Phu Quoc is Vietnam's largest island, out in the Gulf of Thailand near the Cambodian border, and it belongs to An Giang Province, which governs it as the Phu Quoc Special Zone. It used to be in Kien Giang, until Vietnam's 2025 provincial merger folded Kien Giang into An Giang.
Most lists of Phu Quoc, Vietnam things to do stop at the beach, and that sells the island short. You can ride a record-holding cable car over the southern islets, walk through a wartime prison camp, hike a national park, visit a fish sauce barrel house and eat raw herring salad at a night market. The trick is geography. The sights fall into a south, a center and a north, and planning your days by area saves hours in a taxi.
Where Phu Quoc Is: Vietnam's Largest Island, Now in An Giang
Phu Quoc sits off Vietnam's south-west coast, closer to Cambodia than to most of Vietnam. It's one large island plus 21 smaller islets, and the national tourism board files it under the Mekong Delta region, where its white sand earned it the nickname Pearl Island. The nearest mainland port is Ha Tien, and the ferry route from there covers about 45 km. The route from Rach Gia runs about 120 km. That's why most visitors fly.
The province question is where older guides go wrong. A National Assembly resolution of June 12, 2025, left Vietnam with 34 provincial-level units, and Kien Giang was merged into An Giang. The island's own government site is now titled for the Phu Quoc Special Zone of An Giang Province. Plenty of maps and booking pages still say Kien Giang, and some still call Phu Quoc a city: it was Vietnam's first island city before it became a special zone. If an address on your booking looks out of date, that's why.
You'll also see the island written as Phu Quoc dao, from đảo Phú Quốc. Dao simply means island, so it's the same place.
The South: Hon Thom Cable Car, the Prison and Sunset Town
Most first days go south, to An Thoi. The Hon Thom cable car runs 7,899.9 m from An Thoi Station over the islets of Hon Dua and Hon Roi to Hon Thom. Its Guinness record is specific: the longest sea-crossing three-wire cable car. Pages that call it the longest cable car on earth are rounding up. The ride lasts about 15 minutes one way, and once you're on Hon Thom a free shuttle runs to the beach.
Near An Thoi on the main island is the Phu Quoc Prison, a former prison camp the government ranked a Special National Relic, in a decision reported in January 2015. It's the island's most sobering stop and sits close to the cable car, so the two fit one day. Give the prison the morning, when you've got the energy for it, and the cable car the afternoon.
The An Thoi islets are the other half of the south. Canoe trips from An Thoi Port pick up from Duong Dong hotels and stop to snorkel around the small islets; if boats make you queasy, it's the one southern trip to skip. Stay south for the evening and you're near Sunset Town, whose VUI-Fest Bazaar is one of the island's other night markets.
Duong Dong: Dinh Cau Temple and the Night Market Question
Duong Dong is the main town, on the west coast. Its landmark is Dinh Cau, a fishermen's temple on a rocky headland, built in 1937 and restored in 1997. Long Beach starts at Dinh Cau Port, so the temple and the beach make an easy sunset pairing. Climb the stone steps, then walk down to the sand as the light goes.
The night market is where a guide has to be careful. The market on Bach Dang Street, near Dinh Cau, ran under a 10-year lease signed in September 2015 that expired on December 31, 2025. In January 2026, authorities let traders stay until February 28, after Tet. On April 1, 2026, the special zone's chairman met vendors and said the market wouldn't be shut down, though moving it to a new site was under consideration and the company running the old site was told to hand it over.
⚠️ Check where the night market is trading before you go. No report since April 2026 settles whether it stayed on Bach Dang Street or moved. Ask your hotel on the day. If the answer is vague, head south to the VUI-Fest Bazaar in Sunset Town instead.
The North: Forest Trails, Ganh Dau and the Big Parks
The top of the island is wilder. In the national park, forest trails lead to streams, viewpoints and quiet beaches, and the tourism board pitches it as a half-day trek or a motorbike ride. You can also kayak on the Cua Can river or walk among ancient trees. The forest belongs to something larger: the island lies within UNESCO's Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve, nominated in 2006, whose core zones overlap three national parks and a nature reserve.
At the northern tip, Ganh Dau is a small cove 32 km from Duong Dong, sheltered by two mountains, one of them Ta Lon in Cambodia. From the sand you're looking at the borderland. The north-west coast is built for families instead. VinWonders Phu Quoc covers its rides, a 5D cinema and the water shows on one ticket, and Vinpearl runs a safari park a short ride away. Grand World sits in the same complex as VinWonders, so a single day covers all three.
The East and Interior: Ho Quoc Pagoda, Fish Sauce and Pepper
On the east coast, Ho Quoc Pagoda is the largest spiritual complex on the island. It's a working pagoda, so cover your shoulders and knees, and pair it with the fish sauce and pepper stops below to make one east-side loop.
The fish sauce stop sounds dull and isn't. Phu Quoc fish sauce was the first product of Vietnam to get the EU's Protected Designation of Origin status, and the island's makers received the certificate on August 19, 2013. That means the name is protected as a trademark across the EU's member markets, so a bottle made elsewhere can't sell under it there. The craft itself has a history of more than 200 years, built on the anchovies local fishing families catch. A barrel house visit shows you where it's made, which is the point of the stop.
Pepper is the other crop the island is known for. Farms such as Phu Quoc Countryside and Phu Quoc Bee Farm welcome visitors with guided tours and tastings, and the tourism board suggests stringing them together on a motorbike or jeep tour.
What to Eat: Herring Salad, Bun Ken and Squid by Night
Raw herring salad is Phu Quoc's signature dish, and you'll find it everywhere from high-end restaurants to budget stalls. Bun ken, or ken noodles, isn't the same as the versions in Chau Doc and Can Tho, and sea urchin turns up grilled, in a sour salad or in porridge.
For a dinner with a story, book a squid-fishing trip. Tours usually start in the afternoon and end at around 10 p.m., and the catch is cooked on board. For the dishes you'll meet on the mainland, see our Vietnamese food guide.
Phu Quoc Beaches: Sao, Kem and Long Beach in Brief
Three beaches cover most trips. Sao sits near An Thoi, about 25 km from the island's center, with 7 km of white sand, and Kem is its neighbor on the same south-east stretch. Long Beach is the longest on the island, the busiest, and the one for sunsets close to town.
Which side of the island you pick matters more than which name. In the west wind season, Sao and Kem have calm seas and gentle waves while the west coast takes the weather. If you're comparing Phu Quoc with the mainland coast, start with Vietnam's best beaches.
When to Go: The Dry Season and the West Wind
Vietnam's tourism board gives November to April as the best time, with calm seas and clear skies, and says May to October brings rougher seas and short, heavy showers. The Japan Meteorological Agency's 1991 to 2020 normals put numbers on it: 20.6 mm of rain in February against 542.3 mm in September, the wettest month. For sightseeing, the season changes the order of your days more than the list of what you can do.
The wet months still work if you plan around them, because the showers are typically brief. Save the cable car and island-hopping for clear mornings, and keep the safari, VinWonders, the prison museum and the fish sauce houses for gray afternoons. For the rest of the country's seasons, see when to visit Vietnam.
Five Days on Phu Quoc: A Plan That Follows the Map
Five days lets you do each area once without rushing, and it keeps you to one long drive a day. Stay in Duong Dong, in the middle, and the south and north are both day trips rather than expeditions.
| Day | Area | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duong Dong | Dinh Cau Temple, Long Beach at sunset, the night market if it's trading |
| 2 | The south | Phu Quoc Prison, the Hon Thom cable car, Sunset Town after dark |
| 3 | The south by sea | Island-hopping from An Thoi, then Sao or Kem |
| 4 | The north | A national park trail, then VinWonders or the safari |
| 5 | East and interior | Ho Quoc Pagoda, a fish sauce barrel house, a pepper farm, squid fishing |
With three days, merge the two southern days and drop the farms. With a week, add a slow day on whichever coast suits the season, and swap days around so the boat trip lands on the calmest forecast.
Crowds, Construction and the Russian Winter
Phu Quoc isn't a secret. It welcomed 8.57 million tourists in the first nine months of 2026, up 30%, including 1.92 million international tourists. The island is also preparing to host APEC Economic Leaders' Week, and the special zone's own website runs progress reports on APEC 2027 projects. Expect road and building works until the meeting is over, and ask your hotel what's being built next door.
⚠️ Ask about construction before you book. A quiet resort in a brochure photo can sit beside a new road. Check recent guest reviews for building noise, and ask whether the road outside is being widened.
If you hear a lot of Russian on the island, there's a reason. The 2026 to 2027 winter season opened in late September, with a charter from Krasnoyarsk, carrying more than 370 Russian tourists. Then there's the visa. Under Resolution 44/NQ-CP of March 7, 2025, Russian passport holders can stay up to 45 days without a visa, through March 14, 2028. Our page on Vietnam visa rules for Russian citizens covers the details.
Getting There: Flights and the Island-Only Visa Rule
Phu Quoc International Airport takes direct flights from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and abroad, and ferries cross from Rach Gia and Ha Tien. From Ho Chi Minh City it's about 1 hour in the air over about 300 km. Our guide to getting around Vietnam covers the rest of the route.
Phu Quoc has its own visa rule, and it's why the island works as a short break from abroad with no paperwork at all. You can visit Phu Quoc island visa-free for up to 30 days. You can fly to Phu Quoc direct, or connect through another Vietnamese international airport as long as you stay in the transit area. Phu Quoc's visa exemption covers the island only. Going on to the mainland without a visa breaks the rules and can bring a fine of VND 3 to 5 million. Everything on the main island in this guide, from the prison at An Thoi to Ganh Dau in the north, sits inside that rule. Arriving that way, you'll also meet Vietnam's online Pre-arrival Information form, PAI, which Phu Quoc airport has piloted since June 1, 2026: border police there encourage it rather than require it. Filling it in is optional, but it can speed up immigration. It isn't a visa, and fake PAI sites exist, so use only the Immigration Department's own.
⚠️ Visa-free on Phu Quoc isn't visa-free in Vietnam. Connecting to a domestic flight means clearing immigration, so you need a visa or a visa exemption. If Saigon or Hanoi comes before or after the island, get the eVisa before you leave home: it's issued to people outside Vietnam, not to visitors already in the country.
Citizens of every country and territory can apply for a Vietnam eVisa. A Vietnam eVisa can be valid for up to 90 days, and you can choose a single-entry or a multiple-entry eVisa. Planning Hanoi, Hoi An and then the island? The domestic flights never take you out of the country, so one single-entry eVisa covers the whole route, island days included, as long as its dates span the entire trip. Russian travelers and the other nationalities on the 45-day list, covered above, can skip this step for trips of up to 45 days. Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company, not affiliated with the Vietnamese government: we prepare and file eVisa applications, and Vietnam Immigration decides them. Our explainer on Vietnam's visa policy and the Phu Quoc exemption has the full rules.
A Few Parting Notes
Treat the night market as a question to ask on arrival, not a fixed plan, and check what's under construction near your hotel before you pay a deposit. Both have changed more in the past year than anything else on the island.
If Phu Quoc is one stop on a longer trip, let the visa set the order. Fly to the island first and the exemption covers your stay there, but any mainland leg still needs a visa arranged before you set off; land on the mainland first and you'll need the eVisa from the start.