hours follow the daylight. From May to September it opens 09:00 to 19:00, in February, March, April and October 09:00 to 18:00, and in January, November and December 09:00 to 17:00. If I could choose, I’d go late on a summer afternoon, when the sun drops over Fontvieille and the Rock takes on a different light.

What the refurbishment changed

The work was thorough. The walkways and railings, the flooring across the whole visitor area, the pergolas and the viewpoints were all redone, and the lighting was improved. To me that’s doubly good news, because the garden is built into the hillside and the walkways are exactly what carry you from one viewpoint to the next.

According to Monaco Tribune, the refurbishment also brought a children’s garden, a birthday party room, a picnic area, a revamped shop and a snack bar with a 40 m² terrace you can use without a ticket. If you’ve got children with you, Princess Antoinette Park is a few metres away, with a playground, an 18-hole crazy golf course and a small farm, which makes for a good family morning. More plans like that in Monaco with kids.

The Observatory Cave, the reason to pay €3 more

The cave is why I wouldn’t settle for the basic ticket. It was discovered in 1916, just as work on the garden was starting, and opened to the public in 1950. You go down with a guide, in groups of no more than 50, with departures on the hour from 10:00 and a tour of 40 to 45 minutes.

It’s about 300 steps between 98 and 40 metres above sea level, and at the bottom you find stalactites, stalagmites, draperies and columns, as well as remains that prove humans were here in prehistoric times. It isn’t one for dodgy knees, and you have to allow for the climb back up. But at €15 for an adult, against €12 for the garden alone, it’s the best ratio of money to wonder I know of in Monaco. Other treats that genuinely pay off are gathered in luxury experiences in Monaco worth the money.

Plants, views and the Botanical Centre

The engineer Louis Notari led the project, starting work in 1913, and Prince Louis II opened the garden on 13 February 1933. Today it gathers more than 1,000 species of succulents and exotic plants from the Americas and Africa, with aloes and prickly pears hanging over the drop. The Botanical Centre behind it holds more than 10,500 species and is visited with a guide on Tuesdays at 14:00 and Wednesday to Saturday at 10:00 and 14:00.

What I like best, though, is the view. From the garden you see the Rock and Monaco-Ville straight on, with the Palace on the cliff, and at your feet the Fontvieille district, reclaimed from the sea. On summer fireworks nights the garden has opened specially so people can watch from above; in 2026 it did so on 25 July from 19:30. If you’re travelling in July or August, I’d look at the calendar of events in Monaco.

The prices that make sense

There are three tickets. Garden only, €12 for an adult, €6 for ages 4 to 17 and students, and €9 for over-65s. With the cave or the Botanical Centre, €15, €8 and €12. With both, €18, €10 and €15. Under-4s and Monegasques go free, and holders of the French CMI disability card with reduced mobility get into the upper part free, which is the wheelchair-accessible section.

If you’re also visiting the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, there’s a €33 adult combined ticket covering the garden with the cave or Botanical Centre plus the museum. It’s only sold at the Oceanographic desks, so don’t ask for it at the garden gate. There’s also a combined ticket with the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology, but the official table is labelled 2025 and I haven’t been able to confirm either its current price or the museum’s opening hours.

Getting there

City bus line 2 runs between Monaco-Ville and the Exotic Garden, and at night the N2 does the same trip. The address is 62 boulevard du Jardin Exotique, and if you’re driving you park at the Salins car park opposite. On the same boulevard, at number 56, is Villa Paloma, the open site of the New National Museum, which I’d pair with the garden in a single morning. It has its own entry in the round-up of Monaco’s museums.