Travel deep dive
The Grand Prix Circuit: a Race Track Made of Streets
For one weekend in late May or early June the streets of Monte-Carlo and La Condamine are the Monaco Grand Prix, a street race the Automobile Club de Monaco has organised since 1929, now a round of the Formula 1 world championship. The rest of the year they are ordinary roads and pavements, and the lap of about 3.3 kilometres can be walked in an hour or so, from the harbour up to Casino Square, down to the sea and back around the port. A morning walk, before the traffic builds, has the corners almost to itself.
Updated 2026-10-09
From Sainte-Dévote up to Casino Square
The lap starts on the harbour front, on Boulevard Albert Ier, and turns at once at Sainte-Dévote, the first corner, named after the small chapel of Monaco's patron saint that stands beside it. From there the road climbs Avenue d'Ostende, the hill the drivers call Beau Rivage, to the long left-hand curve of Massenet and into Casino Square, where the cars pass in front of the casino and its gardens before the lap turns downhill. The square is the place to stand and look back down the hill to the harbour.
Mirabeau, the Hairpin and the Tunnel
Below the square the road drops to Mirabeau and into the Grand Hotel hairpin, the tightest corner of the lap and the slowest of the whole Formula 1 season, where the cars turn almost on the spot beside the hotel. Two more bends at Mirabeau Bas and Portier bring the road down to the sea, and there it runs into the tunnel beneath the hotel, the one curve of the lap taken out of daylight, emerging along the water towards the harbour.
The Harbour: the Chicane, the Swimming Pool and La Rascasse
Out of the tunnel the road reaches the chicane at the harbour's edge and runs along the quay to Tabac, then swings left and right around the open-air pool on the quay, the bends known as the Swimming Pool. The lap ends at La Rascasse and Antony Noghès, the corner named after the founder of the race, and comes back on to the harbour front where it began. Walkers follow the quays here with the yachts on one side and the line of the old town on the Rocher above.
Race Week
In the weeks around the race the stands rise over the harbour and the barriers line the streets, and the roads close for the sessions on the race weekend itself. Hotels in Monaco and along the coast fill months ahead, and the harbour is packed with yachts that serve as private stands. Travellers who want the race book far ahead; those who want a day in Monaco itself choose other dates, when the circuit belongs to walkers again.