Circuit de Monaco is a street circuit laid out on the city streets of Monte Carlo and La Condamine around the harbour of the Principality of Monaco. It is commonly, and even officially,[1] referred to as "Monte Carlo" because it is largely inside the Monte Carlo neighbourhood of Monaco.
Accommodation:
Cheaper option is to stay in one of the towns along the railway. Antibes, Nice, Menton all offer much cheaper accommodation and around 30 minutes to Monaco station.
Getting to the track:
The train. Tickets from neighbouring towns are around £7, although for the whole week I was in the area, no tickets were checked on any trains. The train gets PACKED - standing room only. The earlier you leave, the better.
Seating:
As a general note, the grandstands at Monaco are not particularly comfortable to sit on as they're thin benches. If you can, bring some sort of small cushion because your backside will thank you at the end of a long day in the stands!
Grandstand 1A on the inside of St Devote offers chances to see cars outbraking and spinning during practice. If you get a top row seat you can see over the top and watch the cars come back round to Tabac.
Grandstand O sits on the harbour and gives you a great view of both the swimming pool chicanes, and the first half of the pit lane. It's a great place to sit on Saturday for Qualifying because you're watching the cars at their absolute peak, so close to the barriers, and you're almost guaranteed to see someone push too far and go into the barrier on the exit of the second chicane.
Food:
Plenty of local bars and cafe's, baguettes available around most of the track
Lunch at the Cafe de Paris on Sunday race day is around €300 per person, and while it sounds expensive, it's actually around €200 cheaper than your average grandstand ticket, and for that you get a comfy armchair for the race, a superb 3 course meal and a bottle of wine. The view of the track isn't amazing (you can only see the exit of Casino Square), but the atmosphere is fantastic and it's a brilliant hospitality experience. Book early though because reservations go very quickly each year!
Misc:
Monaco is usually very hot for the Grand Prix, and if you sit somewhere like Grandstand O (facing west) then you get the sun beating down on you all day. So bring lots of sun cream and water as it can get uncomfortably hot after a while.
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