MAY 23, 2002

Monaco in all its splendor

YOU want to go to Monaco for the Grand Prix? Despite the supposed recession in Formula 1 circles the hotels are still able to charge more or less whatever they want. To stay at the Hotel de Paris will cost you $7200 for a five-night minimum stay - and that is just for the average rooms. Go to Nice and you will still be hit with three night minimums at $500 a night for a decent hotel.

There are, of course, cheaper alternatives all along the Cote d'Azur and a lot of the F1 people nowadays stay in hotels outside Monaco.

But spare a thought for the Americans who arrived in Monaco this weekend having paid out $22,000 for a package including flights, a top class hotel and tickets to the race only to find that the arrangements expected were just an Internet scam....