Things to do in Phu Quoc – Vietnam

Where to stay?

There are so many amazing options for all budgets in Phu Quoc, we stayed at a place called Eco Beach Resort which is on the north-west of the island. We had a fantastic stay here, we were collected from the airport by the resort staff and driven there free of charge, and shown to our room which was quaint but clean and comfortable. The resort itself had a pool and a private, pristine beach. The food at the resort restaurant was reasonably priced and tasty but not fancy.  

For us the high point of the resort was the attitude, helpfulness, and friendliness of the staff. Everyone who we spoke to at the resort was welcoming and had great knowledge and information about the island. They were especially helpful when we almost ran out of gas on our bike on the day of the Tet holidays, and we couldn't get to the only open gas station, so one of the staff members drove there for us and filled up a gas cannister!

The private beach was amazing, we picked up some snorkelling gear from the front desk before heading out to some of the other beaches around the island, but when we got back we decided to snorkel at the resort beach to see if there was anything worth seeing and it was FULL of life! I even made friends with a remora who thought I was a big fish and swam with me for a long time.  

Southern Islands

To the south of Phu Quoc you will find several small and beautiful islands, these islands are the place to go if you want to dive or snorkel. We went on a snorkelling tour with Johns Tours which took us to 3 islands and 2 snorkelling spots including the coral reef. The weather at the start of the day was...questionable, but we went ahead with the tour anyway and by about half way through the tour the weather had cleared up completely, leaving us with plenty of great snorkelling and exploring time! This was my first time snorkelling and it was a bit daunting that the boat doesn't pull up to the shore, it stops around 300 meters out, and you just jump off the side and hope for the best. Getting used to the flippers was very strange, but luckily my girlfriend is an expert diver and helped me figure it out. Once we got going I didn't want to stop! There were so many amazing fish and coral to look at, and we were fortunate to have a water resistant GoPro camera to record the whole experience. Here are a few of my favourite photos from the tour:

Starfish Beach

Aptly named, Starfish Beach is full of starfish and other ocean wildlife, bring your snorkel if you have one! The beach itself is gorgeous, it is clearly well maintained and has some great spots for photos even if you don't want to go in the water. There are tours which will take you here, but this is definitely something you can do outside of a tour group. Getting there can be a bit of a challenge if you are not a confident rider, the road to the beach is long, bumpy, and unpaved; we were driving down the dirt road for around an half an hour before arriving, but it was well worth the drive! If you are a confident swimmer there are huge starfish further out in the water, the further you go the bigger they get! There are also lots of other interesting sea creatures, different kinds of fish, barnacles, and urchins. Be careful swimming near any of the posts holding up the pier as they do have urchins and sharp barnacles which could cause injury.   

Sao Beach

Sao Beach is a major tourist destination for Vietnamese people and foreigners alike, it has beautiful white sand and many activities to take part in like water skiing, speed boat rides, and windsurfing. I would not recommend coming here for snorkelling though as we saw almost no fish at all due to the active beach. This is the ideal beach to visit if you want to spend a full day relaxing with a cocktail and eating some yummy local food. Sao Beach is at the very south of the island, and getting here is very easy, as it is right off of one of the bigger roads in Phu Quoc. Sao Beach is also very close to Coconut Prison so it is ideal to visit both in the same day.

Nguyen Trung Truc Temple

If you are interested in history and architecture there are some great temples and pagodas to visit in Phu Quoc. One of the places we visited was the Nguyen Trung Truc Temple which is one of the most popular and beautiful temples in Phu Quoc, and is on the north-west side on the way to Starfish Beach. This temple is in honor of Nguyen Trung Truc, a local hero who fought against the French in the 1800's. He was caught and executed for burning the famous French battleship "L'Espérance". The temple was built in 1993 and has beautiful designs and paintings throughout, it is well worth visiting.  

Trúc Lâm Temple/Monastery

Another great architectural place to visit is the Trúc Lâm Temple (also known as Trúc Lâm Hộ Quốc Zen Monastery or the Ho Quoc Pagoda). This is a Buddhist monastery on the south-east side of the island, and is surrounded by beautiful natural scenery. The temple faces towards the ocean with beautiful forests behind, if you can make it here for sunrise it is well worth it for the views. This is an active temple so you will likely see monks walking around, or even riding motorbikes! You should also be respectful of the religious nature of this place and dress appropriately, although you are unlikely to be turned away if you don't have appropriate clothing. Vietnam can reach very high temperatures, so no one is expecting you to wear head to toe coverings but you should try to be respectful and cover shoulders and thighs. A t-shirt and shorts or skirts to your knees is appropriate. Avoid things like tank tops, crop tops or short shorts. 

Coconut Prison

Another interesting but saddening place to visit is the Coconut Prison (otherwise just known as Phu Quoc Prison), The information plaques are in English and in Vietnamese, and it was eye opening to walk around the prison and see the conditions people were kept in. This prison was built in 1949 by French colonialists as a place to detain Vietnamese political activists. It was also used during the Vietnam war as a place to hold the Viet Cong and Northern Vietnamese soldiers.   

Suoi Tranh Waterfall

The last place on the list is the Suoi Tranh Waterfalls right in the centre of the island. Entrance to the gardens is 5k, and parking is an additional 10k, when you enter there are beautiful gardens with fun sculptures and statues, but the main draw for most people is the waterfalls. To get to them, just follow the signs, there is a short walk up a rocky path which took us about 15 minutes and ends at the waterfalls. The falls are apparently much more impressive in the rainy season, when we went in February (which is the dry season) they were still pretty, but not like the pictures we had seen on Google. I do recommend checking them out either way as the gardens and walk were lovely.  

 Phu Quoc is a great place to go on vacation, and it was a great place to spend Valentines day! We had such a good time that we ended up extending our stay for two additional nights to make the most of our time there! I would recommend staying for at least 4 or 5 nights to make sure you have time to explore the island and do all of the fun things that are on offer there! We stayed for 6 nights total which was the perfect amount of time for us. 10/10 would definitely visit again!  

Covid Note: We followed all government guidelines and restrictions for this vacation, per the government of Vietnam.