Larvotto

Larvotto is Monaco’s eastern seafront ward, 27.5 hectares ending at the French border with Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Everything from Avenue Princesse Grace seaward is flat and walkable at sea level. Everything behind it climbs: Boulevard du Larvotto runs above the avenue, and you move between the levels by public lift, escalator and stairs.

Since Mareterra opened on the Portier Cove extension in 2024, there is a continuous seafront walk the district did not have before: Larvotto beach, the Grimaldi Forum, the Promenade Prince Jacques across Mareterra, then Port Hercule. By road there are two through-routes, Avenue Princesse Grace and Boulevard du Larvotto. They carry resident traffic, beach traffic in season and event traffic; when one is under works, there is no third.

The seafront went up in the 1960s and 1970s: the skyline is consistent, towers and slab blocks turned to the sea, deep balconies, communal pools, and the service charges to match. Within one building the gap is stark: the bay on one side, the hillside or Avenue Princesse Grace on the other. The exception is Villa Sauber at number 17, a Belle Époque villa now part of the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco: not stock, but a record of the earlier seafront. Mareterra does the opposite: low-rise and planted.

The beach organises the day. Plage du Larvotto is Monaco’s main public beach: imported sand and fine shingle rather than natural sand, open all year, non-smoking, closed to dogs, with a Handiplage access site. Above it, a promenade level carries restaurants, cafés, a cycle path and a play area. Offshore, the Larvotto underwater reserve (Réserve sous-marine du Larvotto), created in 1976, protects the posidonia. For shopping, the lift and escalator chain climbs to Place des Moulins in Monte-Carlo.

It suits anyone who wants the sea at the end of the street and not Monte-Carlo every morning: Monaco-Monte-Carlo station is the better part of two kilometres off, with a climb. The trade-off is the season. Sporting Monte-Carlo, at 26 Avenue Princesse Grace, holds the Salle des Étoiles and Jimmy’z, the Grimaldi Forum runs a full events calendar, and the promenade has several bars. February is quiet; July is not. Ask about orientation and glazing before you view.