Island

Phu Quoc

The island, and the reason people extend their trip.

Vietnam's largest island: resorts along the west coast, quieter beaches towards the south, and a good deal of construction in between.

Give it three to five days. Our suggestion, not a rule.

Go if…

  • You want the trip to finish lying down.
  • You want sunsets over open water, which the mainland's east coast cannot give you.

Maybe not if…

  • You want undiscovered. Phu Quoc is being developed hard and fast, and it shows.
  • You are chasing food history and culture — that is the mainland's job, not the island's.
The bit people get wrong

Phu Quoc has its own visa arrangement, separate from the rest of the country, and it does not carry over to the mainland. If your trip is island plus mainland, sort the mainland permission first — the visa section of the Ho Chi Minh City guide covers exactly this.

Goes well with Ho Chi Minh City.

These are orientation notes, not the finished guides. They carry our read on who each place suits and what people most often get wrong about it — no prices, no opening hours and no entry rules, because those are the things that go stale and we have not verified them for these places yet. Useful for deciding where to go. Not enough to book on.

The full Phu Quoc guide is still being written

We are not going to publish a thin page about a place we have not researched properly. When this one is ready it will be as detailed as Ho Chi Minh City — costs, neighbourhoods, food, transport and the entry rules, every figure sourced and dated.

Read the Ho Chi Minh City guide All destinations