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Cheapest charter on the Riviera?
2010-06-24 13:43
Where: Quai Antoine 1er / Quai États-Unis
When: daily 8am-8pm, every twenty minutes
Tickets: €1 per crossing, €6 (carnet of 10 tickets), €3 day pass
The eco-friendly, solar-powered 'bateau bus' made its debut here as an experiment two years ago, and the numbers using it have swollen from 27,000 in the first year to 120,000 in 2009.
Perhaps not so remarkable when you consider the efficiency of a service that knocks spots off the equivalent slog round the roads of la Condamine, and the cost, which at €1 per trip must make this the cheapest yacht charter in the world, let alone Monaco.
The boat sets off from the the Terminal Croisière (where the big ships put in) and crosses Port Hercule every twenty minutes, at 10, 30 and 50 minutes past each hour. After that, it's just three minutes' walk to the Casino. And if you take a bus within thirty minutes of your crossing, its price is included in your ferry ticket.
So successful has this experimental scheme been that it will become a permanent fixture, with trips planned to Menton from 2010.
All that, and it's solar-powered, which will please the Prince.