Staying in the French Riviera during Grand Prix

Need some help here. DH and I recently booked an Azamara cruise that departs from Nice on 5/30/2016. Our plan was to spend four days in either Nice or Villefranche pre-cruise. We just discovered that those four days will coincide with the Monaco Grand Prix.

Is the whole area going to be crawling with people and will hotel prices for the entire Riviera be astronomical or will the congestion be centralized around Monaco? Would appreciate some insight and advice from anyone who might be familiar with the Grand Prix.

It will be centralized around Monaco. It is not that big a deal in other towns. This far out you can reserve your hotels at a normal rate. We have been in that area at Grand Prix time several times and it has never been a problem outside of Monaco.

If it isn't too late, a word of advice.

In 2015 the Monaco GP is May 21-24.

The Cannes Film Festival is May 13-24

Although you plan 4 nights (from May 26?) before joining Quest on the 30th, accommodation availability might still be a little affected so I would be tempted to book asap while you still have a good choice. May 26 onwards isn't ideal for Monaco as the "clean up and clear up" post race works had the town in chaos this year, as they do every year, and it was noisy around the central area too as there is a lot of scaffolding in the form of stands and barriers to come down. There were also still road closures in place and some bus route diversions. It was a bit like a giant building site with lorries, vans and cranes everywhere. There is usually a good selection of hotels in Nice across all price ranges and it is a good base for sightseeing

At least you have an embarcation date which is a few days after both events finish on May 24, much better dates than we had this year when we were joining Quest in Nice on May 26. We had the Cannes Film Festival May 14-25 and the Monaco GP May 22-25.

Although we had planned to stay a couple of nights before joining Quest, due to both events, such was the demand for accommodation ALL along the coast that only really expensive rooms were left. Not only that, they were very low quality, only 1 or 2 stars. As we had visited the area a couple of times before and were unwilling to pay 5 star prices for 1 and 2 star rooms, we decided to fly in on the day instead.