hcmc to phu quoc

Most popular places taken in on tours are My Tho/Ben Tre (OK), Vinh Long (OK town, area around is fun), Can Tho and Chau Doc. If you go on your own, I'd recommend skipping My Tho -- where all the many day-trippers from Saigon go (or most) -- and arrange a homestay/boat trip off Vinh Long ('Mekong Travel' can help --
here's the contact info). Then bus/ferry to Can Tho, with a fun riverside promenade to take in at night and the Mekong's fanciest restaurants (I hesitate to say 'best'). From here there are bus links straight to Rach Gia, where you can get a boat or plane to Phu Quoc. If you had time and wanted to get off track a bit, I'd wander south to Ca Mau from Can Tho, where there's a boat that links with Rach Gia. I haven't done this but it sounds tempting.

It's not hard to arrange boat trips as you go. You can also hire 'xe om' (moto taxi guys) to take you to and fro. There's an interesting backroads way from Ben Tre to Vinh Long that the buses miss I had fun doing.

If you're hoping to get from Saigon to Rach Gia then Phu Quoc by boat, you'll find that bus links between towns are easier and quicker -- in some cases it won't really be possible to go by boat from A to B, so it's better to treat each place as a 'hub' for a couple days.

No boats/air yet to Cambodia, but you could return to the mainland, bus to Chau Doc, and get a boat to Phnom Penh. And on.

Hope this is of some use.

That's interesting Robert.
My wife and I will be there in a month and are planning to go from HCMC to Phu Quoc via Can Tho, Vinh Long and Rach Gia.
Do tours go this way or are they all HCMC return round trips?
Does anyone know the details with the new ferry I have heard about from Rach Gia to Phu Qouc? Depature times and time it takes? And if the weather is dodgy how quickly can you get on a flight from rachGia to the Island?
The trip is being tacked on to a business so we don't have the spare time I've had in the past travelling.

When I was there in late October, there were ferries from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc at 8am and 1.30pm daily. It takes about two-and-a-half hours. I flew -- there were murmurs of a storm, so I didn't chance it -- and bought the air ticket about an hour before take off. During rainy season, delays/cancellations by boat and air can occur though. I wouldn't consider the dodgier ferry service from outside Ha Tien -- one sank last year, apparently, killing all on board.

I don't know of any tours that go HCMC to Phu Quoc via the Mekong -- or even to Rach Gia (which isn't that nice to be honest). You could take a tour and ask them to drop you off at the most convenient place to get transport to Rach Gia. And finish trip on your own.

Hi,

I did the boat from Rach Gia to An Thoi(Phu Quoc main harbour) on the 6th. of May this year and the times quoted by Robert still stand, that is 8 am and 1.30 pm

Good luck

Good markets are in abundance in Vn.
Plenty on the Mekong- the floating markets. Ben Thanh Market in HCMC. The big market in D5 (Cholon) in HCMC.
Many small markets in Hanoi as well as the sheltered market in the OQ.
Good and down to earth market on the Citadel side of the river in Hue.

Local boat transport. You could do a trip from HCMC to Ving Tau on the hydrofoil. Journey takes just under two hours along the Saigon River.

don't take the boat.
they're all fastboats, not ferries dallying through the choppy waters, so you're allocated a seat below and crammed in with a couple of hundred people rather than hanging out abovedeck with the wind in your hair. if you're 'lucky' enough to get a window, there's not much to see apart from the vast waters bobbing up and down ready to swallow sea-going vessels at the slightest provocation. and it'll mean you have to climb over many bodies to reach the aisle let alone the exit should you wish to move for any reason (say, because you're all going down).
it's a pretty unpleasant experience hanging out below deck in a tiny seat (and i'm no giant) wondering what kind of woman you'll be when things go awry and everyone in the boat cottons onto the fact that, oops, in comes the water and we're all going to die - will you scratch and bite with the worst of them in an effort to reach the two tiny exits? will you cast the elderly and infant aside in an effort to save your own young ar-se? will anyone know how you died?
i'm not claustrophobic, nor (apparently) afraid of water but i doused myself with rescue remedy for the 3 hour trip as soon as i spied my seat and the general conditions. the boat felt like a death-trap from the get-go. and it was so cramped - particularly when the guy in front put his seat ALL the way down until it was pressed against my knees, his arms on the headrest were in my face - that i had no room to open my book - literally. the ginger tablets also came in handy as the boat heaved around and all i could see was the swaying sky through a porthole above me.
when you arrive in the very southern tip of the island at An tho (unlovely town, pretty boats), it's a hot, dusty/muddy, bumpy ride 30-40kms or so away to where you're likely to be staying and your hotel won't necessarily collect you. it'll cost about 300,000 dong for a taxi to get to where you wanna be. a moto is about 100,000.
so take the plane - you can book at short notice or probably from can tho if you want to book in advance. there are far more interesting boat trips to be had around can tho and vinh long. rach gia's not a bad place if you need to spend the night and take the early plane. needless to say, i flew back to saigon - oh, what bliss!

Teens can ride their motos around Phu Quoc with no trouble - there's very little traffic.

I flew to Phu Quoc, so I can't help with boat info. Airfare on Vietnam Airways was about US$100.

Thanks all- some useful info.
Starting to get excited now!! :-)

Robert, Sinh Cafe have a tour from HCMC to Phu Quoc via Mekong. Cost is US$114 for 4/5 day tour, including boat to Phu Quoc & flight back to HCMC (extra days at Phu Quoc at your own expense). Website is http://www.sinhcafevn.com.