What Phu Quoc Is Famous For: Beaches, Food and Nature

Ask three people what Phu Quoc is famous for and you will probably get three different answers. Someone will say the beaches. Someone else will say fish sauce, and mean it seriously. A third will start describing a cable car that goes out over open water for nearly eight kilometres. All of them are right, which is the strange thing about Vietnam's largest island — it has ended up famous for several unrelated reasons at once.

The beaches, which came first

Sao Beach is the one on the postcards, and it earns it: fine white sand, water that goes turquoise close in. Long Beach sits near Duong Dong town and is where people go in the late afternoon, partly for the sunset and partly because you can eat at the edge of the sand.

Then there is Starfish Beach at Ham Rong Cape, where red starfish sit in water shallow enough to wade through. It is a small thing and it takes ten minutes, but it is the beach people photograph most.

Around all of it: kayaking, snorkelling, and enough calm water that morning yoga on the sand has become a normal part of the island's routine.

The food, which is what locals will tell you about

Phu Quoc fish sauce is not a souvenir, it is an industry. The good stuff ferments for twelve to eighteen months from fresh anchovies, and you can walk through the factories and watch it happen, which is less romantic and more interesting than it sounds.

Two other things grow here worth knowing about. Sim wine, made from wild myrtle berries. And pepper, from farms where the red soil produces some of the best peppercorns in the country.

For dinner, Duong Dong night market:

• Grilled squid, straight off the charcoal
• Sea urchin, if you are willing
• Gỏi cá trích, the local herring salad, which is the dish to order if you order one thing
• Steamed crab

The attractions people book flights for

VinWonders and Grand World handle the big-scale entertainment — rides, cultural shows, themed shopping streets. Sun World Hon Thom has the water parks and the island tours.

And the cable car, which deserves its own line. It runs from An Thoi to Hon Thom, spans over 7.9 km, and is the longest sea-crossing cable car in the world. The views are the point, and the length is what makes them.

Dinh Cau Temple, out on a rocky promontory near the night market, is the quieter counterweight to all of that.

The half of the island nobody built on

Phu Quoc National Park covers more than half the landmass and is a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve. Trekking, birdwatching, and streams — Suoi Tranh and Suoi Da Ban both run properly in the rainy season, and both are set up for picnics and shallow bathing rather than serious hiking.

Vinpearl Safari, the largest semi-wild zoo in Vietnam, is on the same side of the island. You see it from an electric shuttle, which is why it works with children.

And the part that predates the tourism

Ham Ninh and Rach Vem are still working fishing villages, stilt houses over the water and boats painted the colours they have always been painted. Ho Quoc Pagoda and Nguyen Trung Truc Temple hold local ceremonies through the year; Tet and the Nghinh Ong Festival are when the island feels least like a resort. Pearl farms still cultivate and harvest by traditional methods, and they run tours.

Three to five days covers the highlights without turning the trip into a schedule. Rooty Trip's island tours are worth a look if you want the cultural side alongside the obvious stops.

Rooty Trip

• Address: 191 Tran Hung Dao Street, Cua Lap Ward, Phu Quoc Special Zone, An Giang Province, Viet Nam 
• Phone: 0936 828 328
• Email: ota.rootytrip@gmail.com
• Website: https://rootytrip.vn/

See more: Explore Khem Beach, Sunset Town and Kiss of the Sea in Phu Quoc