Phu Quoc
Phu Quoc has the best sand in Vietnam on an island big enough to choose between busy and empty, and a visa-free entry nowhere else in the country offers. The whole west coast faces the sunset.
Phu Quoc in a nutshell
Phu Quoc: what to expect
Phu Quoc is Vietnam's largest island and it does not feel like the rest of Vietnam. A teardrop of 574 km² in the Gulf of Thailand, closer to Cambodia than to the Vietnamese mainland, with jungle in the middle and beaches on every side
The beaches are the country's best, and Sao Beach is the one everyone names: white sand and turquoise water on the east coast, and our sources it is among the finest in South-East Asia
The west coast is the resort strip and the sunset coast. Long Beach (Bãi Trường) runs south from the main town and holds most of the accommodation, most of the restaurants and the reason people say Phu Quoc has the best sunsets in Vietnam
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Beach travellers
The best sand in Vietnam, on an island big enough that you can choose between developed and empty.
Anyone ending a long trip
Phu Quoc is the last stop more often than any other Vietnamese destination, and most give it 3 nights to wind down.
Families
Flat sand, calm water on the east side, a cable car, a theme park and short drives.
Snorkellers
The An Thoi archipelago off the southern tip is the reason boats run every day in season.
Riders
Quiet roads, a mostly undeveloped north, and scooter rental everywhere make the island easy to see on two wheels.
Anyone on a short visa-free hop
The 30-day exemption for direct arrivals is unique in the country, and it makes the island a trip on its own.
Maybe not for you: anyone looking for cultural Vietnam, since the island is a beach destination with a fishing history rather than a heritage one; and anyone travelling June to September, because its wet season is one of the wettest in the country.
The best time to visit Phu Quoc
Dry and busy
November to March
The reason to come and the reason to book: peak prices around Christmas and Tet.
Hot turn
April
Still mostly dry, and the hottest month of the year.
Southwest monsoon
May to September
The wettest months, rough water on the west coast and the cheapest rooms of the year; October is the clearing month, with the rain dropping away and the season restarting.
- Christmas and New Year are a distinct high season here, unusually for Vietnam. The island trades on a Western beach-holiday calendar, so the west-coast resorts go months ahead for late December.
- January is the month most travellers plan Phu Quoc for on Stippl, about 79 days ahead. Only 15.5% of plans are made inside a fortnight, less than anywhere else in Vietnam; it is the last stop, fixed with the flight home.
- From May to September the west coast is rough and the snorkelling boats to the An Thoi islands stop. The east side at Sao Beach stays calmer, and the sunsets the island is sold on are a dry-season sight.
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Things to do in Phu Quoc
Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh via Pexels
Photo by Fré Sonneveld via Unsplash
Photo by YukioSanjo via WikimediaSao Beach in the early morning
Ride forty-five minutes to the powder-white sand and turquoise water on the east coast before the day trippers arrive. Free, and the beach bars charge for a lounger from ten.
Sunset on the west coast
Sit anywhere on the strip at the end of the day; the whole coast faces west and these are the best sunsets in Vietnam. Free, and Ong Lang is the quiet version of Long Beach.
The Hon Thom cable car
Ride fifteen minutes and nearly eight kilometres of continuous sea crossing over fishing boats and small islands to the water park at the other end, about €25 for the day. The longest sea cable car in the world.
Snorkelling the An Thoi archipelago
Take a boat day around the southern islands with lunch and snorkelling included, about €20, with a chance of turtles. The morning boats have the clear water.
A fish-sauce barrel house
Walk into one of the houses of enormous wooden vats of fermenting anchovy, the reason the island has an EU designation, free. Ten minutes, and buy a bottle for the plane in the sealed box.
Riding the north
Rent a scooter and ride to Ganh Dau, the national park and the empty roads of an island where most of the land is still forest or farm. About €6 for the bike and a full day.
The neighbourhoods of Phu Quoc
Long Beach
Resort strip, sunsets, the town
The west-coast resort strip and the island's main town behind it: the night market, the Cao Dai temple, the fish-sauce barrel houses and most of the hotels. For first visits and anyone who wants the town and the sunset.
Sunsets and everything on foot, and the busiest coast on the island.
Ong Lang
Quieter west coast, trees
The west coast north of the strip: smaller resorts, more trees, the same sunsets and far fewer people. For couples who want the sunset without the town.
The same sunsets in quiet, and a scooter for dinner off the resort.
Sao Beach side
White sand, the far side
The island's best sand on the south-east coast, on the far side from the resorts, with a few beach resorts and fewer facilities. For a beach week where the sand is the point.
The best beach in Vietnam at the door, and forty-five minutes from town.
An Thoi
Southern port, cable car, islands
The southern port, the cable-car station and the archipelago of small islands off the tip, with resorts along the coast toward Sao Beach. For snorkellers and for the boats south.
The boats and the cable car, and a working port rather than a beach town.
The north
Fishing villages, national park
Ganh Dau and the north: fishing villages, the national park, waterfalls, empty road and a couple of large resorts on the coast. For riders and for a resort with nobody outside it.
Empty roads and the forest, and an hour to the town.
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Where to stay in Phu Quoc
Stay on Long Beach for a first visit: the widest range of rooms, the night market and the town are all within reach, and Ong Lang is the quiet answer twenty minutes north with the same sunsets. Most people give Phu Quoc 3 nights on Stippl. Book ahead for December to February, and treat Tet and Christmas as the two hard weeks.
Long Beach
Homestays from €12, mid-range hotels €30 to €80, and the big international resorts on the sand from €120.
Ong Lang
Smaller bungalow resorts and yoga retreats under the trees, €40 to €130, with a couple of dozen rooms each.
Sao Beach side
A few beach resorts on the best sand, €50 to €150, with few restaurants outside them.
An Thoi
Resorts along the coast toward Sao Beach and plain hotels by the port, €20 to €100.
The north
A couple of very large resorts on the coast from €100, and fishing-village guesthouses from €15.
What to eat in Phu Quoc
The island's PDO-protected fish sauce, fermented in wooden barrels from local anchovy
Small flower crab from the calm east coast, steamed and eaten with salt, pepper and lime
Squid, snapper, barracuda and prawns off the day boats, grilled on the sand
A Phu Quoc-only noodle soup with fish and squid paste, and a sauce you mix yourself at the table
Rice noodles under fish simmered in coconut milk, with raw herbs and green papaya
The island's second crop, sold green, red and black from the farms that grow it
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Phu Quoc customs and what not to do
A fishing island underneath
The resort island and the fishing island run on different rules a few kilometres apart: beachwear is normal on Long Beach and out of place at Hàm Ninh pier.
The Cao Đài temple is in use
Cao Đài is a religion specific to southern Vietnam and the Duong Dong temple holds services four times a day; the usual courtesies apply, and visitors watch from the back.
The fish-sauce houses work
The barrel houses are producers, not exhibits, and visits happen on their terms; buy a bottle there rather than at the airport, and the smell is the tour.
Development is a live subject
Construction ahead of APEC 2027 is everywhere and the picture of an undeveloped island is already out of date; ask locally before assuming a beach in a guide still exists.
Do
- Rent a scooter; the roads are quiet enough that a nervous rider can enjoy it
- Go to Sao Beach early and to the west coast for sunset
- Buy fish sauce at a barrel house rather than at the airport
- Bargain at the market only, not in resorts or restaurants
Don't
- Plan a June to September beach week without accepting the rain
- Leave the ferry to chance in high season; it sells out
- Expect this to feel like the rest of your Vietnam trip; it does not, which is largely the point
What a Phu Quoc trip costs
Budget
{budget-low|checked:2026-09-02|next:2027-03-02} roughly €22–34
A guesthouse or homestay, a scooter, market food, a shared boat.
Mid-range
{budget-mid|checked:2026-09-02|next:2027-03-02} roughly €60–105
A beachfront resort room with a pool, restaurant meals, the cable car and a boat day.
High-end
{budget-high|checked:2026-09-02|next:2027-03-02} €170+
An international-brand beach resort, private transfers, a villa.
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Fun facts about Phu Quoc
Phu Quoc fish sauce was the first Southeast Asian food to win EU protected status. The Protected Designation of Origin came in 2012, and the island makes more than 12 million litres a year in about 85 barrel houses.
Phu Quoc is about the same size as Singapore. A teardrop of 574 square kilometres in the Gulf of Thailand, closer to Cambodia than to the Vietnamese mainland.
The Hon Thom cable car is the longest sea-crossing cable car in the world. It runs 7,899.9 metres from An Thoi to Hon Thom island, and opened in 2018.
Phu Quoc will host the APEC summit in 2027. The summit is driving the current construction boom, on an island that got its international airport only in the 2010s.
The island moved province in 2025. Kien Giang was dissolved in the national merger of 1 July 2025, and Phu Quoc is now a special zone within An Giang province.
Pepper is the island's second crop. The farms in the interior are a standard scooter stop, and the peppercorns are dried on the roadsides in the dry season.
Local tips for Phu Quoc
Almost everyone flies in
The island's airport takes direct international routes as well as the domestic ones, and a Grab from it to Long Beach is about €8. Ha Tien is the overland way from Cambodia.
A scooter is the standard tool
About €6 a day, and the roads are quiet enough for inexperienced riders, which is not true of much of Vietnam. The new construction traffic on the main road is the exception.
The monsoon is a sea hazard
From May to October the south-west swell makes the west coast rough and cancels the boat days. The east coast and Sao Beach are the calm side in those months.
How long to stay
Most people give Phu Quoc 3 nights on Stippl, a beach stop at the end of a route: one boat day, one beach day and a sunset every evening.
Jellyfish sting in the shallows
Families report them on the beaches, and the sun at ten degrees north is the everyday risk on sand with little shade. Rash vest, and swim in the morning.
Choose the busy seafood places
Pick the restaurants where the fish is on ice and cooked to order; the quiet ones on the sand are where the stomach problems start. The Duong Dong night market is the safe version.
Phu Quoc questions, answered
At the end, as the beach week after the mainland, which is how nearly everyone uses it. Lay the route out in Stippl with Phu Quoc as the last stop before the flight home; the island has direct international flights. Show the plan to people who have been, in subreddits like r/VietnamTravel, and say which coast you want.
Three to five. Most people give Phu Quoc 3 nights on Stippl, the longest stay of any Vietnamese island, and only 13.5% of stops are a single night. Three covers Sao Beach, a west-coast sunset and a snorkel boat; five is a holiday.
November to April. The wet season here is one of the wettest in Vietnam, with most of the rain between May and October, and a June beach week has to accept it. Travellers plan Phu Quoc 79 days ahead on Stippl, further ahead than anywhere else in the country, because the dry-season flights and rooms fill.
A thirty-day exemption applies for direct arrivals to the island, for any nationality, which is why the international charters land here. Anything involving the mainland, including a Saigon connection with a night in the city, falls back to the country's visa rules, so check the route before you rely on it.
Fly, usually from Ho Chi Minh City in about an hour, or from Hanoi in two, or take the ferry from Ha Tien in the Mekong Delta, the overland way at about two and a half hours. January is the busiest month for Phu Quoc starts planned on Stippl, when the ferry and the flights sell out, so book both; the airport is fifteen minutes from Long Beach.
Sao for the sand, Long Beach for the sunsets and the infrastructure, Ong Lang for quiet. They are on different coasts and a scooter handles all three in a day; the roads are quiet enough that a nervous rider can enjoy it. Construction ahead of APEC is everywhere, so ask locally before trusting an older guide's beach.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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