Monaco

Monaco packs an outsized reputation into roughly 2 square kilometers, smaller than New York's Central Park, making it the second-smallest country on Earth after Vatican City. That tiny footprint hasn't stopped it from becoming synonymous with wealth and glamour — Monaco has no income tax, one of the highest costs of living in the world, and a population where a genuinely large share are millionaires by international standards.

The Monte Carlo Casino, opened in 1863, anchors that reputation more than any other single building. Its ornate Belle Époque main hall is open to visitors for a modest fee, letting non-gamblers see the same gilded rooms that have appeared in numerous films, including several James Bond features. Actual gaming floors require a stricter entry fee, formal dress, and identification — notably, Monégasque citizens themselves are barred by law from gambling in their own national casino, a rule dating back to the 19th century.

Once a year, Monaco's ordinary streets — the same roads used for daily traffic — become one of Formula 1's most prestigious and demanding circuits for the Monaco Grand Prix, typically held in late May. Barriers go up around the harbor and casino, hotel prices spike dramatically, and the tight, unforgiving street layout that makes the race famous is the exact same route pedestrians and cars use the rest of the year.

Above the harbor, the old town on the Rock of Monaco holds the Prince's Palace, home to the ruling Grimaldi family, along with a changing-of-the-guard ceremony and narrow medieval streets that feel genuinely distinct from the modern high-rise glamour surrounding the casino district.

Port Hercules, Monaco's harbor, regularly holds some of the largest privately owned yachts in the world, docked close enough to walk past for free — a striking, unmistakable visual shorthand for exactly what Monaco has built its identity around.