Early last year, whilst visiting Kampot in southern Cambodia, I hired a tuk-tuk for a day trip up Bokor Mountain. Whilst resting at one of the temples on top of the mountain, I looked out across the ocean and saw a large mountainous island covered in rainforest less than 20km offshore. It was Phu Quoc – Vietnam’s largest offshore island.

Although Phu Quoc is closer to mainland Cambodia than it is to mainland Vietnam, it can’t be visited directly from Kampot – at least not legally. It’s necessary to drive down to the Prek Chak International Border Checkpoint on Highway 33 (an hour’s drive south of Kampot) and then cross into Vietnam for a short drive to the Phu Quoc ferry terminal at Ha Tien.

From Ha Tien it’s about 90 minutes on a ferry across to Phu Quoc. There are two ferry companies operating three services a day. However, at the time I was in Kampot the Vietnamese borders were still closed due to the Covid pandemic, so I was not able to make the journey on that occasion.

Instead, I flew in recently via Ho Chi Minh City. I almost didn’t make the trip after reading some other travel blogs about Phu Quoc. Many bloggers were critical of the way in which the environment was being destroyed by developers building resorts and condos to cater for tourists on package tours from Europe and China and recommended avoiding the island suggesting that there were much better options around the region for those seeking a beach holiday.

Some of those bloggers said there wasn’t much to do in Phu Quoc for those who didn’t want to spend the day on the beach, others said the beaches were dirty, and many complained that they couldn’t access the best beaches unless they were staying at resorts on those beaches.

Other bloggers who had made more recent visits to the island praised Grand World, a tourist attraction that features a canal with gondolas like those in Venice in Italy, and Sunset Town, a development modelled on the Mediterranean resort town of Sorrento. They also raved about views from the cable car linking three islands off the southern tip of Phu Quoc. I decided that the only way I could judge whether all this development was good or bad, was to go and see it for myself.

Phu Quoc is about the same size as Phuket in Thailand and sort of a similar shape. Like Phuket, it has lots of resorts and hotels on its western beaches, but that’s where the similarities end. Phu Quoc is much less densely populated than Phuket and there are far fewer tourists around. Whereas Phuket airport will see around 125 flights a day arriving during peak season, Phu Quoc airport handles only 30-40 a day.

The airport is located on the west coast to the south of the main town, Duong Dong, which is roughly in the middle of the west coast. Between Duong Dong and the airport is Long Beach which has the highest concentration of resorts and hotels. Based on recommendations made on other travel blogs, I chose a three-star resort called Bambusa in Ong Lang which is a much quieter area about 10-15 mins north of Duong Dong.

Ong Lang is a rural area with small resorts, hotels and homestays scattered amongst coconut plantations and local homes. I believe it’s what most of Phu Quoc would have looked like before developers started clearing land for new resorts and condos. The only downside of staying in Ong Lang is that there are a lot of dogs on the streets – so not a good area for walking or jogging.

The Bambusa Resort had a nice pool surrounded by wooden bungalows. Many of the bungalows were occupied by long-stay guests from Russia – mostly young men with families who were there to avoid being called up for the war with Ukraine. The bungalows were comfortable, and the breakfast included in the room rate was reasonable, so it was good value for money.

The lack of crowds compared to some of Southeast Asia’s more popular beach destinations may be a reason that the island will appeal to some older travellers. For me, the noticeable lack of traffic upon arrival (compared to other parts of Vietnam) prompted me to think about hiring a car to explore the island.

Whilst I have had extensive driving experience in the Philippines, Thailand, and Laos, I’d never tried driving in Vietnam because of the overwhelming number of motorbikes and scooters on the roads that come at you from all directions and seem oblivious to following any road rules.

Upon arrival at the Bambusa Resort, I asked the manager if he knew where I could hire a car for the week. He said he could organise that for me for $40 day. He made a phone call and about five minutes later someone turned up with a beat-up old Ford Escape SUV. I didn’t sign a contract or damage checklist of the vehicle (it had so many dents and scratches there would have been no point) and he didn’t ask whether I had a driver’s licence. He didn’t ask for a deposit either. He just said: “Pay when you leave next week”.

The vehicle had nearly bald tyres, questionable brakes, and badly worn shock absorbers. But it got me around for the week and worked out much cheaper than hiring a car with a driver as I normally do in Vietnam. The dented body meant that if I had any scrapes with motorcycles, it probably wouldn’t be noticed, but I avoided any accidents for the week (although I had a couple of close calls with cows on the road).

On my first full day on Phu Quoc, I headed up to the north of the island as I wanted to see what Bokor Mountain looked like from Phu Quoc. I passed by Grand World on the way which looked more impressive from the road than I expected. Next to Grand World was a new casino and after that a Disneyland-type theme park called VinWonders. I didn’t stop because I planned to visit Grand World the next day.

I reached Ganh Dau, a fishing village on the northwest tip of Phu Quoc, but could only see the Cambodian islands of Koh Seh and Koh Thmei from there, and the hills of the Ream National Park in the far distance. There was some smoke haze (most likely from burning off rice and maize stubble across the water in Cambodia) so I couldn’t see as far as Bokor Mountain.

I decided to drive to the northeast corner of Phu Quoc as that was much closer to Kampot, so doubled back to a road that took me across to Highway 973. That was a pleasant drive through forests and over the mountains that I had seen from Cambodia. I reached the fishing village of Rach Tram, which is about as far off the beaten track as you can get in Phu Quoc, but the headland to the north of Rach Tram prevented me from seeing Bokor Mountain.

On the way to Rach Tram, I drove through some beautiful paperbark forests, but large sections had been bulldozed by a developer, and some roads cut through the forest. The project appeared to have been abandoned as there were no vehicles or people around. This was most likely one of those developments that other bloggers had complained about where no efforts were being made to preserve the unique environment.

I headed back through the paperbark forests and took a small road heading towards the northeast tip of Phu Quoc. According to Google Maps there was a beach there near a shrine called Dinh Ba Kim Giao, from which I should have had an unobstructed view of Bokor Mountain. However, before reaching the beach the road was blocked by a corrugated iron fence, behind which I could see construction vehicles.

I was to discover in the ensuing week that it is fairly common practice on Phu Quoc for developers to buy up tracts of beachfront land, and then restrict public access. As I couldn’t get any further north, I headed back to the main road and stopped at a beach a couple of kilometres south which was marked as ‘Local Beach Phu Quoc’ on Google Maps. From there I should have been able to see Bokor Mountain, but it was too hazy.

Some Google reviews for the Thom Beach Bar on this local beach mentioned that there were good views across the water to Cambodia, but for me it was not the right day. I contemplated having lunch here but there was so much trash on the beach and in the water, I decided to move on and find somewhere else.

I’m glad I did because about 20km further down the east coast at Cay Sao, I came across Rory’s Beach Bar which was spotlessly clean and had a great lunch menu of both local and western food. The place is run by a friendly Australian guy and there’s a seawater pool, a mini-golf course, and a petanque playing area.

The bar used to be one of the most popular sunset viewing spots on the west coast’s Long Beach, but it moved to the east coast about five years ago. I had a relaxing late lunch there before completing my circuit of the northern half of Phu Quoc along highways 48 and 47 and back through the town of Duong Dong.

On my second day I headed back up Highway 45 to Grand World which, together with the VinWonders theme park, is the largest tourist development on Phu Quoc. The area includes a golf course, several five-star hotels including the Sheraton, and hundreds of condominiums and villas. In front of the entry arches to Grand World is an impressive building constructed entirely from bamboo, and an Urban Park featuring 55 sculptures and other modern works of art.

Entry to Grand World is free except for the evening cultural show called ‘The Quintessence of Vietnam’ held in a re-creation of an old Vietnamese village on the left-hand side of the Bamboo Building. However, during the day visitors can stroll around the village free of charge and enjoy a range of mini-performances from some of the 300 actors, dancers, and musicians who are employed for the evening show.

The main attraction at Grand World is the large canal running through the middle of the development, with colourful European styled buildings housing restaurants, cafes, and shops along both sides. The canal feeds into an artificial lake which features a light show and dancing fountains at night, and beyond the lake there is a night market and more restaurants.

There is a public beach about 500 metres beyond the lake which the developers have named ‘Long Beach’ which is sure to cause some confusion with the beach of the same name between Duong Dong and the airport. The Long Beach behind Grand World is actually a much better beach than the one near Duong Dong because it’s wider with powderier sand.

It took me half a day to see everything in Grand World. The development has not yet recovered from the Covid shutdowns because many of the shops between the lake and the beach are empty, and most of the condominiums in the streets back from the canal are also empty, but business is picking up and it’s definitely worth visiting for its many photo opportunities.

I wasn’t originally planning to visit the theme park next door, but after lunch I was craving for a good coffee, and I could see that there was a branch of the Highlands Coffee chain inside VinWonders. In addition to that, I thought the views from the Ferris wheel inside the theme park could be worth taking in. The Ferris wheel is 120 metres high which makes it the largest in Vietnam and the 11th highest in the world.

The views from the Ferris wheel were indeed spectacular but what really made the visit to the theme park worthwhile was my visit to the aquarium. I came upon that almost by accident whilst walking to the Ferris wheel, and I was very impressed with how it is constructed on three levels with glass underwater tunnels and a large penguin cold house with viewing platforms.

The 15,000 sq m aquarium built in the shape of a turtle is claimed to be the fifth largest in the world and is home to over a quarter of a million fish and other sea creatures. There are 300 different species of fish in the aquarium, and the information panels about each species are interesting and instructive. I learned a lot about many Southeast Asian species of fish that I’d not seen before.

On my third day I started my exploration of the southern end of the island. Although I’d driven through Duong Dong several times on the first two days, it wasn’t until I did a walking tour around the streets near the port that I discovered a pair of temples called Dinh Cau and Dinh Ba near the mouth of the river.

They were built for people to pray for the safety of fishermen leaving the port. Dinh Cau, right on the rocks near the mouth of the river is considered the male temple, whilst Din Cau further back on the beach is the female temple. Both have many beautiful murals and intricate designs on the floor tiles. They were the highlights of my walking tour.

After exploring Duong Dong, I headed down the coast road past the many hotels, condos, cafes, and souvenir shops. This area didn’t interest me much but is where the majority of tourists hang out at night. Further down, past the airport and along Highway 975, is an area known as Duong Bao. Most of Duong Bao has been cleared of vegetation and for about 10 kilometres I was driving through nothing but construction sites.

There are currently about a dozen hotel and villa developments under construction in Duong Bao and other areas at the southern end of Duong To, and a few that have been started but appear to have been abandoned. One that has been recently completed is next to the InterContinental Hotel about halfway down, and there’s an excellent beach there that is accessible by the public, but the hundreds of condos around the small shopping street near the beach are empty.

I wondered where all the people are going to come from to fill these condos given that there were so many empty ones around Grand World and hundreds (if not thousands) more under construction around Duong To. Only 30 percent of condos in any development in Vietnam can be sold to foreigners, so developers have to rely on locals to buy the majority.

Around mid-afternoon I reached the southernmost beach development on the west coast – a recently completed small town called Sunset Town. It was here that I found the terminal for the cable car to the offshore islands after Google Maps had led me to a wrong location in the port of An Thoi on the other side of the hill.

I discovered that the cable car operates only in the morning between 9.30am and 11.00am to take people out to the islands and in the late afternoon from 3.30pm to 5.00pm to bring them back, with a half-hour period in the middle of the day where it operates in both directions between 1.30pm and 2.00pm for visitors only wanting to make a half-day trip out to the islands.

As it was after 2.00pm I spent the afternoon exploring Sunset Town, which was built as a replica of Sorrento in Italy and watched the sunset from the outdoor terrace of the Teatro Club whilst enjoying an evening cocktail. I had an Italian dinner overlooking the bay as all of the lights of the colourful Mediterranean-themed buildings came on. It was a lovely atmosphere and really felt like I could have been in Italy.

Across the water from where I had dinner, I could see a large two-tiered bridge under construction that was nearing completion. There was a small gap in the middle of the top bridge which made it look like only that gap had to be closed to complete the project, but that gap will remain because it’s not a road bridge, but a ‘kissing bridge’.

The concept is that couples will walk across the bridge from either side, and then lean over the gap in the middle, high above the ocean, to kiss. The lower tier of the bridge will enable friends to take photographs of the kissing couple. I’m not sure how that will work if there are crowds of tourists on the bridge, but it is probably the most expensive structure that I’ve seen anywhere in the world that has been built solely for the purpose of providing photo opportunities.

Aside from the kissing bridge, Sunset Town felt more authentic than Grand World, and there were far fewer tourists there. Bougainvillea vines in full flower added an additional splash of colour to the clean streetscapes but, like Grand World, more than half the shops were empty and there was no sign of anyone living in the hundreds of condos and townhouses up on the hill.

The next day I returned to Sunset Town so that I could take the cable car to Hon Thom. The cable car does not connect three islands as some travel sites state. It passes over two islands and stops only when reaching the third island, Hon Thom. However, the views of the other two islands with their fishing villages and beaches is stunning, as are the views of An Thoi and Sunset Town on departure and return.

The 8km-long Hon Thom cable car system is the longest tricable cableway in the world and the longest of any type over the ocean. It was built by the Austrian company, Doppelmayr, and completed in 2018. Services were suspended during the Covid pandemic, and the hours of operation are not yet back to pre-Covid levels, but that will change as more tourists make their way to Phu Quoc.

When I arrived at the cable car station, the queues for the gondolas were quite long, but one of the ticket sellers suggested I buy a VIP combo ticket for the cable car and a sound and light show called ‘Kiss the Stars’ at the Sunset Town amphitheatre in the evening. That cost 900,000 dong (about $40) – which was only $5 more than the standard combo ticket price – and entitled me to use the VIP lane for the cable car. That enabled me to jump the queue both ways, so was worth the extra $5.

There is a large water park on Hon Thom, which will appeal to younger travellers and families, but for older travellers who don’t want a spend a day on water slides, there’s not much to see or do other than sit on the beach unless they want to do some island hopping. I spent most of the day taking photographs around the island.

Whilst photographing some unusual gourds on a trellis in one of the gardens, someone shouted out: “Snake!”. I looked down, and could see nothing on the ground, but when I looked up on the trellis, there was a two-metre-long green snake eyeing me off. It looked like a non-venomous tree snake to me, but when I later posted a photo of it to my Facebook page, I was informed that it was a paradise flying snake (which is mildly venomous).

I’m not a great fan of snakes, but this was a beautiful snake, and the first time that I had seen a flying snake in the wild. I left it alone to return to wherever it had come from but was a little more cautious when taking photographs around the gardens for the rest of the afternoon.

I returned to An Thoi as soon as the late afternoon cable car opened and had dinner for the second time in Sunset Town. The ’Kiss the Stars’ sound and light show in the evening was enjoyable, but it only lasted half an hour.

On my fifth full day on Phu Quoc, I set out to explore the remaining beaches on the southeast coast of the island, and also to visit a temple along that stretch of coastline, which I had read was the largest on Phu Quoc. Whilst most of the good beaches are on the west coast of Phu Quoc, there are two popular white sand beaches in the east called Khem Beach and Sao Beach.

Khem Beach is home to several five-star hotels, including the JW Marriott, and the Emerald Bay condominium complexes. There’s plenty of parking around the condos (again, most of them appeared empty) from where there is easy access to the beach. This side of the island tends to be windier than the west coast, and there was a good surf on the day I was there.

Whilst walking along the beach, I decided to go into the JW Marriott to see if they had a coffee shop. A security guard who had been stationed at the top of the beach eyeing people walking past, started chasing me and caught up with me just as I found the coffee shop. He told me the resort facilities were only for Marriott guests.

The resort could not have had many guests if he had so easily been able to identify me as a non-guest. I told him I only wanted to have coffee, and then I would leave. There was nobody in the coffee shop and the waitress told him to let me have coffee there. He reluctantly allowed me to stay but only after scolding me that I was not allowed to go anywhere else in the resort and must return straight to the beach when I had finished my coffee.

The coffee was good – actually the best I had on Phu Quoc – but at $9 it was also the most expensive. As I finished my coffee and was about to leave, a young Korean couple entered the coffee shop. They were the only guests I saw at the JW Marriott.

The next beach up, Sao Beach, doesn’t have any hotels or condos – just beach bungalows and about four restaurants. I chose the Paradiso Restaurant to stop at because it had a larger parking area than the others. There is a parking fee of 200,000 dong ($8.50) if you don’t buy anything to eat or drink. But I was ready for lunch, so that wasn’t a problem.

After lunch I headed further up the east coast to visit the Chua Ho Quoc temple. On the way I passed a local beach (shown on Google Maps as Bai Dam) where locals were picnicking, but all of the beach along this stretch is covered in trash, with empty bottles, plastic bags and takeaway containers under the trees lining the beach (left there after picnics I assume). Such a contrast to the ones I had just left.

The Chua Ho Quoc temple was a wonderful find. It is much larger than the small twin temples in Duong Dong and has lovely views out to sea. Parts of the temple complex are still under construction, but what’s there already is quite impressive. The pagoda structures are different to those elsewhere in Vietnam, and there are statues of kings and warriors not found in other temples.

On my final full day on Phu Quoc, I explored some of the smaller beaches around Ong Lang near where I was staying. I also looked around Cua Can which was another rural area to the north of Ong Lang which one travel blogger had recommended as an alternative to Ong Lang, but I didn’t find much there.

Some of the resorts along this stretch of the coastline claim their beaches to be private beaches and won’t allow access if you are not staying with them. Others allow access upon payment of a day-use fee which can usually be credited towards food and drink that is consumed at the resort’s restaurants or bars. One resort that I tried to access wanted a day-use fee of 1.5 million dong (about $65). I declined that one because I only wanted to enter for lunch.

One that didn’t charge a day-use fee was the Mango Bay Resort which has two restaurants – one on the sand and one on the rocks – and a lovely beach bar with live music. I ate there several times as it was only 10 minutes’ drive from where I was staying.

Phu Quoc is definitely not a destination for foodies, like Kampot is across the water. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from but most of it is standard resort food. The only meals that stood out for me was a dinner I had at Mai Jo Refined – a Portuguese/Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Ong Lang – and a lunch at The Spice House on Long Beach. Most of the other meals were fairly ordinary.

After a week on Phu Quoc, I felt that I had seen everything worth seeing. Does it deserve the criticism that some travel bloggers have made about it? It’s hard to judge because I don’t know what Phu Quoc looked like before all the developers moved in. The southern half of the island doesn’t look to have much natural environment that’s worth saving, but that might be because what was once there has already been bulldozed away.

Certainly, at the northern end of the island there are some pristine areas should be protected, but it doesn’t appear that developers have any intention of doing that. Which is a pity because those areas offer a great opportunity for eco-tourism ventures which would still attract visitors at the same time as saving what is left of the island’s unique environment.

Should visitors boycott Phu Quoc because developers are destroying the natural environment as some travel bloggers have suggested? Given the impressive facilities that are being built around the island to turn it into a tourist mecca, it’s unlikely that many (aside from a few fervent environmentalists) would be bothered about what was there before.

Did I enjoy my week on Phu Quoc? Yes, I did because it was interesting to explore. Would I go back again? Probably not, because there are many more islands around Southeast Asia that I’ve yet to visit. Phu Quoc was worth visiting once, but it’s not one of those places that appeals to me enough to visit again.

All images: © David Astley