In May the town smells of salt and warm stone, and by late afternoon the Croisette fills with people who have dressed for something. Cars idle. A woman adjusts the hem of a gown at a crosswalk. Somewhere behind the…
Supporting Guide
The Circuit de Monaco, Corner by Corner
The Circuit de Monaco is worth understanding before you arrive. Most people come for the yachts, the champagne, and the sense that they have wandered into a film, and all of that is real. But the reason the whole spectacle…
Monaco Grand Prix Nightlife: Amber Lounge and the Parties
The racing stops at sundown, and Monaco changes gear rather than shuts down. I have spent race week nights moving between a yacht in the harbour, a club that does not acknowledge the clock, and a terrace where you can…
Where to Eat in Monaco During Race Week
Race week in Monaco compresses a year of appetite into four days. The principality, which is small enough to cross on foot in under an hour, swells with people who all want the same tables at the same hours, and…
Watching the Monaco Grand Prix from a Yacht
The first time I watched the Monaco Grand Prix, I did it from a grandstand, close enough to feel the cars in my sternum. The second time, I watched from the deck of a yacht in Port Hercule, and I…
What to Wear to the Monaco Grand Prix
I have done Monaco race week the way it is meant to be done, moving from a grandstand at noon to a yacht deck at sunset to a club after midnight, and I can tell you that the question of…
The Best Grandstands at the Monaco Grand Prix
There is no bad seat at Monaco. The circuit wraps so tightly around the principality that the cars are never far from you, and the sound of them off the barriers reaches every corner of the harbour. But some seats…
Where to Stay for the Monaco Grand Prix
Monaco’s hotels fill for race week months in advance. Knowing what you want and when to book it are related pieces of knowledge, and the second is useless without the first. Where you sleep during the Grand Prix decides a…
How to Get to the Monaco Grand Prix
Monaco during race week is one of the most congested places in Europe. This is not an exaggeration. Knowing this in advance means you plan around it rather than into it. The principality is roughly two square kilometres, the circuit…
San Fruttuoso: The Abbey, the Boat, and the Christ of the Abyss
San Fruttuoso is one of those places that rearranges your sense of the coast. You cannot drive to it. There is no road, no car park, no coach turning circle. There is only a fold in the Portofino promontory where…
The Best Time to Visit Portofino
There is something almost theatrical about Portofino. The little harbour, the tall painted houses leaning shoulder to shoulder, the yachts arranged as if by a set designer: it is a place that performs, and the season you choose decides which…
Where to Stay in Portofino
Portofino is tiny, and that changes everything about where you sleep. The village wraps around a single horseshoe harbour, a cluster of ochre and rose houses stacked above fishing boats and, these days, the occasional improbable yacht. The whole place…
