ten minutes east
Monaco was designed to be seen from the water. The stacked city, the palace on its rock, the harbour full of improbable yachts — all of it faces the sea, and all of it is ten fast minutes from our berth in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. A private boat charter in Monaco is the shortest distance between an ordinary morning and an entrance.
Timings are from her berth at Beaulieu-sur-Mer. Staying closer? We bring her to you — and it is simply a boat day in Monaco instead.
A private boat charter in Monaco is the whole boat for the day — no tickets, no other party aboard, no fixed circuit. Up to ten guests, 11:00 to 19:00, and a captain who knows the harbour. Board in Monaco or come round from our berth at Beaulieu; either suits us.
Some want the classic Monaco boat trip: Port Hercule, the palace on its rock, photographs against the skyline, lunch ashore. Others treat Monaco yacht charter as scenery and spend the day swimming at Mala or Cabbé. Either way, boat rental in Monaco with a skipper means you decide only what you want to — rates are on the prices page.
For one week in late May the best seat in Monaco is a deck. The circuit runs along the harbour front, the sound carries over the water, and the anchorage outside becomes the most glamorous car park on earth. We run Grand Prix and Film Festival charters at the standard full-day rate — see the prices page — and those dates go first every year. If the race is the reason, book the winter before.
A day at Monaco?
We reply within the day
Getting ashore in Monaco is entirely arrangeable — we idle the harbour mouth for the panorama and run you in to the quay by tender, which puts you on the pavement faster than a berth would and saves you the summer scrum for one. And it need not be a run from Beaulieu at all: if you are staying in Monaco, we bring her to you and the whole day happens here. Passports are not stamped by sea for a lunch stop, prices ashore are Monégasque, and the fuel for a Beaulieu–Monaco day is about as small as fuel bills get on this coast. It is our shortest glamorous run by miles.
Out of Beaulieu the coast turns immediately serious: the villas of Cap Estel, the cliffs under Èze village, La Mala’s little amphitheatre of a beach at Cap d’Ail — and then Monaco opens up all at once past the last headland. We idle the harbour mouth slowly. Nobody has ever asked us to hurry that part.
You can be photographed against the skyline, swim off the boat at Larvotto’s quiet end, or step ashore for lunch and the casino terraces while the captain minds the boat. Monte-Carlo from the sea, then a swim in French water twenty minutes later — that contrast is the whole day.
a few suggestions
These are suggestions, nothing more — places we actually take guests, each with the captain’s own note. Tell us which ones tempt you and the day is built around them, name somewhere that is not on the list and we go there instead — or leave the whole thing with us.
Beach clubs
arrive by sea
On the Roquebrune side of the principality, with an Olympic seawater pool and the 1929 pedigree to go with it.
Reachable from the water and a civilised alternative to Larvotto’s sand — the swim stop that comes with a proper lunch attached.
Beach clubs
arrive by sea
An elegant beach club at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin with a wide open terrace over the bay, simple Mediterranean cooking and very good cocktails.
Quietly the best value east of Monaco, and the natural lunch on a Menton day — a tender ride from the anchorage.
Restaurants
The Belle-Époque terrace on Casino Square, where the supercar-spotting is involuntary and the people-watching is the menu.
Go for the spectacle, not the cooking. For the local version, the Condamine market quarter eats better for half the money.
Restaurants
In the Hôtel de Paris since 1987, and the first hotel restaurant ever to hold three Michelin stars.
The grandest lunch in our range, and a jacket-and-booking affair — tell us weeks ahead and we shape the day around the table.
Beaches & swimming
arrive by sea
Monaco’s own beach, rebuilt and re-sanded, at the principality’s eastern end.
Swim off the boat at the quiet end rather than joining the sand. Twenty minutes later you can be in French water with nobody in it.
Beaches & swimming
arrive by sea
A green-water cove ringed by cliffs at Cap d’Ail, guarded from crowds by a staircase of 150-odd steps.
From the water it is a five-minute anchor-and-swim between Monaco and home — no steps involved, which the people on the steps notice.
Anchorages
arrive by sea
The harbour the whole principality is arranged around, and the Grand Prix circuit’s waterfront stretch.
We idle the harbour mouth for the panorama, then run you in to the quay by tender — ashore in minutes, and no summer scrum for a berth.
Sights & museums
Cousteau’s old kingdom, hanging off the cliff face of the Rock — still the best indoor hour in the principality.
The one ashore stop children ask to repeat. Pair it with the 11:55 guard change at the palace square.
whatever you have in mind, that is the day we build
from the log
About ten minutes at cruising speed — the principality is roughly five nautical miles east. Slow it down along the Èze and Cap d’Ail cliffs and it is a beautiful twenty.
Yes — we arrange a quay drop-off so you can lunch, gamble or wander, then step back aboard for the swim on the way home. Berthing the boat inside the port all day is rarely possible in season, so we plan around a drop rather than promise a berth.
Yes — Grand Prix week charters run at the standard full-day rate, and dates sell out far ahead. The harbour-front sections of the circuit are audible and partly visible from the water; it is the best-natured traffic jam in motorsport.
One boat, one crew, up to 10 guests, and a coast that is entirely yours for the day. Tell us how you want to spend it and the rest is ours to arrange. The day is yours and it is our pleasure to be part of it.