Getting to Monaco
Monaco has one railway station and it is underground, with four named exits into four different parts of the Principality. Choosing the right one is worth more than any shortcut you will read elsewhere.
Start here
Monaco has no airport of its own. Nice Côte d’Azur, around 30 km away, is the gateway for scheduled flights, and from there the choice is rail, the express bus, or the road. All three are ordinary public options that work all year — and all three change during race week.
The journey in
Rail
Tram from the terminals to the railway, then the coastal TER line into Monaco.
Bus
A direct regional express bus from the airport into Monaco, stopping across several districts rather than at one point.
Sources disagree on this route’s line number — see the note below.
Road
Official taxis from Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 for the roughly 30 km by road.
Rail
The same coastal line runs east to the Italian border, where Intercity services connect onward.
These are scheduled, ordinary-day figures published by the operator and the Monaco tourist office. They describe a normal week. None of them is a promise about the day the roads become the circuit.
On the map
The circuit, the start line and the streets that close. During race week the last few hundred metres of any journey are the ones that change — a taxi cannot cross a live track, and the tunnel under the Rock is part of it.
Ticket-holders only, roughlyClosed to traffic and pedestriansOn foot with a race ticket
Closures are the 2025 regime, from Journal de Monaco n° 8743. The 2027 ordinance publishes about five weeks before the race. The shaded area is approximate — it is drawn around the closed roads and bulges slightly beyond the barriers, so treat it as “roughly behind the fence” rather than a boundary. Two streets the ordinance names are drawn without an exact extent and are left off entirely.
Grandstands are ticketed. Circuit geometry © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
The station
Monaco’s only railway station, and it is underground. Which exit you use decides which district you arrive in — this is the single most useful thing to know about arriving in Monaco by train.
Monte-Carlo · Exotic Garden · Hospital area
On the Pont Sainte-Dévote. Lift access for people with reduced mobility.
Lift access for reduced mobility
Port Hercule · rue Grimaldi · boulevard d’Ostende
Leads to the roundabout between rue Grimaldi and boulevard d’Ostende.
No lift listed for this exit
La Condamine
In allée Lazare Sauvaigo. Lift access for people with reduced mobility.
Lift access for reduced mobility
Fontvieille · Monaco-Ville
In avenue du Prince Pierre. Lift access for people with reduced mobility.
Lift access for reduced mobility
Once you are there
Monaco is about 2 km² and walkable end to end. The constraint is vertical, not horizontal.
The Principality maintains a network of public lifts, escalators and travelators precisely because of the gradients. Official figures for how many differ, so the guide describes the network rather than counting it.
The Compagnie des Autobus de Monaco runs the Principality’s bus network.
A dense regular network plus express and on-demand services across the districts, running biofuel and electric vehicles.
Line B of the urban network is a solar-electric boat across Port Hercule.
It crosses between Quai Antoine 1ᵉʳ and Quai des États-Unis in both directions — a shortcut on foot-days between the Rock and Monte-Carlo.
Electric bike hire from 49 stations around the Principality.
Government-authorised on-demand electric bicycles.
Monaco operates an official taxi service with flat-rate fares.
Used for journeys inside Monaco and between the Principality and Nice airport.
Private transfers
Monaco has no runway, and the heliport is the only arrival point inside the principality itself. Everything else lands you somewhere else and continues by road or rail — which is the part race week changes.
The only way into Monaco itself rather than to a station or a motorway exit. The heliport is in Fontvieille, at the western end of the principality.
Race week Fontvieille sits outside the circuit, so a heliport arrival does not cross the track — but reaching Monte-Carlo or Larvotto from it may, once the roads close.
Scheduled and charter helicopter transfers between Nice airport and Monaco heliport, plus private flights and tours.
Advertises the Nice–Monaco transfer as around seven minutes.
On-demand helicopter charter and transfers.
Monaco has no runway. Private aircraft use Nice Côte d’Azur, about 30 km west, and continue by helicopter, road or rail.
Race week The onward leg is the part that changes during race week, not the flight.
On-demand private jet charter into Nice Côte d’Azur.
Fractional ownership and charter, into Nice Côte d’Azur.
Private-jet terminal and ground handling at Nice.
Door to door from Nice airport or along the coast, and the option most affected by the circuit.
Race week A chauffeur cannot cross a closed circuit any more than a taxi can. From 06:00 on Thursday the drop-off point matters more than the car.
App-booked chauffeur transfers, priced in advance rather than metered.
Private chauffeur service based in Monaco.
Chauffeur service with destination-management and concierge arrangements alongside it.
Chauffeured hire, with self-drive offered alongside it.
Chauffeur service and airport transfers.
Event and airport chauffeur service.
Chauffeur service.
The regulated taxi and private-hire ranks at Nice airport — the option that needs no booking.
Self-drive and chauffeured hire, listed for completeness. These are not a way of getting to Monaco — they are something to do once you are here.
Race week Least useful of all during the weekend. The circuit closes the roads a car would use, and Monaco has no parking to spare while it is live.
Prestige fleet, offered both self-drive and chauffeured.
Luxury vehicle rental, with Nice-airport transfers offered alongside.
Supercar rental.
Supercar hire.
Prestige rental.
Exotic and supercar rental.
Supercar fleet rental.
Luxury car rental.
Supercar hire, delivered to the heliport among other points.
Vintage and classic car hire and tours, through local operators.
Where sources disagree
Both are current, official and describe the same journey. Regional route numbering has been reorganised more than once, and old numbers persist in signage and search results. Look for the destination — Monaco — on the departure board rather than trusting a number from any guide, including this one.
Sources
Transport facts checked 2026-07-30. Station and node coordinates © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
An independent travel guide. Above Guide is not affiliated with Formula One, the FIA or the event organiser.