YOU may not have heard of this island before with its pearly white sand beaches and luxury resorts, but it’s worth having it on your radar.
With expansion of its airport and a potential new airline on the way – this small but beautiful destination could well become a new haven for British holidaymakers.
The island called Phu Quoc sits off the southwestern coast of Vietnam and is known for having an incredible coastline as well as dense jungle.
It’s small at just 574 km² and is roughly the same size as the Isle of Man.
Phu Quoc’s nickname is ‘Pearl Island’, which is partly to do with how the destination looks with its beautiful white sand beaches.
But it’s also because the island has a history of natural pearl production and today is a major centre for pearl farming.
On the island, visitors will find most resorts on the southwest coast, as more than half of Phu Quoc is a National Park with mountains, jungle and lots of wildlife.
The island has gained recognition for its beauty in previous years.
In 2024, Phu Quoc was named the World’s Leading Nature Island Destination by the World Travel Awards.
And in July 2024, the island was voted world’s second most beautiful island by Travel+Leisure.
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Duong Dong is the biggest town; here there are lots of markets and where you’ll find most of the hotels.
The island is home to the Hon Thom Cable Car which holds the Guinness World Record for the longest non-stop three-rope cable car system.
It spans 7,899.9 meters which is almost five miles and connects Phu Quoc island to the neighbouring Hon Thom island.
On the way, visitors will travel over both Hon Dua and Hon Roi islands – but the journey in total takes just 15 minutes each way.
Other popular spots on the island include the Suoi Tranh Waterfall and there a plenty of incredible beaches.
One being Starfish Beach where through the clear water you can spot little starfish.
On the southern part of Long Beach (Bai Truong), north of Dat Do Beach in An Thoi, and near Rach Vem Beach there are bioluminescent plankton meaning that the waters light up and even glow at night.
The biggest expense for Brits would be flights, as some stays as good as 3-star accommodation cost as little as £9 a night.
Currently, the best way for Brits to get to Phu Quoc would be to fly from the UK to Ho Chi Minh City.
Then take a domestic flight which takes just one hour, and there are as many as 20 non-stop flights a day.
Other routes include those from Hanoi, Da Nang and Can Tho.
Visitors from the likes of Seoul, Malaysia and Singapore can also fly directly to the island.
And a boost from the SUN Group, which operates the airport at Phu Quoc could see it become a popular holiday island much like Indonesia’s Bali or Phuket in Thailand.
In the coming years, the SUN Group hopes to launch a new airline which won’t compete with existing routes, but will maximise its domestic routes and eventually could launch more international journeys later on.
The new airline’s fleet intends to grow from eight aircraft by the end of 2025 to 100 by 2030, including long-haul.
The demand for flights to Phu Quoc is growing as in the first nine months of 2025, Phu Quoc welcomed over 1.2million international visitors which is a 65.8 per cent increase year-on-year.
Currently, the airport is undergoing a huge expansion at the cost of £1.5billion in order to increase its capacity to 18million passengers each year by 2027.
A second runway is also being constructed, and by 2050, the airport will be expected to take around 50million passengers annually.
For more on Asia, TUI is set to open two new hotels in destinations that are set to be big with Brits.
One woman who travelled with Nat Geo on The Infinate Explorer was surprised by Vietnam…
Hannah Fry’s new series, The Infinite Explorer, sees her take a different approach to travel, looking at quirks of history and geography behind the locations of some of the world’s lesser-visited spots.
But one of the places she went to were first-time visits for her – and one spot that particularly impressed her was Vietnam. She told Sun Travel: “I wasn’t expecting to like Vietnam as much as I did. In my head, I haven’t really updated my opinion of it from like watching war movies, to be honest.
“So I think I was expecting somewhere that was really poor, that was like struggling quite a lot and actually, that’s not what you find.
“Once you get there, there’s like skyscrapers and really posh hotels.
“There’s bustling tourism. I was really surprised by how quickly they’ve managed to kind of turn the story around from what it was in the past.
“It’s an amazing country, really beautiful, and the people were so like almost ridiculously friendly.”
Hannah also ventured to South Korea’s largest island, Jeju.
Talking about it, Hannah explained: “Jeju is absolutely stunning. Imagine Thailand, right? That’s what Jeju is like.
“It’s where all of the Koreans go on holiday, so it’s full of really fancy hotels. It’s got a proper jungle, rainforests, and lush greenery.
“There are unbelievably beautiful white sandy beaches – it’s stunning. Like paradise vibes, and with good Wi-Fi.”