First of all, where is Monaco?

Budget Indian Travelers remember the place where James Bond shot for Casino Royale. In case you don’t know it’s nestled in the south-east of France, only 10 km from the Italian border is a popular tourist destination.

This micro city-state in the French Riviera is a synonym of luxury and glamour and a place loved by the rich, famous and powerful.It is known for its upscale casinos, yacht-lined harbor and prestigious Grand Prix motor race, which runs through Monaco’s streets once a year.

Monte-Carlo is the name of one of its five districts (Monaco-Ville and La Condamine are two others).It is home to an elegant belle-époque casino complex and ornate Salle Garnier opera house. It also has many luxe hotels, boutiques, nightclubs and restaurants.

This country, even though small in size offers many fun attractions.Here is a list of the best things you can do during your next trip to Monaco.

The Palace

From the warren of Monaco-Ville, with its souvenir shops, stroll through Monaco’s governmental heart to the royal Palace. Get there at 11.55 am for the daily changing of the guard on the square in front. Six chaps with rifles march about to a drum and bugle accompaniment and take up posts defending the princely seat against … it’s not very clear whom.

Though, from the outside, it looks more like a big sanatorium than a palace, the Grimaldi pad is grandly Renaissance within, from the fresco’d and be-columned courtyard to apartments effusive with flamboyant décor. The brother of our George III died in the Duke of York chamber in 1765, conceivably from an excess of gilt and stucco.

The Palace entry ticket used also to assure access to the Napoleon Museum next door, but the museum no longer exists. Prince Albert closed it a few years back, selling off its contents. (He got €1.9 million for one of Bonaparte’ bicorne hats in the November auction.)Leaving the Palace, take in the all-round views from the square, the glorious rock-side St Martin gardens and Monaco’s cathedral. The tombs of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace are to the left of the choir. They make a striking, sober contrast with the neo-Byzantine over-ornamentation of the rest of the church.

Address: Monaco-Ville

Contact: 00 377 93 25 18 31 (ext 8484); palais.mc

Opening times: daily, 10am-6pm (early April to mid-October)

Palace admission: adults €8, children aged 8-14, and students, €4. An abundance of stairs means the palace is not accessible to wheelchairs

Oceanographic Museum

Though competition is not too stiff, this is the principality’s best, and most popular, museum. A neoclassical pile built straight up from the cliff, it looks far grander than the Princely Palace. Columns and pediments give it a sort of Victorian mission to educate. Which it does, very well. The vast place is packed with marine fascination, notably a fine aquarium (including a shark lagoon pool) and a 90ft whale skeleton which, if it rose from the dead, could swallow Monaco whole.

Attractions have recently been boosted by the opening in recent years of Tortoise Island, an outdoor space devoted, unsurprisingly, to tortoises and turtles. The space also includes a play area for nippers and a lounge section where parents may sit, take a drink and survey their offspring. Meanwhile, there are immersive, maritime-themed movies on weekend afternoons – and touch tanks, that kids might discover what live starfish (and others) feel like. Also new is an old-style display of sea-linked curiosities – from a polar bear to a 1797 diving outfit. Sharks also remain a key attraction, as the museum attempts to get us up close and personal with the toothy monsters – and thus de-demonise them. Apparently, sharks kill only 10 people a year, while jellyfish account for 50 – and mosquitoes for 800,000.

Address: Avenue St Martin

Contact: 00 377 93153600; oceano.org

Opening times: daily, 10am-6pm (January-March and October-December); 10am-7pm (April-June and September); 10am-7.30pm (July-August)

Admission: adults from €11, children aged 4-12 €5, aged 13-18 €7 (low season)

The Casino, Monte Carlo

Standing in the Place du Casino, you are in the high-rolling heart of the principality – and, indeed, of Europe. Nowhere else does one sense such a fancy concentration of wealth and the easy assumptions that go with it. Behind, the Allée-des-Boulingrins gardens progress by sumptuous terraces.

The fountains, flora, lawns and contemporary sculpture are light opera in horticultural form. To the right, the monumentally ornate Hotel de Paris demands a bevy of duchesses to do it justice. And straight ahead is the Casino, its deliriously decorated façade perching precisely between the grandiose and the ridiculous.

Inside, it’s extraordinarily lavish, salon upon salon of soaring rococo – huge columns, gilt, marble, chandeliers, haut-reliefs of nude women, wall-filling paintings. Gaming, say these surroundings, is among the highest attainments of human civilisation.

A pity, then, about the gamblers. The place demands orchestras and a full-dress ball. What it gets are jabbering slot machines and coach loads in from Turin and Tonbridge, all grimly betting apparently under doctor’s orders. Unmissable, though. There’s more serious class (and gambling) in the Salons Privés deeper in the heart of the extravagant building. And also out on the terrace – opened in summer 2011 for outdoor gambling. It’s debatable whether the sea views and exotic horticulture ease the pain of seeing your money dissolve.

enovation has also left the casino with a fine new Salle Blanche – a sort of white lounge champagne and gaming bar – at its heart. You’ll find it en route to the outdoor terraces. There’s a lot more class, too, in the casino’s other bars and restaurants. If words like “zen” and “cutting edge” work for you, then the Buddha Bar is obviously your place. There’s probably no hipper bar-restaurant franchise in the world. The casino surrounds got their version in 2010. Think around €65 for a meal. The BB’s ground floor bar opens onto its own terrace and holds what I can only just bring myself to call a Happy Lounge between 6pm and 8pm. That means cheaper drinks.

Meanwhile, Le Train Bleu has wagon-lit surroundings for Italian food, with mains from €29, and The Salon Rose has snackier items – among much else – and two-course menus from €32.

Address: Place du Casino, Monte Carlo

Contact: 00 377 98 06 21 21; casinomontecarlo.com

Opening times: casino daily, from 2pm (midday, weekends). Salons Privés Mon-Fri, from 4pm; Sat-Sun from 3pm

Admission: casino €12 off-season, €17 May 2-Sept 30; over-18s only (take ID). Salons Privés €10 extra on top of admission fee

Café de Paris

Directly outside the Casino, this Art Nouveau brasserie has the key see-and-be-seen terrace in Monaco, and the most arrogantly churlish waiters, perhaps, in the world. (That gets you out of leaving a tip.) Take a table and watch the spectacle that is Monte Carlo. Note the chaps in uniform impatiently waving Citroëns out of the way so Bentleys might proceed unhindered.

Note, also, that the blokes driving the Bentleys look more like money launderers than movie stars. And that their lady-companions look like (let’s be charitable) their nieces. Behind, the Café has its own casino – a much less formal, even futuristic affair.

It also has slot machines on covered outdoor terraces, for the benefit of smokers. Smoking has been banned inside Monaco casinos for a few years now (with a catastrophic effect on takings). On this terrace, you may once again lose your money and your health simultaneously. Though some people win. One fortunate person recently dropped €194,027 on a 2-centime-a-go slot. The machine to aim for is ‘Aliens .v. Predators’.

Address: Place du Casino, Monte Carlo

Contact: 00 377 980623; fr.casinocafedeparis.com

Opening times: Casino open 24/7; brasserie from 8am-2am

Admission: free entry to casino. Brasserie mains from €29

Jardin Exotique

For a microscopic spot, Monaco crams in an awful lot of gardens and, to my mind, this is the most interesting.

Perched high up at the entrance to the principality, it drops almost perpendicular down the rock face, so it takes a bit of clambering over. Worth it, though, for a world-class collection of cacti and succulents. Some date from early last century and have grown huge, so it’s like wandering through a sort of vertical New Mexico.

Except that you don’t get the outstanding sea views in New Mexico. The entry price includes access to a cave within the gardens full of stalactites and stalagmites (be warned: there are 300 steps) and an on-site museum of prehistory which, I have to admit, I’ve never visited.

Address: 62 Boulevard du Jardin Exotique

Contact: 00 377 93152980; jardin-exotique.mc

Opening times: February-October, daily 9am-6pm (until 7pm, May 15-September 15). November-January, daily 9am-5pm

Admission: adults €7.20, over-65s €5.50, children aged 4-18 and students, €5.50

Nouveau Musée National de Monaco

Two villas – Villa Paloma and Villa Sauber – now house contemporary art (having once been devoted to dolls and automates). Through to June this year, 2015, they host an exhibition titled Constructing A Collection.

Address: Villa Paloma, 56 Blvd Jardin Exotique; Villa Sauber, 17 Ave Princesse Grace

Contact: nmnm.mc

Opening times: daily, 8am-6pm (June 1-Sept 30, 11am-7pm)

Admission: €4 each, or €6 both. Free for u26yo

How to reach Monaco

The nearest airport is in France (Nice – Cote d’Azur Airport), which is about 22km (about 14 miles) from Monaco. The Cote d’Azur airport is about 24 kilometers (15 miles) away from Monaco. From Nice, you can still opt to travel by air via a helicopter onward to Monaco. There are regular helicopter flights to shuttle passengers between Monaco Heliport and Nice’s Cote d’Azur Airport. The flight duration from the Cote d’Azur to the Monaco Heliport is around 7 minutes. Another option is to take a train. The train station (Gare de Monaco) for SNCF train services is in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Another way to get to Monaco is to travel by road via private car or bus. Monaco is well connected to the European road network. The A8 highway is the closest main European highway to Monaco, and is about 8km (under 5 miles) from the city center. Arriving in Monaco by sea is an unforgettable experience. Each year, there are many cruise lines that offer cruises that stopover in Monaco –Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Silversea Cruises, and so on.

Do you have any tips on what to do in Monaco? What do you think are the best things to do in Monaco?

If you have already visited Monaco let us know, and if you have any questions ask away in the comments.