A great racetrack can turn a town into a must see destination. If that town happens to combine motorsports and the weather of southern France, then you have Monaco. The town of Monaco is actual a small country of its own. It is most famous for decadent living and the race that occurs in the summer of every year. In June, the whole world watches as the most technologically advanced cars on the planet line up to race through the city on the same streets that were being walked on just days earlier. I have been to Monaco and can tell you that the city and the track are just the beginning of what is a spectacular city.

The best way to enter the city if from the west, this way you can come into the town from above and see the bay and the whole cityscape before you. Also, because you are coming into town this way, you will find many more parking areas. It is best to find the first parking garage away from the city center that you can. The whole city has a series of elevators that you can take instead of walking up and down thousands of stairs. This will save your feet for the journey ahead as you go to explore the track and the town itself.

Once you get down to the harbor, be sure to cross to the other side of the street closest to the harbor. This area with the red pavement is the pit lane on race weekend and behind you, on the street, you can see the grid where the race cars line up before the start of the race. Following the flow of traffic will bring you to the first corner of Sainte Devote. This is a sharp right hand turn that goes immediately uphill. The steep walk will lead up toward the Casino and all those poker tables they have and give you a commanding view of all the ships in the harbor and the city proper. This is one of the fastest parts of the course as the cars accelerate up the hill at full throttle and have to take a sharp left turn at the top of the hill. You will notice that the turn is blind and the drivers must negotiate this turn at about 100 mph.

This turn leads directly into Casino Square and heads past the sculpture/mirror thing in the middle and then the cars dive down to the right and head downhill toward the sharpest turn in all of Formula One; the hairpin. From here, you continue downhill and to the right where the cars take another sharp right turn and head straight into the tunnel.

This tunnel doesn’t seem all that dark, but you have to remember that you are not doing over 150 mph either and your eyes have time to adjust. If you are going from bright sunlight into a tunnel and then back into sunlight again in about 10 seconds, your eyes will barely have time to blink. This is the fastest part of the track and as you come out into the sunlight on the other side, you will head down the hill toward the harbor.

Here, you can make a sharp left and then a right again to get onto the actual harbor road. You will be standing next to multi-million dollar yachts while walking on the same track where multi-million dollar race cars drive at over 100 mph. Follow this harbor road around the Olympic swimming pool until you come to a restaurant called Rascasse. Take a hard right around the restaurant until you come to a statue of a Mercedes W196 and Stirling Moss. From here, you will want to turn right and head down the front straight. This completes one lap of the Monaco Formula One track. Now all you have to do is 77 more of those at high speed and you will be in the same boat as Formula One drivers. The course is demanding, scary and very beautiful to look at. It is well worth the trip to this historic principality.