The Grimaldi Forum, and when it's worth going through the door

The Grimaldi Forum is one of those buildings you notice from Larvotto beach, all glass by the water, without knowing if you’re allowed in. The short answer is that it depends on the day. It lives mostly on conferences and trade fairs, but most summers it stages a major exhibition and through the year it programmes concerts, comedy and opera open to anyone. Here’s when it’s worth going through the door.

A conference centre hiding most of itself under the sea

Prince Rainier III and the then Hereditary Prince Albert opened it on 20 July 2000, at 10 Avenue Princesse Grace. It’s glass and steel, with three quarters of its volume below sea level, so from outside it looks far smaller than it is. Some 100 events a year pass through it, and in 2025 it unveiled an extension that added half as much again to its exhibition space.

For a visitor, most of those events don’t count. They’re conferences, trade shows such as Luxe Pack at the end of September or Sportel in October, and company conventions. What’s yours is two very specific things, the summer exhibition and the shows sold to the public.

The summer exhibition, the reason to come in July or August

Since it opened, the Forum has put on a large themed exhibition almost every summer, often with loans from major museums. Recent ones covered masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou in 2025, Turner in 2024 and Monet in 2023. In 2026 it looked closer to home. «Monaco et l’automobile, de 1893 à nos jours» brought together more than 50 vehicles linked to the Principality from 1 July to 6 September, across more than 3,500 m², from the Panhard & Levassor that came on from the 1893 Paris-Nice run to the Rolls-Royce from Rainier III and Grace Kelly’s wedding, by way of rally cars, Grand Prix single-seaters and a Venturi Formula E car.

Entry was €15, €12 reduced and free for under-18s, and it opened daily from 10:00 to 20:00, Thursdays until 22:00. The cleverest touch, to my mind, was the ticket deals, €30 with the Oceanographic Museum and a €12 cross-discount with the Prince’s Car Collection. The 2027 exhibition hasn’t been announced yet, so if you’re planning next summer I’d check the Forum’s site from spring.

What’s on at the Grimaldi Forum this autumn?

The listings published at the end of September 2026 have a bit of everything. On 5 October comes Stand Up Monaco, a comedy club backed by Gad Elmaleh, €35 and in French. On 15 October the Thursday Live Sessions bring Friedberg to the Espace Indigo, free, with just a table to book. On the 16th a film talk shows the 1956 wedding film restored in 4K, from €10, and if that story appeals it’s told in Grace Kelly in Monaco. On the 24th, Disney en concert fills the Salle des Princes with an orchestra and a giant screen, from €39 for under-12s.

In November the opera moves in. The season is split between the Salle Garnier and the Forum, and here you’ll find Porgy and Bess on the 15th and 21st and a semi-staged Carmen on the 20th, all explained in the Monte-Carlo Opera. And in 2027 the Top Marques Monaco supercar show returns to the building from 5 to 9 May.

Getting there and buying tickets

The Forum sits in Larvotto, next to the Japanese Garden and a stone’s throw from Mareterra. If you fancy dinner after the show, Twiga Monte Carlo is in the same building. From the station it’s about 15 minutes on foot, or 10 on bus 6 towards Larvotto. Under the building there’s a public car park with free electric charging bays, and the Larvotto and Louis II car parks are close by. For wheelchair users, lifts run from the car park to the main entrance and from there to the auditorium. If you’re staying over, the Forum counts 13 hotels with 2,535 rooms within walking distance, and Nice airport is 25 km away. For dinner nearby, Visit Monaco puts Cipriani Monte Carlo five minutes’ walk away, and at number 11 on the same avenue is Sass Café in Monaco.

The box office is at the main entrance on the esplanade and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 12:00 to 19:00. You can also book by phone on +377 99 99 3000 in the same hours, or online at montecarloticket.com. Shows produced by the Forum itself carry a 20% discount for wheelchair users and holders of a French disability card marked «invalidité» or «priorité».