Visiting Monaco With No Plan: How One Morning Became Country 48

Europe and I have a complicated relationship.

I want to visit every country in the world, which unfortunately means I cannot just spend the rest of my life traveling around Asia where everything is cheaper and I am generally much happier.

So every once in a while, I come home, look at the map of Europe and think, Fine. Which countries can I somehow combine without financially destroying myself?

That was basically how Monaco happened.

I was back in Portugal for a bit and decided it was time to count a few new European countries. But because Europe is expensive, there was absolutely no chance I was flying somewhere just to visit one country.

If I am already paying to go somewhere, you better believe I am looking at every surrounding border and working out how many countries I can fit into the same trip.

This particular adventure started with me flying to Bologna, Italy, using it as a base for a day trip to San Marino, then taking a bus from Bologna to Milan and another bus from Milan all the way to Nice.

Yes, two buses.

Yes, this was still cheaper than flying.

And no, I was not paying ridiculous European airline luggage fees when there was a perfectly good bus available.

Nice was never really the final destination either.

Nice was the base.

The actual objective was Monaco.

Nice Was Basically My Base Camp for Country 48

Staying in Monaco was immediately out of the question.

Nice itself was already expensive enough.

I paid around 35€ a night for a bed in a 4-bed dorm at Hostel Ozz Nice, and considering what 35€ gets me in Asia, that physically hurt a little.

But I chose the hostel for one very important reason: it was close to Nice-Ville train station.

That made it ridiculously easy to use Nice as a base and jump on the train along the French Riviera.

Which was exactly what I needed.

→ Read my full Hostel Ozz Nice review

I only booked two nights in Nice, and the first night was basically just the travel day from Milan.

So that left me with one full day.

One full day to make sure I crossed into Monaco and officially counted another country.

No pressure.

Did I Have a Plan for Monaco?

Absolutely not.

This is probably a good moment to explain that if you are looking for somebody who arrives in a destination with a beautifully organized itinerary saved on their phone, that person is not me.

My travel planning normally goes something like this:

Find somewhere I want to go.

Find the cheapest reasonable way to get there.

Book it.

Arrive.

Figure out what the hell I’m doing.

I spend significantly more time researching buses, trains, border crossings and flight combinations than I do researching what I’m actually supposed to see once I arrive.

And somehow I also never leave myself any room for mistakes.

I had exactly one full day in Nice.

Monaco had to happen that day.

Which is hilarious considering things go wrong during my travels approximately 90% of the time.

But for once, everything actually worked.

Taking the Train From Nice to Monaco

I woke up early, had breakfast at the hostel and walked over to Nice-Ville station.

The station was already full of tourists doing exactly what I was doing: using the train to jump between towns along the French Riviera.

I bought my ticket to Monaco for around 6€ one way, got on the train and that was basically it.

Easy.

Quick.

Suspiciously drama-free.

A short while later I arrived in Monaco.

Country 48 was happening.

Except there was one tiny problem.

→ Find train tickets from Nice to Monaco

I Forgot Monaco Was a Different Country

This is exactly the kind of mistake that explains why half the advice on this blog exists.

I got off the train, pulled out my phone and realized:

No mobile data.

Right.

Monaco is an actual separate country.

Apparently in all my excitement about getting there, I had forgotten that tiny logistical detail.

So there I was in a new country with:

No mobile data.

No itinerary.

No offline map.

No idea what there was to see.

No clue where I was going.

Perfect.

I did what any extremely prepared travel blogger would do.

I followed everyone else.

There was a crowd leaving the station in one direction, and I decided that surely if all the tourists were walking that way, they probably knew something I didn’t.

Which, to be fair, they did.

→ Get an eSIM for Monaco

My Monaco Itinerary Started With Stealing Wi-Fi From a Café

I eventually found a café and decided it was time for a cappuccino.

Was I desperate for a cappuccino?

Sure.

Was I even more desperate for their Wi-Fi?

Absolutely.

I needed five minutes of internet just to work out where I was and what people actually did in Monaco.

I was also expecting the coffee to cost something ridiculous because this was Monaco, home of supercars, yachts and people whose bank accounts I cannot relate to.

To my surprise, it wasn’t outrageous at all.

The price was pretty similar to what I had already been paying in Nice.

My Monaco budget had survived its first cappuccino.

Good start.

Armed with internet and approximately five minutes of research, I headed out again.

Following Everyone Up the Hill Turned Out to Be My Best Decision

I saw people heading uphill and, once again, followed them.

At this point, following tourists had officially become my Monaco itinerary.

I thought I was simply climbing up for a good view over the city.

Instead, I ended up in what became my favorite part of Monaco.

The area I had accidentally found was Monaco-Ville, the old town on Le Rocher, around the Prince’s Palace.

So yes.

There was a reason everyone was walking uphill.

The views over Monaco from up there were incredible.

You could look down over the harbor, all the buildings packed into this tiny country, the coastline and the ridiculous number of expensive-looking boats below.

For somewhere so small, Monaco somehow manages to fit an unbelievable amount into a very small space.

I Accidentally Arrived for the Changing of the Guard

Another thing I had absolutely not planned was seeing the changing of the guard outside the Prince’s Palace.

I had no schedule.

I had not checked when it happened.

I was literally just wandering around.

And somehow I ended up there at the right time.

This is basically my travel style in one moment.

No planning.

Maximum luck.

There were obviously plenty of tourists packed around the palace waiting to see it, which was less exciting, but the ceremony itself was a cool thing to accidentally catch.

Afterward, I kept wandering through Monaco-Ville.

And honestly, this was the part of Monaco I enjoyed most.

The streets were pretty, everything felt beautifully maintained, and it was much more interesting to me than the image I had in my head of Monaco just being casinos, luxury cars and ridiculously expensive yachts.

The weather started looking strange at some point and I became convinced it was about to rain.

It never did.

Another rare travel win.

Then I Remembered I Needed Food

Eventually I made my way back down because I was getting hungry.

I went to check out the market around La Condamine, thinking maybe this would be where I could find something reasonably priced to eat.

Apparently Monaco had decided I had already gotten away too easily with the affordable cappuccino.

I looked at the prices.

Looked again.

And decided hunger was actually completely manageable.

There was absolutely no way I was paying those prices just because I happened to be standing inside Monaco.

So I continued my extremely sophisticated budget travel strategy of:

Just wait until the next place.

Monaco Became Country 48/197

After a few hours, I had done what I came to do.

I had wandered around.

Seen Monaco from above.

Accidentally watched the changing of the guard.

Walked through Monaco-Ville.

Checked out the harbor.

Refused to buy overpriced food.

And officially visited:

Country 48 out of 197.

At that point I had a decision to make.

I could take the train back to Nice and finally explore more of the city I was technically staying in.

Or…

I could look at the train map and create another completely unplanned side quest.

Obviously I chose option two.

So I Went to Menton Instead

Menton was only around ten minutes away by train, so suddenly spending the afternoon there seemed like an excellent idea.

And I am SO happy I went.

Menton turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the entire French Riviera trip.

It was beautiful.

Colorful.

Right by the sea.

And I liked it significantly more than both Nice and Monaco.

Which was slightly inconvenient considering Menton wasn’t even part of my original plan.

→ Read my Menton day trip guide

I spent the afternoon there before eventually taking the train back to Nice.

One morning in Monaco.

One afternoon in Menton.

One extremely efficient day of refusing to stay in one place.

I Wish I’d Had Longer on the French Riviera

When I got back to Hostel Ozz that evening, I was genuinely sad that the trip was basically over.

The train system along the coast made everything so easy that I could have happily spent another week waking up every morning and choosing another French Riviera town to explore.

But then there was the tiny issue of money.

This region is expensive.

And I am still the person who will usually choose another new country over spending a lot of money staying longer in one expensive destination.

I wanted to keep going.

There were more countries waiting.

So that night I packed everything again because the next morning I was heading to the airport.

From Monaco to Country 49

My next destination was Montenegro.

Country 49.

And somehow it was going to be my fifth country of the week.

Italy.

San Marino.

France.

Monaco.

Montenegro.

Yes, I was tired.

No, apparently that did not stop me.

The funny part is that after spending the entire week moving like somebody was chasing me across Europe, I arrived in Montenegro and completely changed pace.

I fell in love with the place.

And instead of continuing to jump through countries, I stayed there for two months because I didn’t want to leave.

Which is basically the perfect example of how unpredictable my travels are.

Sometimes I cross five countries in a week.

Sometimes I accidentally move somewhere for two months.

There is very little happening in between.

What I Really Thought of Monaco

Would I go back to Monaco?

Yes.

But I also think a few hours was enough for the kind of trip I was doing.

It is beautiful, ridiculously polished and definitely worth seeing once, especially because visiting from Nice is so easy.

What surprised me most was that Monaco-Ville was the part I liked most.

I went expecting Monaco to be mostly about luxury, casinos and yachts.

Instead, my favorite memory is walking up the hill, seeing the views, wandering around the old streets and accidentally arriving for the changing of the guard.

I also loved how easily Monaco fitted into a bigger French Riviera trip.

You absolutely do not need to stay overnight to experience it.

For me, staying in Nice, taking the train over in the morning and then continuing to Menton afterward worked perfectly.

Would I recommend arriving without mobile data, no plan and absolutely no idea where you’re going?

Probably not.

But apparently it worked for me.