MAY 23, 2002

Monaco in all its splendor

You want to go to Monaco for the Grand Prix?

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....