Monaco-Monte-Carlo station, exit by exit

You can’t see Monaco-Monte-Carlo station from the street. It’s dug out beneath La Condamine, at Place Sainte-Dévote, so when you step off the train the thing that really matters is which door you leave by. It has four named exits, each at a different level of the Principality, and getting yours right decides if your day starts downhill or uphill.

Which exit of Monaco station should I use?

Visit Monaco describes all four. The Monte-Carlo exit is on the Pont Sainte-Dévote, has a lift for people with reduced mobility and heads towards Monte-Carlo, though the tourist board adds that it also brings you close to the Exotic Garden and the hospital. Parvis Sainte-Dévote opens onto the roundabout where rue Grimaldi meets boulevard d’Ostende, a step from the harbour. La Condamine exit is on allée Lazare Sauvaigo and Fontvieille / Le Rocher on avenue du Prince Pierre, both with lifts, and according to Visit Monaco they give access to Monaco-Ville and to the Fontvieille and Condamine districts.

Between the street and the platforms there are escalators, stairs and underground passages, so don’t expect to walk straight out at track level. I’d look for the sign to my exit the moment I stepped off and follow it without thinking, because doubling back inside costs more than getting it right first time.

If I had to boil it down to one rule, it would be Fontvieille / Le Rocher for the Rock, Monte-Carlo for the Casino and the Parvis for the harbour. I’d leave La Condamine exit to people staying in that district or heading straight for the market.

Walking times to the Palace, the Casino and the harbour

I have to be honest about minutes here, because almost nobody publishes them. The only official time I’ve found from the station is from the Métropole shopping centre, right by Casino Square, which says it’s 10 minutes on foot. That’s good enough for me for the Monte-Carlo Casino, leaving by the Monte-Carlo exit.

For the Prince’s Palace it’s a two-stage sum. The Palace website puts its gate 10 minutes from Place d’Armes via the Rampe Major, and Place d’Armes is about 630 metres from the station as the crow flies, a figure I measured myself on the map. That isn’t an official time, and the Rock really does climb, so I’d allow more than a quarter of an hour and take it gently. The Oceanographic Museum is at the far end of the Rock, reached from Place d’Armes by the Rampe Major or the Porte Neuve and then through the Saint-Martin Gardens.

The harbour is the easy one. The Parvis Sainte-Dévote exit leaves you by Port Hercule, and from there the stroll along the quays is flat.

Opening hours, ticket desks and what’s missing

The station is open every day from 05:00 to 02:00, according to the Monaco government, and it’s run by SNCF. The ticket desks, though, only open Monday to Friday, with a lunchtime break, and close on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. That’s why I’d have the return ticket on my phone from the morning.

On the first floor there’s a tourist office information point. Visit Monaco gives two different sets of opening hours for it on two of its pages, so I’d treat it as a daytime service and not plan around a precise time. The station also has a car park and a taxi rank, and inside Monaco a taxi from the rank costs a fixed €18.

What I couldn’t confirm is left luggage. Neither the government nor Visit Monaco lists it among the station’s services, and I’m not going to promise it. If you’re doing a day trip with bags, I’d sort that out before leaving Nice.

With a suitcase, a pushchair or a wheelchair

Three of the four exits have an accessible lift, and that changes your arrival a lot. With a wheeled case or a pushchair I’d always head for Monte-Carlo, La Condamine or Fontvieille / Le Rocher, and avoid Parvis Sainte-Dévote, where Visit Monaco doesn’t mention a lift. What you need to know to get around the Principality step-free is in accessible travel in Monaco, and if you’re travelling with small children, in Monaco with kids.

Your phone, your wallet and your ticket

Two things happen before you reach the platform. First, your phone switches to Monaco’s own network, and for a UK phone that may not count as France. Your UK provider, not EU law, decides what Europe costs you these days, so I’d look up its Monaco terms in phone and roaming in Monaco. Second, the FCDO mentions bags stolen on Monaco trains, so the backpack goes on your front.

The journey from Nice, with its times and the alternatives, is in the Nice to Monaco train and its rivals.

How I’d use the station

I’d arrive with the return ticket bought and the exit chosen on the train. I’d leave by Fontvieille / Le Rocher, walk up to the Palace while the morning is cool, come down to the harbour at midday and go back in through Parvis Sainte-Dévote at the end of the day. Staying at Aparthotel Adagio Monaco Monte Cristo, already in Beausoleil, makes the station practically your front door. That way the station works as both front door and back door without making me retrace a single slope. Arriving from the west, the direct train is in Cannes to Monaco, and from Italy, changing at Ventimiglia, in San Remo to Monaco.