Monaco Yacht Show Week: Hotels, Tables, Transfers
During the Monaco Yacht Show, hotels in Monaco, Nice, Antibes and Cannes sell out weeks before the first yacht arrives, and the restaurants brokers book for client dinners are gone before that. A visit planned only as far as the pass is half planned. The week is a logistics problem first — where you sleep, where you eat, and how you get between the coast and the harbour.
Where to stay, and when it is already too late
Monaco itself has a small number of rooms and a very large number of people who want them that week. The three hotels most associated with the show — Hôtel de Paris, Hôtel Hermitage and Monte-Carlo Bay — are booked months out by exhibitors and their guests. The next ring is the coast: Cap-d'Ail and Beaulieu a few minutes away, Nice at twenty minutes by train, Antibes and Cannes further but with more rooms.
| Base | To Port Hercule | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Monaco | On foot or a short car | Scarcest rooms, highest rates, no transfer problem |
| Cap-d'Ail, Beaulieu, Èze | 10–20 min by car | Quieter, still close; a car each way |
| Nice | ~25 min by train, 45+ by road; 7 min by helicopter | Most rooms, most flights; the commute is the cost |
| Antibes, Cannes | 45–90 min by road | Rooms available later; a real commute in show traffic |
| A yacht, chartered for the week | You are in the harbour | The show from the inside; a different budget entirely |
Sources. Hotel availability and the named properties from Y.CO, Seal Superyachts and BOAT International; helicopter and road times as set out in getting to a Grand Prix, which covers the same Nice–Monaco transfer. All consulted 20 September 2026. Rates are not quoted because they are set per hotel per night for show week and change daily; ask for the date you mean.
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Eating: the tables go first
Every broker at the show has a client dinner to host, and every one of them wants the same six restaurants. Those tables are booked before the show is announced, by people who book them every year. Arriving in show week and asking for a Thursday table at the best-known address is asking for something that does not exist.
What does exist is what exists everywhere tables are scarce: cancellations, held allocations, tables at 21:30 that the room releases once it knows how the night is running. The mechanics are the same as any booked-out restaurant and are set out in last-minute tables at booked-out restaurants. The practical advice for show week is to book the dinners that matter the moment you book the pass, and to be flexible on time for the rest.
Getting in and out
Nice is the airport. From there, the choices are the train, the road, or the helicopter — and in show week the road is the slow one. Seven minutes by helicopter into Fontvieille against forty-five minutes to well over an hour by car, at per-seat prices that make the helicopter the sensible option for anyone whose time that week is worth anything. The figures and the booking window are in getting to a Grand Prix; the transfer is identical for the show.
Inside Monaco, walking is faster than driving for most of the week. Sapphire Experience holders have courtesy cars; everyone else has their feet and the lift from the port to Monte-Carlo, which is the piece of local knowledge that saves the most time.
The evenings are the second show
The harbour closes at 18:30. The show does not. Shipyards, brokers and brands host through the week — on yachts, in the hotels, at venues around the Principality — and most of it is by invitation. A broker who has toured you that day is the route to that evening; a well-placed concierge is the other. This is where the week's actual business is frequently done, and a visitor who leaves at the closing bell has seen half of it.
If the yacht is the hotel
The last row of the table is the one that changes the week entirely. A yacht chartered and berthed for show week is a hotel in the harbour, a venue for the evenings, and a boarding pass to the show's inner circle in a way no wristband is. It is priced like a Mediterranean charter week with a Port Hercule berth on top — the arithmetic is in Monaco GP by yacht, and the show week is the second time each year the harbour is priced that way.
Common questions
How far ahead should you book a hotel for the Monaco Yacht Show?
For Monaco itself, as soon as the dates are announced — the exhibitors have already booked. For Nice, two to three months is workable. For Antibes or Cannes, later is possible but the commute is the price.
Is it worth staying in Monaco rather than Nice?
If you are attending the evenings, yes — the last train back to Nice is early and a car in show traffic is not. If the visit is the daytime docks only, Nice and the train is the better value by a wide margin.
Can you get a table at Hôtel de Paris during the show?
Not on the night. The restaurants there are booked by people who book them every year. With notice, and flexibility on time, something can usually be found; on the day, the honest answer is a different restaurant.
Do you need a car in Monaco during the show?
No, and it is a liability. Parking is scarce, roads around the port are restricted, and the distances are walkable. Arrive by helicopter or train, walk, and take a car only for the coast.
The week, arranged
Tell us the days, the party and what the week is for — the docks, the boardings or the evenings. You get the hotel that still has a room, the dinners that can still be found, the transfer that avoids the road, and the pass. Send us the dates.