Phu Quoc was our second stop of a 2-weeks journey in Vietnam. It is an exciting place for many reasons. It is an island, and not connected to the mainland via roads. Also, this island is comparatively closer to Cambodia than Vietnam.

However, when you arrive at Phu Quoc, the place looks similar yet different from the Mainland. This is the largest island in Vietnam and has an area of 574 square kilometres, which is slightly smaller if compared to Mumbai, which is 603.4 square kilometres.

This Island has so much to offer to everyone, and therefore it is a popular destination for tourists from across the world. One of the coolest things about this place is that we Indians and many other nationalities don’t need to apply for a VISA if we are travelling to Phu Quoc only. All you need is a valid passport, and that’s it. I already had the VISA as I was travelling to the Mainland too on this trip, and thus I had to apply for a VISA.

You can watch countless YouTube videos or Instagram Reels to know what you can do here in Phu Quoc. I also did a lot of research, but I realized that you must only do those things that your heart tells you to do and also what your body and energy levels can bear. I did not visit all the recommended places, and I did not regret it at all. My only logic is to visit Phu Quoc after we experienced the bustling life of Saigon, to relax and visit nice beaches and eat good food. So, it was a leisure break before we again go back to the Mainland and start hopping from one destination to another. Phu Quoc did help us recover from the previous travel and slight restlessness resulting from homesickness.

I will now share my itinerary of the 3 days we spent on this beautiful island of Phu Quoc.

Day 1:

We arrived at Phu Quoc at around 4:30 pm on the 6th of February. The airport was nice and clean. We had already booked the cab for our resort, but it did not arrive on time. We experienced a delay in our flight due to congestion at the airport in Saigon. Anyway, we had to wait for 20–30 minutes and then our driver arrived. The hard part of this wait was not the time, but the hot weather of Phu Quoc. I was sweating like I was inside a mine. We rushed to the car and asked the driver to put the AC on full blast.

We had booked our 2N & 3D stay at the Valley Village resort. This resort was not next to a beach, unlike many popular resorts and hotels that have private beaches. I booked this resort on purpose as it was away from the main town and the surroundings were a jungle, which gave a very peaceful and private vibe. We arrived in 20 minutes, but the driver got a bit confused and dropped us 100 meters from our resort at another resort.

Anyhow, we kept walking and dragging our luggage on this rough 100 meters patch and suddenly 2 dogs and a young girl came towards us swiftly. I was not paying much attention to this girl, but the two dogs were pushing my panic buttons. Yes, I am afraid of dogs, but these two just sniffed us and then went away. The girl who was our receptionist came to help us with our luggage, and she greeted us with a smile. I was carrying a Large Cup of Americano with me all this time, and I barely took two sips, as it was too hot.

This girl was insisting we hand her some luggage, but as everything was so heavy, we did not feel it was the right thing to just drop it on her. To make her feel helpful, I handed over my coffee for her to hold and carry to her counter. As she did not fully understand what I was saying, she assumed that I was giving it as a gift, and she said ‘Thank You’ and then kept it next to her table. I was feeling sad as I was longingly expecting to enjoy the coffee, but I realized it was my fault for handover it over to her in the first place. That incident stayed with me for a few hours. LOL.

She then took us to our room, and the path leading to our room was nice. There was a pool, several chairs to relax on, a small pond, and numerous trees and plants, and the room itself was nice and cosy. The bathroom situation was unique, which I had seen earlier in the pictures, but it felt cooler in reality. They concealed it with a tall wall behind this open bathroom, which only had a separation from the room, but the other side was partially open. I have linked the room here, so you can see for yourself what I am talking about.

As it was already late, we cancelled our plan to visit the beach and decided to explore the neighbourhood. Due to the limited staff situation, the chef was only preparing the breakfast and lunch or dinner if you have given the order before 3 pm.

We asked the receptionist to give us a recommendation for the dinner, and it should be within the walkable range. She suggested the ‘Lemon Grass’ restaurant with a lot of confidence. As we were starving, we were open to almost anything. We kept walking in the dark with just our phones to guide us and the flash to help us see. The dogs in this neighbourhood also were aggressive, but we were not planning to turn around, so we kept on walking toward the restaurant.

The vibe of this place lifted our spirits with happiness and excitement when we arrived. The owners made the place look very authentic and chill at the same time. Lemon Grass is run by a couple where the Husband works in the kitchen and the Wife handles the customers where in she takes the orders, serves the food, and even prepares the drinks. They have a cat too which keeps wandering the place and is always being chased by their daughter, who also helps her mother and interacts with the customers with warmth. It was very heart-warming to see their daughter being so mature at such a young age when she was babysitting her brother and also meeting customers with warmth.

We ordered spaghetti, fries, and a burger. I did not have many expectations, but we were hoping that it will taste exquisite. However, this place was a revelation, and the food was mind-blowing, and we did not leave anything on the plate. The experience was too good to leave me unsatisfied. The prices were reasonable too.

When we were done with our meals, we took some pictures and videos of the place and met the little, cute baby. We waved goodbye and left the place. Just when we walked a few meters, a golf cart vehicle from our resort arrived with 2 guests who were a French couple. Those 2 dogs from our resort, whom I mentioned earlier, accompanied the couple and the driver. The lady's expression of surprise or amusement at these dogs' leisure made my friend laugh. I was relieved by the fact that we will get a lift to go back to our resort.

NGL, I was in no mood to deal with the neighbourhood dogs again. The dogs from our resort accompanied us and one stood in front of us while the other kept running ahead of the vehicle.

We arrived at the resort and slept for some time.

Day 2:

We woke up at around 8 am and went for breakfast at around 9:30 am. The chef prepared the breakfast at the resort, and they asked us what to prepare. We ordered bread, butter, and jam, fruits, pancake with honey and butter. I also had coffee to go with it, and they also served fresh passion fruit juice, which was good. We ate well and then decided to go for a short walk within the resort. We met the same French couple who arrived at the Lemon Grass restaurant while we were heading back. They greeted us with a smile and then started the chit-chat. This old couple was very spirited and friendly. They had visited Phu Quoc earlier too and stayed at the same resort the last time they visited this island. They asked us to visit the Day Market, which we wanted to visit too but had to skip due to something which happened to us which I will share in a short while.

We asked our receptionist to arrange a scooty for us for the day, which arrived within an hour at the property. We got ready and hopped on the scooty and rode towards Long Beach, which was 1.5 km from our resort. The riding experience was slightly daunting at first because it was my first time riding on the Right Side of the road, which is opposite to how we do back at home. Before going to the beach, we had to go to the gas station, which was on a different route to Long Beach. We found the gas station and paid 70000 Dong(Rs 250 approx) to fill the tank.

Then we went to Long Beach, following the route suggested by Google Maps.

This beach is gorgeous and has a very long shoreline. The part of the beach where we went had a narrow shore, but we were happy with the nice sand, clear water, and all the tourists who were enjoying their time at the beach. We saw many couples, families, old couples, and solo travellers who were doing their thing at the beach. Some kids were playing with the sand while others were swimming with their parents, some people were sunbathing, some were busy reading, some folks were getting a massage while others were chilling at the bar, and all in all, everyone was having a good time, including us.

We were carrying most of our stuff with us as we were afraid that our stuff might get stolen, and so I was feeling a little weird, but you have to do what you have to do, right?

We were very excited to see the beach, and for the most part, it was clean. The first thing we did was walk the shore for a few hundred meters and feel the waves touching our feet. I am a self-proclaimed Mountain lover but Yaha me pighal gya(I got mesmerized by the sea) and it wasn’t my first time by the sea, but it was special. We then reached a spot where we saw massive rocks, which we climbed because why not?

The view became 20% better, and we took some pictures and videos, and then carefully landed down on the beach. We even met a French guy who was collecting seashells. When we saw him from a distance, we thought he had lost a phone or something valuable, and that is why he was so focused on digging in the sand. We noticed that he only dug when a fresh wave was returning because it brought new shells every time. On approaching him, he showed us a plastic bottle in which he was collecting these seashells, and later he will eat them with a loaf of bread, and they taste great. Of course, we were not seafood experts, but we accepted his culinary claim and waved him goodbye.

We found a spot for ourselves to chill by the beach, and I took off my t-shirt and went swimming in the sea. The temperature of the water was good as the sun was too strong during the daytime. It was pretty hot, but as we were having a great time, we did not pay much attention to it. You will not see many locals swimming during this time of the day because the Sun is too harsh during the daytime.

After swimming and playing with the sand on the beach for a few hours under the harsh sun, we decided to eat something and also drink something chilled.

My skin was turning red and itchy, but I did not pay much attention to it. There was a lesson that we learned later that day, and I will talk about it in a minute.

We ordered a pizza and a salad with a few drinks to go with it. The meal was great, and we were enjoying the view under the shade of this beach umbrella in front of the bar. Feeling satisfied with the meal, there was only one ideal thing to do, which was to go back to the resort and have a nap. That is what we did and arrived at the resort in 15 minutes. We went to our room and took a quick shower and when I was about to doze off; I realized what had happened. Our skin was so sunburnt that it started to itch and inflammation from within. Imagine a situation where your legs and hands get hurt or a sensation of intense pain is felt when you touch it intentionally or mistakenly. Even the touch of your shorts or PJ hurts, and this is just because you were out in the sun and forgot not to apply UV moisturizer intensely? We did apply it a bit, but now I feel that we should have applied as much as humanly possible! :p

My body was aching, and this was a bit overwhelming to deal with. We decided not to do any excursions for the rest of the day and try to recover as much as possible. We did not realize it then it took us 7–10 days to recover from the inflammation and the skin is still recovering and has not yet returned to its natural tone.

In the evening, we went to the Lemon Grass restaurant again to get a good meal and lift our spirits a bit. We ordered a vegetable soup, which was one of the best I have ever had. We also ordered the chicken wings, which were great but had slightly more black pepper, which I had to deal with. The meal overall was very delicious and we highly recommend this place. We met the owners and told them that they are doing an outstanding job, and we can’t wait to visit them again in the near future. We then went back to our resort and slept just fine.

Day 3:

The next day, we had a similar breakfast to the previous day, but I ate a lot more fruit and 2 cups of coffee to power my engines. This was also our last day at this resort, and we were planning to move to another place that was comparatively closer to the airport. We had to catch a flight the next day for Da Nang and so it made sense to choose this Airbnb.

Our checkout time was 12 pm, but we also had a lot of gas left in the scooty, so we asked them to keep our luggage safe with them, and we will check out early.

We packed our stuff, got ready, and placed the luggage in a room next to the reception.

We told them that we will be back by 2 pm and so keep it safe until then.

Furthermore, we left the resort and decided to go as far as possible, and that’s when I remembered Starfish Island. I had seen numerous posts of this place on IG during my research, and so I was willing to go there, no matter how long it will take. And Boy oh boy, it was pretty far. This place was 25–30 kilometres from our resort. Before we set our GPS for the Starfish Island, we decided to visit Chuồn Chuồn Bistro & Bar. This was another fantastic recommendation by the receptionist at the Valley Village resort.

You can imagine that the road to reach this café was all uphill because it was located at the top of a hill. Somehow, our scooty was able to pull our weight and get us to the bar safely. The view of the island from this place was mesmerizing, and it was cool place to hang out. We decided to sit outside and found a table in the corner. I had enough space to take pictures from different angles, and my telephoto lens found its true purpose here. I ordered a coffee that was rich and creamy, sweet and salty. We spent almost an hour here and were delighted to see the island from this perspective. We left the café and started our journey to the Starfish Beach.

The road for the first 10-15 km was too good. It was a wide highway, and we were easily touching 80-90kms/hr on our scooty. We were believing that we took a great decision to visit Starfish Island, but that thought met with a dramatic turn of events when we had to take another road away from the highway. Now, the first few kilometres on this road were okay as it was still a proper road with a few bumps and potholes here and there. We had to take another road that was very bumpy and unmetalled. It was risky too to ride on this dirt road due to uneven surfaces & gravel which can easily cause our scooty to skid. At one point, Google Maps showed us a route which then made us drive towards a jungle with no road ahead. That was some Shady Gangsta Move right there by Mr. Google.

We found some tourists driving ahead of us, and we took their help to align ourselves to the correct route and made it to the beach after riding for an hour or more. We parked our scooty, and the parking was free there.

I was cursing myself for choosing this place to visit during this time of the day, but I was delighted with the way the beach looked. The sand was white and there were these houses and cafés on top of the water supported by bamboo pillars. We even saw a bunch of ‘Starfish’ lying on the sea floor and different marine life, including fish of different colours, sizes, & shapes; crabs hanging with bamboo pillars, a pool of fish that were moving continuously in a circular fashion, and so much more. This place felt like a true marine life hotspot in the wilderness vibe. Of course, it was touristy, but there was a rawness to this place, which made me truly happy. I took my best pictures from Phu Quoc on this very Starfish Beach.

We left the place after spending no more than an hour, as we had to hand over the scooty on time and also shift from the resort to the Airbnb I mentioned earlier. On returning, we had to deal with the dirt road and our back and the rest of our bodies were numb to the physical torture this road gave us. Fortunately, I was only focusing on riding this time, so I rode a bit faster, which helped us get past this rough patch sooner than we anticipated. The rest journey was smooth soon after we entered the highway. We arrived at around 4 pm at the resort. We were 2–3 hours late in handing over the vehicle, and they asked us to pay 100000 Dong (approx Rs330) which I negotiated to 50000 Dong.

I ordered a Grab, and a car arrived in 10 minutes, and we left the place.

This Airbnb was called Aurora House, and it was 1 km away from the Valley Village resort. This place was next to many restaurants, cafés, and massage parlours. The room was spacious, but it wasn’t uplifting or exciting like the previous one. The good thing about this place was that it had a large pool which was also pretty clean, so I was thinking about when I can find time to go swim in it. The pool was getting cold, and I was feeling a sense of fever developing inside my body, so I didn't swim in it that evening. I ate a packaged noodle, which I disliked the smell of. In the evening, we left early for dinner as we were too hungry with all the travels and shifting to this new place. We found a family-run restaurant where the Dad was at the reception and the son was helping with taking the orders from the customers. We ordered multiple items, which included a vegetarian pho, a Chicken Burger, fries, and vegetable spring rolls. The food was super yummy, and we will love to go there the next time we visit Phu Quoc. We even bought some Fresh peeled Jack fruit from a street vendor, and it was delicious. After having this satisfying meal, we could only think of going to bed, and that’s what we did.

The next morning, I woke up early and went for a walk to a nearby store. I purchased some juice and aloe vera gel to apply on the sunburnt body parts as things were starting to get worse. Before leaving the place, I couldn’t resist the urge to swim in the pool, and I spent a good 30 minutes there. I was accompanied by a Greek couple who were travelling from North Vietnam and arrived at this place, which was their last stop in South Vietnam. We shared our thoughts about many other things, and it was fun hanging out with these kind and warm people.

I realized that I had yet to get ready for the airport, so I waved them goodbye and rushed to get a quick shower. As my bags were already packed, I got ready in 10–15 minutes.

We then carried our stuff to the reception, where the receptionist charged us for the noodles that we ate and wished us a good journey ahead. I booked a Cab via Grab, and it arrived in 2 minutes, and we reached the airport in 15 minutes.

The check-in and security clearance at PQ airport was smooth, and we met many fellow Indians at the airport, which was a bit strange as during these 3 previous days in PQ we hardly saw 3 or 4 Indians. I'm not certain which cool places the rest of my countrymen were staying or hanging out at.

Conclusion:

Phu Quoc is a great place to visit away from Mainland Vietnam. A popular destination for people from all over the world, it is a big island that has much to offer to tourists.

Indians, and many other nationalities, do not need a visa to visit Phu Quoc, only a valid passport, which is a very lucrative proposition.

During my exploration of Phu Quoc, I obeyed the general rule of listening to my body and energy levels and only doing the things I feel comfortable doing. You should avoid hopping from one place to another just because you have less time, or you want to cover it all for social media validation. 

For us, Phu Quoc was a perfect place to relax and unwind after experiencing the bustling life of Saigon.

FAQ's:

How do I get to Phu Quoc Island?

You can get to Phu Quoc Island by air or by sea. There are direct flights from major cities in Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Da Nang, as well as from some international destinations. You can also take a ferry from Ha Tien or Rach Gia on the mainland.

What is the best time to visit Phu Quoc island?

The best time to visit Phu Quoc island is from November to April(We were here in February) when the weather is dry and the sea is calm, making it perfect for sunbathing, swimming, and snorkeling. The temperature during this time ranges from 25°C to 32°C, and the skies are mostly clear. However, do note that this is also the peak tourist season, so prices may be higher and places may be more crowded.

What are the must-visit places in Phu Quoc island?

Long Beach: This is the most popular and longest beach in Phu Quoc, with crystal clear waters and soft sand.

Phu Quoc National Park: Home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, this park is perfect for nature lovers and hiking enthusiasts.

Sao Beach: Known for its turquoise waters and white sandy beaches, Sao Beach is a great place to relax and soak up the sun.

Starfish Beach: The crystal clear water and white sands are in themselves quite exciting to experience. Bundle that up with seeing the Star Fish in their natural habitat, here is a beach that will be the highlight of your trip. Note: Do not disturb the Star Fish. 

Dinh Cau Rock: A popular landmark in Phu Quoc, Dinh Cau Rock is a small temple built on a rock formation by the sea.

An Thoi Islands: This group of islands located at the southern tip of Phu Quoc is perfect for island hopping, snorkeling, and diving.

What are the best activities to do in Phu Quoc island?

Snorkeling and diving: With its clear waters and diverse marine life, Phu Quoc is a great place for snorkeling and diving.

Island hopping: Take a boat tour to explore the nearby islands and beaches.

Fishing: Go fishing with local fishermen and learn about their traditional fishing techniques.

Food tours: Experience the local cuisine and try some of the delicious seafood dishes.

Hiking: Explore the Phu Quoc National Park and its trails.

What is the local food in Phu Quoc Island?

Some of the local food in Phu Quoc Island includes seafood dishes, such as grilled fish and squid, crab soup, and shrimp salad; noodles dishes, such as bun cha ca (fish noodle soup) and bun rieu (crab noodle soup); and specialty dishes, such as banh canh (thick noodle soup), banh mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwich), and ca kho to (caramelized fish in clay pot).
We mostly ate vegetarian options which are available at Lemon Grass restaurant and many restaurants in the central part of the town.