CHIC Picked Options for beaches hotels and related tours
There are places that simply exist, content in their beauty, and then there are places that arrive—that moment when the world collectively decides a destination is no longer a secret worth keeping but a story worth telling. Phu Quoc, in these first months of 2026, has unmistakably arrived.
Let us begin not with statistics but with a morning. Imagine February 1st, 2026. A traveller steps off a plane at Phu Quoc International Airport, collects a bag, and walks toward the bus stop. Bus number 17 arrives every fifteen minutes, costs 50,000 dong, and delivers its passengers directly to Grand World in the island’s north. No negotiation. No overpriced taxi. Just a bus, running on time, carrying people toward their holidays.
This is the Phu Quoc of 2026—a place where infrastructure has begun to anticipate rather than merely respond.
Our traveller spends six days exploring the north. VinWonders, that 50-hectare extravaganza they call “Vietnam’s Disneyland,” lies five minutes away on a free shuttle. The turtle-shaped aquarium alone justifies the journey. Nearby, Vinpearl Safari houses creatures from across continents. And then there is Starfish Beach—Bai Rach Vem—where red starfish cluster in turquoise water so clear it seems almost artificial. The Grab app provides transport for 100,000 dong. Everything works.
In the evenings, Grand World offers its free water show, culminating on Saturdays in fireworks that paint the sky above the illuminated bridge. One arrives thirty minutes early to secure a view, purchases inexpensive fruit from vendors, sips smoothies at atmospheric cafes. The Teddy Bear Museum awaits the curious. Simple pleasures, reliably delivered.
Mr. Nguyen Vu Khac Huy, Chairman of the An Giang Provincial Tourism Association, puts it plainly: Phu Quoc is now “directly competing with famous tourist islands such as Bali or Phuket.” One detects, beneath the official language, genuine satisfaction. The Pearl Island has shed its also-ran status.
This transformation rests on foundations laid carefully. The visa policy deserves particular mention. International visitors arriving directly in Phu Quoc enjoy 30-day visa exemption—a competitive advantage that simplifies planning and encourages longer stays. For those arriving by sea, procedures have been streamlined similarly; passports require merely 45 days’ validity. The island has positioned itself as accessible without becoming cheap, open without losing control.
Flight connections have multiplied accordingly. Phu Quoc International Airport now handles multiple daily international flights, linking the island to major Asian cities and beyond. The Tet holiday period alone brought 366,000 visitors. What was once a destination requiring connection through Ho Chi Minh City now receives the world directly.
Behind the immediate growth lies a longer view. 2027 approaches, and with it the APEC Summit—that gathering of Pacific Rim leaders for which Phu Quoc has been selected as host destination. The island is preparing with visible seriousness.
Mr. Tran Minh Khoa, presiding over the Phu Quoc Special Economic Zone, speaks of “professional preparation” for an “international event of scale.” The language may be bureaucratic, but the implications are tangible. Infrastructure projects accelerate. Service standards rise. A Tourism Rapid Response Team now handles complaints about fraud, price gouging, harassment—promising intervention within hours rather than days.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the island has launched a multilingual QR code system—a technological bridge across linguistic divides. Visitors scan, read, understand, provide feedback. The barriers that once isolated international travellers from local experience are falling, replaced by something more fluid.
A Tourism Code of Conduct has been signed by businesses and residents alike, committing to “a respectful, transparent, and civilized business environment.” One might dismiss such pledges as performative, but here they seem genuine—an island recognizing that its future depends on reputation as much as beauty.
The accommodation landscape shifts beneath our feet, expanding upward in quality and ambition.
In the south, along Bai Truong beach, something notable takes shape. Fusion Resort Phu Quoc has been announced, a partnership between Fusion Hotel Group and Tropical Corporation formalized on February 6th. By the fourth quarter of 2027, 51 villas and 158 rooms will rise along one of the island’s premier beachfront locations, within easy reach of the airport. The signature offerings—”breakfast anywhere, anytime,” all-spa-inclusive wellness at Maia Spa—promise the kind of attentive luxury that defines memorable stays.
Meanwhile, at Sunset Town, La Festa Phu Quoc, Curio Collection by Hilton has expanded its footprint. A new artistic enclave now occupies the hillside facing the Campanile clock tower, overlooking the Kiss Bridge—that architectural gesture toward romance that has become the island’s most photographed landmark. Twenty-nine suites and duplex residences have joined the property, their neoclassical Mediterranean aesthetic creating what the hotel describes as a “layered narrative experience.”
Four new dining venues accompany the expansion: Finca offering Mediterranean inspiration, Seta serving Cantonese cuisine, Luna Folk enveloping guests in jazz, and Francesca providing rooftop cocktails as the sun descends. General Manager Justin Kim speaks of an “expressive brand identity inspired by creativity and travel.” One imagines evenings there, the sky turning amber and rose, the sea murmuring below.
Yet Phu Quoc in 2026 refuses to be contained within resort boundaries. The island has begun diversifying its offerings in ways that reward exploration.
Cultural tourism now draws visitors into fishing villages, where fishermen’s lives unfold much as they have for generations. Cooking classes take travellers to markets first—choosing ingredients, learning names, understanding what goes into the meals they’ll later prepare. The famous fish sauce, that pungent amber liquid that defines Vietnamese cuisine, can be tasted at its source.
For those seeking movement rather than stillness, marine sports proliferate—diving, kayaking, water sports that reveal the archipelago’s underwater geography. Eco-tourism leads into the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve, where forest meets sea in protected embrace. MICE tourism—meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions—has emerged as a significant segment, corporate travellers discovering that work need not feel like work when the office overlooks the Gulf of Thailand.
The island has even begun addressing its seasonal rhythm. Where once the rainy months brought quiet, now year-round events and festivals maintain momentum. Music performances, cultural celebrations, nighttime activities—they accumulate across the calendar, smoothing the peaks and filling the valleys.
For the traveller contemplating Phu Quoc in 2026, a gentle observation: the dry season remains most reliable, stretching from October through May, offering skies of consistent blue and seas of inviting calm. Yet the island’s new rhythm means even months outside this window now pulse with activity worth experiencing.
The transformation, ultimately, is not merely infrastructural. It is attitudinal. Phu Quoc has discovered confidence—the quiet assurance of a destination that knows what it offers and offers it without apology. The numbers merely confirm what visitors increasingly report: this island works. The buses run. The QR codes scan. The rapid response team responds.
In 2027, the world’s leaders will gather here, and the island will perform its hospitality on a global stage. But for now, in these early months of 2026, Phu Quoc belongs to travellers who arrive not for summits but for sunsets, not for diplomacy but for discovery. They come for the beaches and stay for the complexity. They leave, one suspects, already planning return.
For those interested in deeper exploration of any aspect of Phu Quoc’s 2026 transformation—the new Fusion development, the APEC preparations, the quiet coves beyond the crowds—focused inquiries remain most welcome.
