Cost of Visiting the Monaco GP

[tjdixon911]

Me and a mate are considering a trip to watch the F1 at Monaco next year, can anyone recommend a good source for Tickets / hotels / Poss Hospitality etc?

Ideally we would drive down mid week, stay in a local(ish) hotel (doubt track side on our budget but within a few miles?) get a Grandstand Ticket for Quali and Race then drive back Monday / Tuesday.

Whats the likely cost going to be excluding travel? Would we be expecting too much if we budgeted £1250 each?

Any advice much appreciated.

[GingerWizard]

I spent that at spa and i was camping. I would think closer to 2.5k if you wanted to do it as you imagaine...

[belleair302]

Tickets are simple.....hotels will kill you unless you stay in Menton or across the Italian border and catch the train in each day. Monte Carlo hotels will hit your for a minimum five night stay with prices increasing each night. You can do it for £1250 but it won't be 4*. One of the best sources for good seats is Grand Prix Tickets who are based in Austria but are FIA Agents and have some of the best seats and hospitality available. Remember in monaco friday is a no racing day, so be prepared to spend silly money on beers, pizza etc!!! Diet Coke 12 Euros!!!

[zaphod42]

Most of the organised tours stay in Nice - easy to fly into, train ride in and out to Monaco (trains run quite late as well I think), more hotels in budget, etc. Plus Nice is quite a good place to be for a long weekend.

[Arnold The Bat]

+1 for Nice. I've been to Monaco twice and both times stayed in Nice at very reasonable rates. Getting to Monaco is dead easy either by train or by bus and Nice railway station on GP morning is something else.

Your real expense will be tickets however Sectuer Rocher (overlooking Rascasse, Antony Nogues and the pit lane) is always cheap but then it is the side of a very steep hill but is a good atmosphere. Z1 (the straight leading up to Tabac) will get you close to the action for not a lot more then SR tickets however it is a bit of a free for all so you need to get in place early. The good news is that there are cafes alongside Z1 which I don't remember as being too expensive. I've never had a problem getting tickets through the various online outlets but apparently going directly to the ACM is a good method. http://www.formula1monaco.com/

The money you save buying cheap tickets can then be put towards a ticket to the Amber Lounge on Sunday night where you can party the night away with a few F1 drivers and other sportsman/rockstar type people.

Edited by Arnold The Bat on Tuesday 31st May 15:36

[llewop]

zaphod42 said:

Most of the organised tours stay in Nice - easy to fly into, train ride in and out to Monaco (trains run quite late as well I think), more hotels in budget, etc. Plus Nice is quite a good place to be for a long weekend.

Thats what we did 4 years ago when we went

Tickets: direct from ACM - they have a great website that gives you a camera view from the grandstands to help pick the one you want - we were in one that overlooks the pits and section after swiming pool for quali and then the huge one before swiming pool for the race. Actually preferred the former - the big one is (or was) poorly served for toilets and refreshments, also no cover if weather too far one way or the other (so wet or burnt...).

Hotel, flights and transfers: we used Kuoni who do packages - stayed in Nice at Le Meridien, which was pretty good and very central. Transfers by coach between hotel and Monaco worked really well, got in early enough for FP3 on Saturday and no rush to get back to it at the end of the day, traffic from the pickup car park wasn't too bad as I recall.