Phu Quoc, Vietnam: Stay at a Marriott Resort for Free
Phu Quoc is an island off the coast of Vietnam. If you look at it on a map, you might think, “wait a minute, shouldn’t this be in Cambodia?” In fact, you can see Phu Quoc from Cambodia’s coast. Phu Quoc has a bit of a sad past. For years, it was home to Coconut Tree Prison to house political dissidents and prisoners of war. It reminded me a lot of Guantanamo Bay. The prison is now a museum and Phu Quoc is now a burgeoning beach resort destination.
We cashed in our Marriott points for a 5-night stay at J.W. Marriott’s Phu Quoc Emerald Bay Resort. We’ll be writing a post on how you can stay at a J.W. Marriott resort for free! Stay tuned for those travel tips. Suffice it to say, we didn’t do much touring around – it was more of a relaxation trip and honeymoon celebration.
The J.W. Marriott Phu Quoc Resort was located on the south of the island and it was absolutely beautiful and unique. The resort is designed like a university – each of the housing complexes and restaurants is named after some academic department and there are interesting touches like a soccer field. It’s new and was built only two years ago; however, they have a mold problem that they acknowledge is an issue. Mike had a reaction the whole time we were there, which put a bit of a damper on the experience. Otherwise, we had a great stay.
Pro Tip: you may want to buy snacks and alcohol either before arriving in Phu Quoc or just outside of the resort gates (there are small convenient stores with reasonably priced alcohol and food). Food and alcohol are expensive at the resort, and since we were on a budget, we had to economize. We stocked up prior to landing on the island while we were in Rach Gia (the port town on the main land), but we didn’t let that stop us from getting a meal at a local restaurant on the main road.
One of the cool things about this resort is that they have multiple free and paid activities for children and adults throughout the week. The activities that we participated in were all free (being on a backpacker budget and all) and included mindfulness, a sleeping better tutorial, a bike trip to the nearby Coconut Tree Prison and Phung Hung Fish Sauce Factory, paddle board yoga, and beer yoga. That’s right, we performed warrior poses with a beer in hand. My kind of yoga.
There were only a couple of times when we ventured off the resort. One trip was to see the Coconut Tree Prison (a bit of a misnomer, if you ask me) and Phung Hung Fish Sauce Factory. The Coconut Tree Prison was a dark place in Phu Quoc’s history. It was a prison built by the French during their colonization of Vietnam, where they imprisoned political dissidents. It was then used during the Vietnam War by the South Vietnamese Government and Americans to house prisoners of war as well as political dissidents. Inhumane treatment and torture were commonplace while the prison was active.
We then made an abrupt transition to see the Phung Hung Fish Sauce Factory next door. You knew you were close because the fish smell that emanated from the building was unmistakable. The fish sauce is a popular accompaniment with many Vietnamese dishes; however, it is an acquired taste. It has a pungent flavor and smell – not my favorite.
Our Phu Quoc experience was a bit different since we stayed at a resort, but a popular spot to check-out is the north of the island where you can do some outdoorsy activities and find cheaper accommodations.
Getting Here
We took a ferry from the port town of Rach Gia in order to get to Phu Quoc. But first, to get to Rach Gia, we took the FUTA Bus Line for 240,000 VND ($10.32) from Can Tho. It was an easy 4-hour bus ride.
Rach Gia was a nice surprise for a port town. We didn’t expect it to be as cute, clean, and lively as it was. In case you’re curious, we stayed at the Kiet Hong Hotel for one night, which was perfect. We highly recommend this hotel because of its proximity to the pier – you can walk there from the hotel. They also went above and beyond to give you the best customer service to include free tea, water, taxi service to and from the bus station, board games in the room, and a booklet highlighting places to eat.
Now, back to the ferry. We took the Superdong Ferry from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc cost 350,000 VND ($15) (one-way) and the ride was about 2 hours. It was a clean ferry, but the seats are crammed together, four to a row, like on an airplane.