The family version of Phu Quoc: the cable car out to Hon Thom, the Aquatopia water park, Sunset Town at An Thoi and a drive-through safari park.
Photo: Vivu Vietnam / Unsplash
Day 1
The group flies direct from Da Nang to Phu Quoc International Airport, where a guide and coach transfer you to the hotel to check in and rest. Late in the afternoon we go down to Sunset Town at An Thoi, walking the Mediterranean-style piazza out to the Kiss Bridge, a pedestrian pier built as two spans that stop just short of meeting. We stay for the sunset and eat dinner nearby.
Day 2
A full day on Hon Thom island. The cable car runs nearly 8 km from the An Thoi station, out over open water and the small islands of the An Thoi archipelago on pylons standing in the sea. On the island, children and adults alike have the Aquatopia water park with its slide complex and wave pool. In the afternoon we swim from the beach on the eastern side of the island before taking the cable car back at sunset.
Day 3
The morning is at the safari park in the north of the island, where a caged bus carries you through enclosures holding lions, tigers and zebras, followed by a walking section for the aviary and the giraffes. In the afternoon we head south to swim at Sao Beach, fine white sand tucked into a bay so the water stays calm, which suits younger children. We finish at Ham Ninh fishing village for steamed crab and dried seafood.
Day 4
The morning takes in a pepper farm and a traditional fish sauce house, where anchovies ferment in boi loi wood barrels for more than a year — the trade that made Phu Quoc's name long before tourism did. There is time to buy pepper, fish sauce and sim wine. Your guide sees the group off at Phu Quoc International Airport for the flight back to Da Nang.
This is the Phu Quoc itinerary for groups travelling with children. If you have young children or grandchildren along, most of the time goes to the south of the island — the cable car, the water park, Sunset Town — because those are the places where children can spend a whole day and the adults still have somewhere shaded to sit.
We keep half a day for what the island actually does for a living: a pepper farm and a fish sauce house. Phu Quoc was known for both long before there was a cable car, and the fish sauce house is usually what the adults in the group remember longest, however unpromising it sounds written down.
The Hon Thom cable car can be suspended in high wind, most often between June and September. If it is down that day, we switch to a speedboat trip around the smaller islands of the An Thoi archipelago and reshuffle the days that follow. Group size, hotel category and flight times are agreed before the contract is signed.
Domestic ToursA tight, well-paced long weekend — My Khe beach, the Golden Bridge on the summit of Ba Na, and one full evening in Hoi An under the lanterns.
Domestic ToursNorth along Highway 1 to the imperial city on the Perfume River, then into the limestone of Quang Binh for Phong Nha and Paradise Cave.
Domestic ToursSouth down the coast to the clear water of Ky Co, the windswept cliffs of Eo Gio and thousand-year-old Cham towers in the middle of Quy Nhon.