Hotels in Monaco, and when I'd stay across the border

Monaco has a reputation for being impossible to sleep in, and it isn’t quite that bad, even if prices play in a different league. According to IMSEE, the statistics office, the Principality had 13 classified hotels in 2025 and 2,460 rooms, average occupancy of 64.5% and 907,826 nights sold. That’s very little supply for a place with so much demand, and it explains nearly everything about the market. Below I sort the hotels by district and category, and tell you when sleeping outside the Principality makes sense and when it doesn’t.

The palaces around Casino Square

The Société des Bains de Mer, the SBM, owns four hotels, and three of them set the tone for Monte-Carlo. The Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo opened on Casino Square in 1864, was rebuilt from the inside over five years and reopened in 2019, and in September 2026 took 40th place on The 50 Best Hotels list. Inside you’ll find Le Louis XV, with three Michelin stars, and Le Grill on the eighth floor. What I like most about it can’t be seen from any room. Twelve metres under the building lie its cellars from 1874, with more than 300,000 bottles across 1,500 m².

The Hôtel Hermitage, on square Beaumarchais, has the Eiffel dome over its Winter Garden, two Yannick Alléno restaurants and access to the Thermes Marins, the SBM’s wellness centre, with 6,600 m² of spa and pools. It has been refurbishing 40 rooms and its Diamond Suites since 2024. The third is the Monte-Carlo Bay hotel and its lagoon, on a four-hectare peninsula with a sandy-bottomed lagoon, which the SBM markets as a palace although its website declares 4 stars. On the same avenue, outside the SBM group, Le Méridien Beach Plaza has 398 rooms and a private beach from April to September.

Outside the SBM group, the Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo has stood in the Carré d’Or since 1886, behind a Belle Époque façade, with two Michelin stars at Les Ambassadeurs, a Guerlain spa and the Odyssey pool. It’s the one I’d look at for a five-star with a serious restaurant inside. The Fairmont Monte Carlo, a 4-star, has rooms with terraces over the hairpin of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit. If I had to pick a single night of indulgence, it would be at the Hôtel de Paris, and what I’d do with it is in the luxury experiences in Monaco worth paying for.

Where to stay in Monaco without paying for a palace

This is where a lot of people give up too soon. In La Condamine, the district of the harbour and the market, you’ll find the Hôtel de France, a 2-star with 26 rooms on rue de la Turbie, and the 3-star Hotel Ambassador on avenue Prince Pierre, at the foot of the Rock. They’re the lowest categories I could confirm on each hotel’s own website, and to me the location beats that of many five-stars. From there you walk up to the Palace by the Rampe Major.

The Novotel Monte-Carlo, also a 3-star, is on boulevard Princesse Charlotte, a 3-minute walk from the station and 10 from the Casino, with an outdoor pool. If you’re arriving and leaving by rail, it’s the one I’d find easiest.

Down at the harbour there are two small hotels whose websites don’t state a category, the Port Palace hotel, where all 50 rooms face the harbour, and the Hotel Miramar, which has 14 rooms and a rooftop terrace. In Fontvieille, the Columbus Hotel Monte-Carlo has 181 rooms refurbished in 2018, and its restaurant looks onto the Princess Grace rose garden. I’m not giving prices for any of them. They move every night and there’s no official rate I could compare honestly. What each one includes, and where you can save, is in cheap hotels in Monaco.

The Monte-Carlo hotel that’s actually in France

This one catches plenty of people out. The Monte-Carlo Beach, open since 1929, a 5-star with 40 rooms designed by India Mahdavi, is not in Monaco. Its official address is avenue Princesse Grace in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. I mention it because if you want to sleep inside the Principality for the experience, this one doesn’t count, however much the SBM runs it and whatever the sign above the door says.

Is it cheaper to stay in Nice, Beausoleil or Cap-d’Ail?

Staying outside is what most visitors do, and it works because of the railway. Visit Monaco counts around 60 trains a day between Nice and Monaco, taking 23 minutes, and 26 minutes from Ventimiglia, the way in if you’re staying on the Italian Riviera, with the change I cover in San Remo to Monaco by train. The ZOU! 600 bus follows the coast, stopping at Villefranche, Beaulieu, Èze-sur-Mer and Cap-d’Ail before it enters the Principality, and the 601 does the same run at night. I break that last stretch down in the Nice to Monaco guide.

Beausoleil and Cap-d’Ail are already France. To reach Beausoleil, Menton’s tourist office tells you to use Monaco station, and the Cap-d’Ail coastal path starts from a beach facing Monaco. Now for the caution. I haven’t found a single source with data showing that Beausoleil, Cap-d’Ail, Menton or Nice work out cheaper, so I’m not going to promise it. You’ll probably find more choice, but check it against your own dates before deciding. One example is Aparthotel Adagio Monaco Monte Cristo, which has Monaco in its name and sits in Beausoleil, above the station. If you’re driving, the Riviera Marriott La Porte de Monaco on Cap-d’Ail harbour has parking at €25 a day and a free shuttle into the Principality.

Two practical points I’d bear in mind. Monaco taxis are ordered from inside Monaco, not from Beausoleil or Cap-d’Ail, so if you’re heading back late to a hotel on the French side, sort it out before you cross. And the UK Foreign Office notes that thefts have happened on trains to and from Monaco, so if you’re commuting daily, keep your bag zipped and on your lap. The local buses, public lifts and other ways of getting about are in how to get around Monaco.

Grand Prix week

It’s the week everyone wants a bed in Monaco. I won’t give you percentage rises, because IMSEE doesn’t publish prices by week and I haven’t found any official figure. What I do know is that the Palace and the Oceanographic Museum close that weekend, and the New National Museum closes for all four days. If you’re going for the race, the Monaco Grand Prix guide has the 2027 dates and the grandstands, and my shortlist for race weekend is in Monaco Grand Prix hotels. I’d book many months ahead and, if there’s nothing reasonable inside, I’d base myself in Nice and use the train, which is exactly what it’s there for.