(Last Updated on Oct 11, 2024)

Hello there! This is Part 2 of our series, “Three Small Countries”. In the first part, we visited the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. We continue our journey through Europe and move to the second country in our list.

This country has the highest population density in the world. The word “population density” always reminds me of Mumbai – especially Dharavi. Well, if we compare sizes, this entire country is even smaller than Dharavi and fits within 2.02 square kilometres. And it is in sharp contrast – being one of the richest countries (per capita) in the world. You may have guessed it, we’re talking about Monaco!

A bit of history to understand how this country came into existence. Monaco is entirely contained within France except for its Mediterranean coastline. It has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi since the 1200s. Given its location, both France and Italy had an interest in it – however, they mostly left it to be administered by the prince of Monaco – this makes it a principality (which it is to this date).

Size has never been a constraint for Monaco. It hosts the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula 1 racing) and is home to the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 (Tennis). It is also famous for the Monte Carlo casino, luxury cars, yachts and it provides a home to the rich and famous from around the world. One question that comes up – is Monaco the same as Monte Carlo? The answer is No. Monaco is the country, Monte Carlo is just one of the districts in the country.

All you geography buffs would have noticed the flag of Monaco on the cover pic of the blog – it looks exactly the same as that of Indonesia right? Well, the main difference is the height to width ratio of the flag. Monaco’s flag is 4:5, while Indonesia’s is 2:3. Some people claim that the shade of red is slightly different – but tough for the average person to perceive it (I couldn’t tell the difference!).

Can you go to Monaco as a tourist? Yes! Getting to Monaco is quite easy. It is hardly 20 kms away from Nice, France. You can hop on a bus and get there easily. No additional visa requirements. You can also come in from Italy, which is also only around 20 kms away – but there is a higher chance that you’d be on the French side. The currency is the Euro itself. It is expensive to stay in Monaco and affording a hotel can be tough. So, it is advisable to stay in Nice and do a day trip.

And now, we go into the travelogue. After a really nice lunch of pizza and wine, we walked to the port where we took bus number 100. This would take us to Monaco.

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It was a beautiful drive along the coast – as we got closer, we could see huge mansions and yachts. There were a bunch of tunnels en route and one such tunnel took us right into Monaco. 

We decided to walk around and explore the place. Given that the place is a bit hilly, you’d expect slopes and steps. But to our shock, we saw escalators! Yes! Out in the open, there were fully functional escalators – just goes to show how rich the place is! 

We saw preparations happening for the Monaco Grand Prix – they were setting up the tracks. We were travelling in mid-May and the race happens in the last week of May.

We then walked towards the famous Monte Carlo casino. Along the way, we saw many banks – Monaco was known to be a safe and secure place for banking and financial needs – especially for private wealth management. It is a tax haven. No wonder, tennis players like Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev call it their home. You can also find many celebrities and sports icons who have a home in Monaco. 

As we walked, many cars passed us and we were shocked to see the luxury even in that. We spotted more than 10 Bentleys and Rolls Royces! Some of these were going straight to the casino. As we stood outside the casino, we were told that we couldn’t enter wearing shorts and backpacks! That’s one thing about this place – you are expected to dress well. However, we could enter the lobby of the casino – we went in, took some pics and left. 

It didn’t look like we could afford a meal at a restaurant here, so we decided to head back to Nice for dinner. We took the last bus back. 

Check out the first part of this series here. The third part is available here.

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