Monaco Yacht Show Daywork Budget and the Antibes–Monaco Train
Where you are right now
It's the week before the Monaco Yacht Show. You're in an Antibes crew house, or landing at Nice in the next few days, and the number in your bank account is not growing. You want to know two things: what three weeks of Monaco Yacht Show daywork is going to cost, and how you physically get to Port Hercule at 07:30 every morning without burning through the money.
That's this post. For how to actually get hired — the prep-week window, where the show boats are, agencies, WhatsApp groups, day rates — read Monaco Yacht Show 2026 Daywork: How Green Crew Get Hired. For named Antibes crew houses and what a bunk costs, the Cannes daywork guide has it. This post doesn't repeat either.
One thing to accept before the numbers: nobody green sleeps in Monaco during show week. The few hostel-priced beds in the Principality vanish months out, and everything else is hotel money. Your base is Antibes (or Nice), and Monaco is a commute. Budget accordingly.
Port Hercule dressed for the show. Once the pontoons go in, dock access is by badge only. Photo: 102Legobrick, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What three weeks of Monaco Yacht Show daywork costs
The window that pays is roughly 14 September through the show and the breakdown after it — call it three weeks, about 20 nights. Here's what that looks like from an Antibes bunk.
| Line | Three weeks | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Crew-house bunk (Antibes) | €500–€850 | €25–€45/night. Book the full run now; beds go. |
| Food | €225–€375 | Supermarket breakfasts and dinners. Boats usually feed you lunch. |
| Train Antibes↔Monaco | €130–€330 | ~€10–11 each way, so €20–€22 a day. Two Explore passes cover the whole window for about €130; see below. |
| Coffee/lunch in Monaco | €50–€120 | Only on days the boat doesn't feed you. A sandwich and a coffee near the port is €12–€18, not €6. |
| Late-night taxis home (split) | €30–€80 | One or two nights you'll miss the last train. Never ride alone; find three others. |
| eSIM / data | €15–€25 | You live in WhatsApp groups for three weeks. |
| Kit | €0–€200 | Zero if you already bought whites, deck shoes and a knife for Cannes. |
| Flights | €80–€250 | Zero if you're already here. |
| Show pass | €0 | Visitor passes are online-only and cost hundreds of euros a day. A dayworker does not buy one. Your badge comes from the boat. |
| Total | ~€1,050–€2,200 |
Most people land around €1,500 all in. The lines that move it are the bunk price you negotiate and how many days you get fed.
Two things Monaco adds that Cannes doesn't. First, the commute is real money: ten days of return tickets is €200+, versus a few euros a day to Cannes. Second, Monaco prices. If the boat says "grab your own lunch", a chief stew's idea of grabbing lunch in La Condamine and yours are the same €15. Bring food from Antibes in your bag and you save the price of a day's train.
The rail pass that halves the commute line. The regional Pass SudAzur Explore gives unlimited TER, tram and bus travel across the Alpes-Maritimes and Monaco: 7 days for €50, 14 days for €80, plus a €2 refundable card deposit. Three return trips and the 7-day has paid for itself; if you're commuting daily, the 14-day plus a 7-day covers the whole prep-and-show window for about €130 instead of €300+. It's sold on a smartcard at the Envibus bus interchange at Antibes station, the Espace Zou! at Nice-Ville or Cannes, and Lignes d'Azur tram machines in Nice. The blue Zou! machines on station platforms only top up a card you already hold, so sort the card on day one.
The honest arithmetic
Green crew get €120–€130 a day in the South of France, with the crunch nudging the top end. Over three weeks, a green dockwalker who works hard and lands in the right WhatsApp groups realistically gets 8 to 14 paid days, not 20.
- 8 days × €120 = €960
- 12 days × €125 = €1,500
- 14 days × €130 = €1,820
Take off €1,000–€1,500 in living costs (bunk, food, trains, lunches — not flights or kit) and you clear somewhere between minus €200 and plus €700. Break-even is the normal outcome. The return isn't the cash; it's the twenty crew you now know by name, the mate who took your number, and the chance one of those boats needs a body for the Caribbean crossing in November. The does show daywork pay post runs this maths in more detail.
How much to arrive with
If Monaco is your only show: arrive with €2,000 and assume you'll be here a month, because the boat that hires you permanently will hire you in October, not during the show.
If you worked Cannes first, this is one campaign, and the budgets stack. The Cannes fortnight table (€750–€1,350) plus this one, minus the duplicated flight and kit lines, is roughly €1,700–€3,000 out of pocket over five weeks before a single day's pay comes in. Cannes earnings, if you got them, fund Monaco. If you didn't, you need the runway in the bank before you fly.
The train from Antibes to Monaco
The whole coast runs on one railway line, the Marseille–Ventimiglia corridor, with regional TER trains branded Zou!. Antibes and Monaco are both on it. There's no faster or cheaper way to commute.
Gare d'Antibes. It is a ten-minute walk from Port Vauban and the crew houses in the old town. Photo: Abxbay, CC BY-SA 4.0.
| Antibes → Monaco at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Journey time | 50–60 min (fastest around 48–50) |
| Fare | €10–€11 one way, same price on the day; or an Explore pass |
| Direct? | Most trains, yes. A handful change at Nice-Ville. |
| First train | Around 05:50 from Antibes |
| Frequency | Roughly every 20–30 min at peak; 50+ trains a day |
| Direction on the board | Trains towards Nice-Ville, Menton or Vintimille (Ventimiglia) |
| Monaco station | Monaco-Monte-Carlo, fully underground |
| Walk to the port | 5–10 min from the Port Hercule exit |
Buying a ticket
Three options, all the same price:
- Zou! app (the regional transport app) — buy on your phone, no queue.
- SNCF Connect app or website — same TER tickets.
- The blue machines at the station — take a card. Before 08:00 in show week there's a queue of dayworkers at these, so buy the night before or use the app.
Or get an Explore pass and stop buying tickets. Whatever you hold, keep it ready; ticket inspectors work this line and the fine is more than a day's pay.
Which train to take
You need to be on the dock by 07:30–08:00. That's a departure from Antibes between roughly 06:15 and 06:45, allowing 50–60 minutes on the train and ten minutes to walk from the station to the port. Check the live board the night before; some early services are the ones that change at Nice.
Two things that catch people out. First, Monaco is rarely the train's final destination, so don't look for "Monaco" on the board; anything heading to Menton or Vintimille stops there. Second, if you're on a train that terminates at Nice-Ville, the connection is usually across the platform and quick, but it's a connection — don't fall asleep.
Arriving at Monaco-Monte-Carlo
Monaco-Monte-Carlo is entirely underground. Follow the signs for the Port Hercule exit, not the one for Monte-Carlo. Photo: CAPTAIN RAJU, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The station is a curved tunnel inside the rock with several exits on different levels, and picking the wrong one adds a sweaty fifteen minutes to your morning. You want the Port Hercule exit: an underground corridor with escalators that brings you out at the bottom of Rue Grimaldi, beside Sainte-Dévote church, a few minutes' walk from Quai Albert 1er and the show pontoons. The Parvis Sainte-Dévote exit (stairs behind the church) lands you in almost the same place. Avoid the Monte-Carlo and Fontvieille exits; they're for other parts of town. See Visit Monaco's station page for the exit list.
The last train home — check it before you say yes
Show week finishes late. Boats run cocktail parties, and "can you stay till the guests leave" means 01:00. The last train from Monaco back towards Antibes leaves somewhere between 22:00 and midnight depending on the day, and the timetable changes — look it up on the app each morning and tell the bosun your cut-off before you're asked. After that, your options are:
- A taxi split four ways. Monaco to Antibes is around 50 km and a taxi is well over €100. Split among dayworkers heading the same way, it's survivable. Never pay it alone.
- Zou! bus 600 (the old line 100) from Monaco to Nice, €2.50 cash or €2.10 by contactless tap, every 10–15 minutes in the day. Then a TER from Nice-Ville to Antibes if one is still running. In practice this is a strike-day backup more than a late-night plan.
Strike days
French rail strikes don't schedule around boat shows. If the TER stops, bus 600 still runs Nice–Monaco–Menton, but from Antibes you have to reach Nice first, so the crew who make the dock on time are the ones who left at 05:30. Warn your boat the night before; a captain would rather know.
If you're basing in Nice instead
Nice-Ville to Monaco is around 23 minutes, trains every 10–15 minutes at peak, and the fare is about half of Antibes. Nice has fewer crew houses and less of a dockwalking scene, but for show week itself the shorter commute is worth real money and real sleep. If you've already got a bed in Antibes, stay put; if you're still choosing, Nice is a legitimate base for Monaco week only.
Before you go to bed tonight
Book the bunk for the full three weeks. Sort the Explore pass. Check the last train back. And put your availability somewhere captains actually look — a free Radius crew profile lets boats prepping for Monaco in Antibes and Nice find you without you refreshing a dozen Facebook groups from the platform at 06:20.