Vietnam · Gulf of Thailand
Phu Quoc
Vietnam's big beach island: national park at one end, sunset resorts down the west coast, and snorkelling islands scattered off the south.
Phu Quoc is Vietnam's largest island, closer to Cambodia than to the Mekong Delta, with more than half its area under national park and a west coast that faces open water and every sunset. The resorts and the long sand of Bai Truong fill that side; the southeast holds Sao Beach, the white crescent on every poster; and the An Thoi islands scatter off the southern tip for snorkelling. Long before any of it, the island made its name with anchovy fish sauce and black pepper, and it still does.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Vietnamese
Currency
VND
Timezone
UTC+7
Why you'll love Phu Quoc
The sunsets the whole west coast faces open sea, so the sun goes down into water from Long Beach, Ong Lang and the far northwest cape at Ganh Dau
The south fast boats out to the An Thoi archipelago for snorkelling over shallow coral, and a cable car strung island to island above the fishing fleet
Fish sauce and pepper warehouses of wooden vats fermenting anchovies at Duong Dong, and pepper vines on poles inland, both protected names and both older than tourism here
The empty end north of Cua Can the road runs through national park to Ganh Dau, the starfish shallows at Rach Vem and beaches that still empty out midweek
Best time to visit
Dec-Mar
30-32° days
10.229° N, 104.014° E
UTC+7 · Asia/Phnom Penh
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Weather & when to go to Phu Quoc
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Dec-Mar
Watch for Jun-Oct monsoon flooding risk · Jul-Oct typhoons risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Phu Quoc
June to October is the southwest monsoon: heavy afternoon rain, a churned-up sea on the west coast, and snorkelling boats to the An Thoi islands cancelled for days at a time. The trade-off is that the island's streams and waterfalls only run then, and are dry rock by the time the weather is at its best.
Top things to do in Phu Quoc
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Sao Beach - the white crescent on the southeast coast
scenic 👍 PopularFine, pale sand and shallow water on the sheltered side of the island, backed by coconut palms and a row of loungers and seafood shacks. It is the beach Phu Quoc puts on its posters, and it fills up in the middle of the day, so come early or late. Calmest when the west coast is rough.
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Hon Thom cable car - riding out to Pineapple Island
scenic 👍 PopularA three-rope cable car that runs from An Thoi over the fishing boats and a string of small islands to Hon Thom, several kilometres of it, among the longest sea crossings of its kind anywhere. The ride is the point; there is a beach and a water park at the far end.
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An Thoi archipelago - snorkelling the southern islands
diving nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedA cluster of small uninhabited islands off the southern tip, Hon Mong Tay, Hon Gam Ghi and Hon Dam Ngang among them, reached by day boat from An Thoi for snorkelling over shallow coral, squid fishing and lunch on deck. Easy and warm; visibility is best in the dry months and trips are cancelled outright in the monsoon.
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Phu Quoc fish sauce - the anchovy warehouses at Duong Dong
food culture arts ⭐ Highly recommendedRows of wooden vats the size of a room, packed with anchovies and salt and left for a year, in sheds along the Duong Dong river. Phu Quoc nuoc mam is a protected name, the smell is part of the tour, and most distilleries let visitors walk the floor and taste the first draw.
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Duong Dong night market - grilled seafood on ice
food 👍 PopularTanks and trays of crab, prawns, scallops and squid laid out along a closed street, picked and grilled to order at plastic tables. It is the island's default evening, touristy and noisy, and still where you eat the best of whatever came in that day.
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Phu Quoc Prison - the war-era camp at An Thoi
historyThe island's coconut-tree prison held tens of thousands of captives under the South Vietnamese and their American allies, and the museum on the site does not soften what happened in it: reconstructed tiger cages, wire and mannequins. Grim, quick to see, and the most serious thing on the island.
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Dinh Cau - the rock shrine at the river mouth
culture arts scenicA small temple and lighthouse built onto a black rock where the Duong Dong river meets the sea, dedicated to the goddess fishermen pray to before going out. Steps up, a view along the coast, and the spot the town gathers at sunset. The night market is a few minutes' walk away.
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Phu Quoc National Park - the forested north
nature wildlifeMore than half the island is protected, a UNESCO biosphere reserve of evergreen forest running from the middle of the island up to the northern capes. There are a few marked trails and a lot of road through it, and most people see it driving north to Ganh Dau rather than walking.
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Ganh Dau and Rach Vem - the northern capes
scenic off beaten pathGanh Dau is the far northwest corner, a headland with a beach and Cambodia visible across the water on a clear day. Rach Vem, on the north coast, is a stilt-house fishing hamlet whose shallows are full of red starfish, which is how it got its other name.
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Ham Ninh - the stilt village on the east coast
culture arts foodAn old fishing settlement of tin-roofed houses on the calm eastern shore, with a long pier out over the tidal flats and rows of stalls selling crab, sea cucumber and dried squid. Close to the airport, and usually paired with a run down to Sao Beach.
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Phu Quoc pepper farms - the vines at Khu Tuong
food culture artsPepper is the island's other protected crop, grown up tall poles in red soil inland from Duong Dong. The farms around Khu Tuong open to visitors, with drying yards of green, black and red corns out the front and the strong, floral local pepper for sale.
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Suoi Tranh and Suoi Da Ban - the inland streams
nature wildlifeTwo streams that tumble over granite slabs in the forest behind Duong Dong, with short walks in and pools to sit in. Worth the detour only in and just after the wet season; by the dry months they are usually bare rock.
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Vinpearl Safari - open-range animals at Bai Dai
nature wildlifeA large drive-through and walk-through wildlife park at the northwest end of the island, with giraffes, big cats and primates, alongside a theme park and a water park in the same complex. Squarely a family day, and the reason a lot of Vietnamese families come at all.
Best areas to stay in Phu Quoc
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Long Beach (Bai Truong)
Best all-round base $$Long resort strip, sunset sand
Explore hotels in Long Beach (Bai Truong) →
Duong Dong
Town & night market $Working island town, market, cheap eats
Explore hotels in Duong Dong →
Ong Lang
Quiet west coast $$Quiet coves, low-key resorts, palm shade
Explore hotels in Ong Lang →
An Thoi & the south
Islands & boat trips $$Fishing port, cable car, boat trips
Explore hotels in An Thoi & the south →
Bai Dai & the northwest
Resorts & families $$$Big resorts, theme parks, wide beach
Explore hotels in Bai Dai & the northwest →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Phu Quoc
Getting to & around Phu Quoc
Getting there
Fly into Phu Quoc, then 15 to 30 min by taxi to the west-coast beaches
Flight
Phu Quoc International Airport (PQC)
The terminal sits in the middle of the island, minutes from the southern end of Long Beach and about twenty from Duong Dong. There is no useful public transport: hotels send cars, and taxis and ride-hailing wait outside arrivals.
Ferry
Bai Vong pier
Fast passenger catamarans cross from Rach Gia in a few hours and from Ha Tien in a good deal less, landing on the east coast about half an hour from Duong Dong
Ferry
Bai Thom, northeast coast
Slower car ferries from Ha Tien land at the island's northeast tip, the route to take if you are bringing a vehicle over
Getting around
Rented motorbike
How most independent visitors get about; one main road runs the length of the island and traffic thins outside town
TBC
Taxi & ride-hailing
Metered taxis are everywhere and app-hailing works, the standard way to cover the long runs north and south
TBC
Car with driver
Hotels arrange a car and driver by the half or full day, the easiest way to do a north or south loop
TBC
Hotel shuttle
Most of the larger resorts run set shuttles into Duong Dong and the night market, which saves a lot of taxi runs
TBC
Public bus
A single route runs the length of the island between An Thoi and the northeast; real, cheap, slow and infrequent
TBC
Walking
Fine along Long Beach and around Duong Dong, useless for anything else; the island is bigger than it looks
Free
Day trips from Phu Quoc
An Thoi islands snorkelling trip
Full daySnorkelling day boat
The standard island day: a wooden boat out to three or four of the small islands off the southern tip, snorkelling over shallow coral, squid fishing and a seafood lunch on deck. Any hotel books it. Trips do not run when the sea is up in the monsoon.
Getting there
car | tour
About 40 min by road to An Thoi, then a day on a boat
Hon Thom
Half dayCable car island
Ride the long cable car from An Thoi out over the fishing fleet and the small islands to Hon Thom, where there is a beach, a water park and a view back along the chain. Best paired with a morning in An Thoi itself.
Getting there
car | tour
About 40 min by road to An Thoi, then roughly 15 min on the cable car
The north of the island
Full dayPark, capes and starfish
A loop through the national park to Ganh Dau on the northwest corner, where Cambodia shows on a clear day, then along the north coast to the stilt village and starfish shallows at Rach Vem. Add the safari park at Bai Dai if the children are along.
Getting there
car
About 1 hr 30 min by car or motorbike from Long Beach
Sao Beach and Ham Ninh
Half dayEast coast beaches
The sheltered side of the island in one run: the pale sand and flat water of Sao Beach, and the stilt-house fishing village at Ham Ninh with its long pier and crab stalls. The east coast is calm when the west is rough, which makes this the wet-season option.
Getting there
car
About 45 min by car from Long Beach, less from the airport
Ha Tien
1-2 daysMainland border town
The nearest mainland town, a small port on the Gulf below limestone hills, with the Mac family tombs and cave temples cut into the karst behind it. Ferry timings make it an overnight rather than a there-and-back, and it is the way onward into the Mekong Delta or Cambodia.
Getting there
ferry | car
Roughly 1 hr 30 min by fast ferry from Bai Vong pier
A little history of Phu Quoc
The island is closer to Cambodia than to Vietnam, and its history follows from that. Khmer fishermen and Chinese traders worked it long before it was administered from Saigon, and Cambodia has never fully accepted the line the French drew in 1939 to put it under Cochinchina. Its most famous refugee arrived in the 1780s: Nguyen Anh, hunted by the Tay Son, hid out here and met the missionary who would later go to Versailles to bargain for French help.
The twentieth century left two marks. One is the prison at An Thoi, built by the French for Viet Minh detainees and expanded by the South into a camp holding tens of thousands. The other is a war that began here, when Khmer Rouge forces raided Phu Quoc and Tho Chu weeks after Saigon fell. Tourism came late: a proper airport only in 2012, and with it a decade of resorts, cable cars and theme parks on an island that had lived on fish sauce and pepper.
Nguyen Anh, the future emperor Gia Long, shelters on the island from the Tay Son and meets the missionary Pigneau de Behaine
French and Chinese planters put in rubber, coconut and pepper, and the fish sauce trade builds up around Duong Dong
The Brevie Line places the island under French Cochinchina for administration, leaving sovereignty unsettled and Cambodia's claim alive
The South Vietnamese open the Phu Quoc prisoner-of-war camp at An Thoi, which holds tens of thousands by the end of the war
Khmer Rouge units seize Phu Quoc and Tho Chu weeks after the fall of Saigon, an opening move in the war between the two countries
Phu Quoc International Airport opens at Duong To, replacing the old airstrip and putting the island on international routes
Foreign visitors arriving directly on the island are granted a visa exemption, and resort building accelerates
The Hon Thom cable car opens across the bay from An Thoi, one of the longest sea crossings of its kind
Phu Quoc is made Vietnam's first island city, folding the whole island into a single municipality
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type A / B / C
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+84
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Typhoons risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Phu Quoc
▸ When is the best time to visit Phu Quoc?
November to April, and best of all from December through March: dry, sunny and calm on the west coast, which is when the snorkelling boats run reliably. May is hot and the rain starts to build. June to October is the monsoon, with heavy afternoon downpours and a rough sea on the resort side.
▸ How many days do you need on Phu Quoc?
Three is enough for a beach, a boat trip to the southern islands and one run north or east. Five lets you slow down, which is what most people come for. Anyone treating it as a resort week will not run out of pool.
▸ Is Phu Quoc good for families?
Yes, and it is set up for them: shallow, calm water on the east coast, big resorts with pools and kids' clubs, the safari and water parks at the northwest end, and the cable car. Distances are the only real friction, since the sights are spread the length of the island.
▸ Is the diving any good?
Easy rather than spectacular. Shallow reefs around the An Thoi islands in the south and a few sites off the north, warm water, and better for beginners and small marine life than for big fish. Visibility is best in the dry months, and most operators stop running through the worst of the monsoon.
▸ Do you need to hire a motorbike?
Not necessarily, but you need something. The island is long, the sights are scattered and there is almost no public transport, so it is a motorbike, taxis and ride-hailing, or a car with a driver. Staying on Long Beach means you can walk to dinner and only hire when you go exploring.
▸ Is Phu Quoc expensive?
By Vietnamese standards, yes at the resort end: it is an island where much of what you consume is shipped in and the west coast is built for holidaymakers. Duong Dong stays closer to mainland levels for food and rooms, and the beaches, the night market and the fish sauce sheds cost little or nothing.
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