How to visit Phu Quoc island, detailed information and tips

1. How to get to Phu Quoc island
From Hanoi, only the fastest way to Phu Quoc Island is by plane. I bought Vietjet's flight to Phu Quoc from December last year. Vietjet often promotes at 2 pm and during working hours, so please keep in mind when you book flight.

2. Accommodation
Phu Quoc Island can be temporarily divided into three main areas focusing on tourist destinations: Vinpearl Area in North Island, Duong Dong Town in Central Island and South Island Area. I chose Duong Dong town because in the center, it was convenient to travel all the points. Along the main road is Tran Hung Dao street in the town also concentrating many hotels, homestays, bungalows, all price ranges. Nam Dao and Bac Dao are mainly large resorts for vacation purposes, with Vinperl in the North Island and JW Marriott in the South Island.

This time I chose to stay at Sunny Bali Bungalow, booked online, the price for double room with lake view is $ 90/3 nights. Sunny about 6-7 km from the airport, takes about 100k taxi. Rooms are very new, completely clean and soundproof, around there are many bungalows under construction but it was not affected by noise, basic bathroom equipment (only shower, no shower bowl). ), clean the room daily although I didn�t put a clean room sign, around are many convenient stores and eateries. The view from my room was quite beautiful.

The downside of the Sunny is that there is no kitchen to serve food, in the alley a bit deep, the entrance is said to be muddy in the rainy season, but when I stayed, it was ok; In the alley there are many bungalows and homestays but there are no lights installed, walking at night was dark; going to the beach takes about 10 minutes to walk, in return there is an extremely clean swimming pool, daily jacuzzi and 3-5 days to change the water.

3. Places to visit
Phu Quoc climate is divided into two seasons: the dry season from November to April next year, the rainy season from May to October (corresponding to the two seasons "Western tourists" and "Vietnamese tourists "). The time of the dry season is easy and convenient to travel, the plane is not delayed because of the weather, the sea is beautiful, there is no reason not to choose to go in the dry season. Places of interest include:

Dinh Cau:
A spiritual point and also a symbol of Phu Quoc island, a place to pray for peace and smooth sailing before every fishing trip of the local fishermen. There is also a very long jetty and rocky beach, open space and very eye-catching.
Phu Quoc night market:
From Sunny to Night market about 4km away, here mainly selling clothes, souvenirs, snacks: street barbecue, candy, specialties as gifts; even restaurants to eat hotpot, seafood; street music performances of foreign tourists.
On the first day, I went to the night market and bought some souvenirs here.
Traditional villages:
- Sim garden
- Pearl workshop
- Fish sauce barrel house
- Bee garden
- Pepper garden

The locations are arranged right in the way of a "road" tour, including Sao beach, Ho Quoc pagoda, Da Tranh tourist resort and Ham Ninh fishing village depending on the tour. This tour according to the leaflets of John's Tour costs 270k / person, pick up guests at hotels at 9:30 and drop off at 16:30, the price includes lunch. These points you can book a tour but can also go by yourself. I made it myself by booking a taxi of 400k package for 4 hours or 80km (whichever comes first). The driver knows the points and takes me, going this way will be more flexible in terms of time, I was allowed to choose which points are not interested and optionally stay as long as I like at some points. So I just had some quick look at craft villages, spending a lot of time at Sao Beach and having lunch at Ham Ninh fishing village (if you go on a tour, you will only visit shopping places and have lunch elsewhere).
Next time if you have the opportunity to return, you can go by motorbike.

Ham Ninh fishing village
The place to visit is a wharf, a place where boats and ships after catching seafood or come to sell them to floating restaurants along the wharf. This place is not as sparkling as on a tourist photo. People come here mainly to buy fresh seafood or eat on restaurants, there is nothing for selfie. The price of seafood here is actually about three times cheaper than the restaurants in Duong Dong town, everyone in Phu Quoc tells me to come here to eat seafood.

SOUTH ISLAND AREA

Phu Quoc Prison
Historic place you should to, I did not dare to shoot anything because the atmosphere was very haunting :(

Sao beach
The road to Sao beach has two gates close to each other, one with Parariso sign at the entrance all foreign visitors with a fee and one entrance for domestic tourists without charge, this beach is mostly Vietnamese. These two beaches are two adjacent sections of a long beach. The beach for the Western visitors is beautiful, with swings and few messy services like in the public beach, it is not natural that it charges fee. You can enter the public gate and walk to Parariso beach or walk further to the untouched coastline.

The southern islands: Gam Gui, May Rut and Mong Tay islands
Going to these islands, you need to go by boat or canoe, so if you are traveling in small groups, 2 people or alone, the best option is to choose a group tour. This time, I booked a tour to 2 islands �Mong Tay or Gam Ghi and May Rut�, including the 3 island tour but going on the same day would be quite tiring. I asked the Bungalow to book the apartment, the tour guide will follow customers by hotel name instead of having to track each person's name, convenient for tracking the number of people and arranging pick-up and drop-off locations, the price for the tour to the two islands is 500.000 VND / person, like on its leaflet, the bungalow didn�t charge an extra service.

Hon Thom cable car, Thom beach
The day I the cable car out of service maintenance, so I didn't have the opportunity to go, so I would save it for the next opportunity to come back to Phu Quoc. Cable car ticket price is 150k / 2-way Going all the cable car to Thom Island is a tourist resort invested by Sungroup. It is said that the beach here is also nicer, not as messy as Sao beach.

NORTH ISLAND AREA
Vinpearl land and Vinpeal Safari
This area I was not interested as I have been in Nha Trang before. If anyone has not been able to experience, especially Safari in Phu Quoc is the first and only open-built zoo in Vietnam (that is, the type of animals walking freely on the premises and visitors sitting in the specialized vehicles). Tickets are available at the gate or can be booked by your hotel.
Cape Ganh Dau : at the northern end of the island where you can look to the mountains and the sea of Cambodia.
Below is the bus schedules in Phu Quoc island




WHAT TO EAT IN PHU QUOC

Bun Quay Kien Xay (stir-fried rice noodle) No. 34, 30/4 Street
This dish is highly recommended. Price 50k / bowl full of shrimp, squid and fish ball rolls, 30k / bowl taking away 1 type of ball. Fresh, sweet, fragrant, self-toughening and flavoring. Oh just awesome.
This is called Bun Quay, because after ordering food at the counter at the door, pay for and receive a vibrating device (just like at Highland cafes), customers will make their own sauce to put into the bowl of noodles. Kien Xay also made a complete guide to how to make, stir the salt in a certain proportion of sugar with fresh kumquat juice to a smooth mixture like chicken egg yolks. When eating put 1 teaspoon of "chicken egg yolk" on the broth, Kien Xay instructed. Eating a bowl of rice noodles that felt really cool.

Seafood
- Ra Khoi restaurant, 131st 30/4 Street, everyone in Phu Quoc just told I to this restaurant
- Ham Ninh fishing village, you can watch the poetic sea during the daytime. I ate at Ha Quyen restaurant because her sales offer is very warm and the restaurant has a wide view as well.

Herring salad
This dish is a specialty that Phu Quoc must try, but if the stomach is not good, can not eat raw fish, temporarily ignore it. This dish is eaten in Ra Khoi or fishing village.

Bun Ken
This dish is very popular in the reviews on Phu Quoc tourism and currently has only one restaurant selling Bun Ken Ut Luom. The taxi driver who took me said, he only saw tourists coming to eat because of curiosity, but local people here don't go as Ut Luom is just reknowed recently but not heard before. This restaurant serves in the morning only, the restaurant is very crowded and run out of food very quickly. Bun Ken is unique because it is made of coconut milk. There are documents that call "Bun Ken" because "Ken" in Khmer language refers to dishes with coconut milk.

SOME INTERESTING BARS
There are a few however the time in Phu Quoc I only went to 2 places:

1. Dragonfly Bistro & Sky Bar at 69 Tran Hung Dao, TT Duong Dong (you go to opposite Saigon Hotel - Phu Quoc will have a turn to the mountain). From Sunny is about 3km
This is a mountain cafe, overlooking the entire Duong Dong town. I went there at 5:30 pm to watch the beautiful sunset. But the shop is only beautiful at that time, at night, there are a lot of insects because the surrounding is mountainous. The restaurant also has dinner, but not diverse.

2. High Note Bar in the Salinda Resort campus 5 minutes walk from Sunny is Salinda. The first floor of the main building in the resort campus has a live music bar. A Filipino band plays here and only sings English, as Salinda's guests are mostly foreigners.
I know this bar thanks to getting to know a girl in Hanoi who traveled to Phu Quoc on her own. We both went alone to Chuon Chuon to watch the sunset and then accidentally sat next to each other, then talked, got used to it, then invited each other to eat noodles and listen to music.

SOME TAXI TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Taxi Phu Quoc: 0297 3757575 (this company has the most cars in Phu Quoc so call it, the driver is pleasant and polite)
Taxi Mai Linh: 0297 3979797
Taxi Saigon: 0297 3737373
Life in Phu Quoc is quite comfortable, slowly, gently but still enough to not feel too lonely. I tried the same trip to Dalat and was tormented by loneliness.