History
Once a sleepy island with just dense tropical forests to its name, Phu Quoc has shot up Vietnam’s holiday radar to become one of the country’s premier destinations, not just because it’s a major producer of black pepper and Vietnam’s highly coveted fish sauce.
Airlines and cruise ships from all over the world now touch down in Phu Quoc, luxury resorts have sprung up around the coast and the world’s longest oversea cable car is currently in the works – things are only getting better.
Stashed up along Vietnam’s southern coast, Phu Quoc is the country’s biggest island, and is technically part of a string of islands found in the Gulf of Thailand. It saw a little war activity over the last few centuries, but not much else. Fast forward to the present and it’s a very different story – it was probably inevitable that tourists worldwide would eventually catch onto this island’s ring of white sand beaches and water flecked with coral reefs.
Peak tourism season typically runs from December to March, as this is when the island’s best fetes are on – Tet, the lunar New Year, and one of the yearly installations of the island’s newest beach music festival, Epizode. The rainy season sweeps in from May to October, bringing with high humidity and a whole lot of wet.