Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Monaco
The gardens and Fontvieille in six hours
The cactus garden on the cliff, the cave beneath it, the rose garden and the harbour built on reclaimed sea.
The three-hour route does the Rock and the casino. This one is the principality most visitors never see: a cactus garden cut into a cliff 100 metres up, a limestone cave underneath it, and a whole district — Fontvieille — that did not exist until Monaco poured it into the Mediterranean in the 1970s. Almost all of it is free, which in Monaco is worth saying out loud.
The route, stop by stop
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Jardin Exotique
Arrive by bus from the previous stop
Thousands of succulents on a near-vertical cliff face, planted from 1933, with terraces looking straight down onto the whole principality. The ticket includes the cave beneath it — the only one in Europe where the temperature rises as you descend.
100 min here Walk here → -
Princess Grace Rose Garden
Eight thousand roses of three hundred varieties, planted by Rainier in her memory in 1984. Free, and nearly always empty.
40 min here Walk here → -
Fontvieille Park
Four hectares of landscaped park on land reclaimed from the sea in the 1970s, with an olive tree said to be six hundred years old moved in whole.
35 min here Walk here → -
Port de Fontvieille
The second harbour, smaller and far quieter than Hercules, and where the boats people actually use are kept.
40 min here Walk here → -
Monaco Top Cars Collection
Around a hundred cars the Grimaldis have accumulated, including the Formula One entries and a 1903 De Dion Bouton.
60 min here Walk here →
More in Monaco
Every walking route in Monaco, or the full Monaco guide for where to stay and what a day costs.