What to Visit in Phu Quoc island, Vietnam ? – Page 2

Note : You are on Page 2 of Phu-Quoc island. Start with Page 1.

Phu Quoc island – Orientation – Maps

Map 1 – “Duong Dong”  – The main Town of the island

Map 2 – Interactive Map : Attractions + Transport + Beaches

  1. Points in Green : Main Town – “Duong Dong”
  2. Points in Red : Transport (Airport + Ports)
  3. Points in Blue : Tourist Attractions
  4. Points in Orange : Beaches

What to Visit in Phu-Quoc island ?

1. Duong Dong – The main Town of the island

Not a specially attractive town, but it is the center of gravity of Phu Quoc.

The Night Market in the Main Town

In the evenings there is a night market, which is quite animated and with a lot of sea food restaurants.

See the first page, for the nightlife in Phu Quoc.

The Break Water and Shrine – Main Town

On the right of the huge Seashells Hotel, there is a famous little shrine called  Dinh Cau

And a break water.

The Day food market – Fish market, at the Main Town

Markets in Vietnam, are always interesting, even if you are an experienced traveler in Vietnam.

All Vietnamese markets have a lot of fish, but this one even more because we are on an island.

Here you can see some sharks on the ground

Unfortunately, also bigger animals are sold here (I am Vegetarian)

Small Temples at the Main Town

There are several small temples between the streets of the main town.
This one is the “Cao Dai temple” of Phu Quoc. It is located near the night market. Very colorful.

This one is : “Đình Thần Dương Đông”

And this one : “Sùng Hưng” temple

If Phu Quoc is your first point of entry in Vietnam, you may find the temples interesting, but if you travel a lot in Vietnam, you will see so many temples, that you may not notice these ones.

How to get there ?

The town is located in the center of the island, on the left shore.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

2. Cable Car to “Hon Thom” island + “Sun World” Water Park + Italian city

This is the main attraction of Phu Quoc. A ride with a cable car over the sea and till the small island of “Hon Thom”.

The view from the cable car is of course, very, very, very nice.

You also “fly” beside the town of “An Thoi”, which is the second big town in Phu Quoc (after “Duong Dong”).

The ride takes about 15 minutes. The cable car holds a World Record as the longest one over the sea (8 Km), in some category.

At destination, at the small island of Hon-Thom, there is a water park

The attractions in the water park are fun, but most of them require 2 persons per ride (on the mattress), so if you are single, you will need to find friends.

Or otherwise mostly enjoy the attractions for babies

There are lockers, where you can leave your stuff and just be in the water park with you bathing suit. The locker room is very secure with cameras and guards, don’t worry about that.

From the water park, you can use a free bus shuttle service

And arrive to a very nice beach

There are free hammocks between the trees. That’s cool.

The entry price, including the cable car is 650,000 Dong (price at the time of writing).

Note that at the cable car station (at the main island) there is a restaurant with a big coffee machine and they can prepare a real Cappuccino ! (not obvious on that island). From the cafeteria there is a view over the Italian city.

The Italian city near the cable car station

Don’t worry, you will not miss it on your way to the cable car station (main island). It is very impressive.

An entire artificial city was built, inspired by the villages existing at the Amalfi coast in Italy. Places like Positano and Sorrento.

Even some artificial ruins, were added

The area of this village is quite big and there are cafés and restaurants

and also hotels, so you can stay here if you want.


If you are wondering why there are no people appearing in these photos, it is because I shot the photos at the construction time, in year 2020. Yes, I was lucky to be there before everyone else.

I saw that there are already real estate agencies that are selling apartments here. So, you can choose to stay here forever. It is expensive, but not as living at the real Amalfi coast, in Italy.

How to get there ?

The cable car station is located at the bottom left corner of the island.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

3. Safari (VinPearl) + Venezia (Grand World) + Amusement Park (VinWonders)

These are 3 different places located a few Kilometers apart from each other. Apparently, they belong all to the same company. There are shuttle buses between the places. See how to arrive to the area later on. Venezia (Grand World) is free to enter but the other 2 require a ticket. There are also combo tickets. There are discount tickets if you stay in one of the hotels of the group.
In my opinion the Safari itself is interesting enough to spend half a day (or even an entire day) and visiting the amusement park on the same day, is too much.

The Safari (VinPearl)

Simply the best Zoo in Vietnam. Skip the zoos of Saigon and Hanoi and just visit this one.
The place is beautiful, fun and the animals have a lot of space.

The Safari has 2 parts. In the first part you walk and in the second part, you are in a bus between dangerous animals.

In the “dangerous part” the bears are the most adorable creatures. They know that the driver may bring them something to eat.

But the other “dangerous animals” are also OK.

In the walking part, there are the beloved elephants. In Thailand there are a lot of elephants but also in Vietnam there are some elephants, living in the wild.

If you happen to arrive at the exact moment of the feeding of animals, you are lucky.

Giant turtles :

Beautiful Lizards :

The “farm animals” area is good for selfies

There is a big garden (a closed bubble) with amazing birds, and I wished I could have eaten myself the fruits that an employee was leaving them, on trees

There is a live show, with birds

Of course that there are explanations, beside each animal, in english

One of the best parts of the Safari, is the restaurant, in which Giraffes are part of the action

See how to arrive to the place later on.

Venezia (Grand World)

Yes, they have built here an artificial city based on Venezia in Italy. It is the same concept as the artificial city in the south of the island, based on Amalfi, Italia.

This Venezia is huge and quite impressive. There is a river with little bridges, like in Venezia. There are Gondole, and you can take a ride on one. The drivers of the Gondole are dressed like in Venezia, but a close look will reveal that they are not Italians.

There is a museum about Teddy Bears.

The place can accommodate a lot of people, but it seems that it has not reached its full potential yet, most of the businesses are empty. There are a lot of Hotels and houses around.
The entry to the area is free of charge.

I am not sure why, but this place made me a little bit sad. I wish I was at the real Venezia at that moment.

The Amusement park (VinWonders)

It is a sort of Disneyland. If you have kids, I guess they will be happy to visit. If you are an adult, give the Safari preference.

Note that there are in Vietnam similar amusement parks in Da-Nang (BaNa hills) and Nha-Trang and Halong City, so if you are limited in time, make your choices.

Note that there are also modern hotels beside the attraction park.

How to arrive to the Safari and Venezia and the amusement park ?

The parks are located at the top left corner of the island.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi, bus or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

There is also a shuttle bus between the 3 places

4. Monastery “Truc Lam Ho Quoc Zen”

It is the big religious place to visit in Phu Quoc and it is located around a wonderful landscape, near the sea, so it is worth to visit.

There is a very tall, white Lady Buddha

And bells

And statues

A lot of statues

Also green statues

And pagodas

The all complex is quite recent, it was built in 2012

How to get there ?

The monastery is located at the bottom, right side of the island.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

5. Fisher Port – Tourist Port at “An Thoi” town

The port is located at the bottom of the island, not far from the cable car.

The port is part of “An Thoi” town.

Beside being a fishing port, tourists can join from here excursions in the sea.

The tourist excursions last for around 4 hours. It includes fishing activity and snorkelling

The area of the waters is that of Hon Thom island, that you usually reach with the cable car. So it is very beautiful.

You can book such a trip from your hotel, book online or arrive to this port by yourself in the morning and join a trip.

How to get there ?

The fisher port is located at the bottom, left corner of the island.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

6. Waterfall “Suoi Tranh”

It is a very nice place, but not exceptional. It is not the most impressive waterfall that you may see in your life. From the entrance gate, there is a walk of about 20 minutes along a river.

And then you arrive to the waterfall.
The strength of the water depends on the season, in some periods of the year the waterfall is more impressive than others.

There is small entrance fee, and of course a place to park the motorbike.

How to get there ?

The waterfall is located near the airport.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

7. Coconut Prison – Museum

Also in Phu Quoc island, there are vestiges of the cruel Vietnam war. “Coconut prison” was a place where North Vietnamese were held and also tortured. Now it is a museum.

If you intend to visit different parts of Vietnam, you will see a lot of museums about the Vietnam war and also detention camps of this kind. If you want to visit only 1 museum of this type (because you don’t want to be depressed all the time), you should visit the Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi.

In this museum in Phu Quoc :
In the courtyard, you can see the heavy security measures that were used, to avoid escapes of prisoners.

The cruel Tiger cages, in which prisoners were kept for days, under the hot sun.

And containers, in which prisoners were held as a torture

There are a lot of torture exhibition in this museum

And you may feel sick at the end of the visit (I was)

Fortunately, there were also some cases of heroic escape

There are some exhibition of normal life in prison, like preparing food

There is a room with photos

One of the photos, is a meeting between a prisoner and his torturer, after the war

There is a memorial

And a café at the end of the visit, to retake your breath

How to get there ?

The prison-museum is located at the bottom, center side of the island.
See location on the Interactive Map above.
You can arrive by : Rented Motorbike, Taxi or a Guided tour, as explained on the first page.

8. Beaches of Phu Quoc island

This is the main reason to arrive to Phu Quoc. There is an entire page dedicated to the Beaches of Phu Quoc – Page number 3.

Organised Excursions in Phu Quoc

There are a lot of organised excursions in Phu Quoc island. There are land tours and boat tours. You can book a tour here, online.

You can also  book a tour from your Hotel.

The good and the bad about Phu Quoc

As i said before, if you have time, please visit Phu Quoc, it is a wonderful place. Still. I find that there are some things to improve. Some tourists may think that it is better to visit the islands in Thailand instead.

Let’s start with the Good about Phu Quoc :

  1. There are some wonderful beaches here, with amazing waters.
  2. It is easy to reach Phu Quoc. There is an airport and it is possible to take short (and cheap flights) from several cities in Vietnam, especially from Saigon, Hanoi and Da-Nang. There are also some international flights (example : Bangkok)
  3. There are some unique attractions in Phu Quoc like the Cable Car to “Hon Thom” island and the Safari.

The Bad about Phu Quoc :

  1. “Am I on an island ?” – Phu Quoc is a relatively big island (50 Km long), and you don’t always see the water in everyday’s life. You may forget that you are on an island. Yes, there is one scenic road at the top, right side of the island, but usually you are driving on busy roads and just don’t see the water (In Thailand, the roads are more scenic, on the islands).
  2. Intense Road traffic – Especially in the central part of the island. Drivers are not driving safely (and I saw a grave accident). Like in all Vietnam, it may be unpleasant to cross a street when you are a pedestrian. There is a general feeling of crowdedness on that island.
  3. The cleanliness of the beaches – There is a big contrast between the private beaches (belonging to hotels) and the public beaches. The public beaches are usually not cleaned by anyone or not enough.
  4. Private and Public – Unfortunately, a big part of the island was sold to private companies. These companies are building hotels and forbidding the access to non guests. These resorts are also choosing the most beautiful and unique bays on the island. When I explored the island on motorbike, I was surprised by the elevated numbers of cases in which I was denied access to beaches. One example is Premier Village resort. They occupy a wonderful and unique bay on the south part of the island and you cannot access the area unless you are a guest of the hotel. There are also no clear signs on the roads that indicate that you are on your way to a private property, so you continue to drive and you get disappointed when you reach the end of the road.
    Apparently, I am not the only one who thought about this problem and in Long Beach I saw this sign that says : “The area of 50 meters from the edge of the sea is public beach”But this is in Long beach, a public beach with some hotels (and both need to live in harmony).
    On the positive side, the private properties have also brought development to the island and in some cases the general public can enjoy it, but not always.
  5. Diving – If you want to do a diving course or even just snorkelling, it is less developed than in Thailand.
  6. Last problem on the island – The mosquitos were especially attracted to me, I don’t know why 🙂

To resume, Phu Quoc is a wonderful place. if you have time, don’t hesitate and visit Phu Quoc. If you don’t have time, concentrate on the North of Vietnam.

Continue to Page 3 – The Beaches of Phu Quoc

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If you find incorrect data on this page, like a restaurant that has closed or a big river that has moved or you want to tell me something, please write me to contact.

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