Feature Article
6. NIGHT LIFE:
For an island in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc’ s night life is pretty tame. But there are bars all along Long Beach, including Rory’ s Beach Bar, where nights out can easily run into the small hours. Other than that, enjoying cocktails at any of the seafront resorts, watching the sunset over the Gulf, is good enough for most people. Night life – like everything else on Phu Quoc – is bound to take off in the coming years. Con Dao has no night life: a relief for some; a disappointment for others. The limited options include: a breezy drink on the seafront promenade at Con Son Café, in the old French customs house, or cocktails and cake in the warm and cosy ambience of Infiniti Bar, located near the park in town.
Sunset drinks on Phu Quoc Island
7. WEATHER:
Weather on Phu Quoc is fairly simple: November to May is mostly dry, sunny and hot; June to October is rainy and humid. The best time of year is December to February, when skies are clear, seas are calm, and nights are cool. Weather on Con Dao is more complicated. September to December can be very windy, with gales whipping up waves that crash against the rugged coastline. Summer months bring a mixture of heat, humidity, rainfall, and blue skies. The best time to visit is February to May, when temperatures are( relatively) mild, skies are clear, and the sea in Con Son Bay can be as flat as glass.
8. BEACHES:
Rainy season sunset, Phu Quoc Island
Sao Beach, in the southeast of Phu Quoc Island
Whereas most of Phu Quoc Island is ringed with sandy beaches, Con Dao’ s rugged coastline, while more dramatic than Phu Quoc’ s, offers far fewer stretches of sand. Phu Quoc’ s western seaboard is essentially one long, beautiful beach. The imaginatively named Long Beach is roughly in the centre, but the sand continues north and south of here to both‘ poles’ of the island. The northwestern beaches, Vung Bau and Dai, are especially peaceful and inviting. The eastern side of Phu Quoc is less enticing: the main ferry ports occupy two large bays, and trash and jellyfish make swimming nearly impossible. The northeast coast is pretty and isolated, but few travellers explore the area because the coastal road has yet to be upgraded from a bumpy dirt track. However, the eastern seaboard does boast one excellent beach: Sao Beach is a crescent of white sand with sapphire-coloured water in the southeast of the island. For many people, this is their favourite beach on Phu Quoc. In recent years, due to crowds of day-trippers, Sao has lost some of its rustic charm, and litter is starting to ruin its appeal. You can count the number of beaches on Con Dao on one hand. But the few beaches there are, are exceptionally beautiful. The main town of Con Son lies just north of a hard-packed white sand beach, lined with palms and casuarina trees, abutted by an imposing wall of jungle-clad mountains to the south. At the bottom of the island, low-tide reveals Nhat Beach: a spectacular ribbon of white sand and sky-blue water. The coast here is windswept and barren – there’ s no shade to escape the sun – but the mountainous backdrop is straight out of Jurassic Park. Dam Trau Beach, in the northwest, is a picturesque semi-circle of golden sand with plenty of shade, reached via a dirt road.
Beaches on Con Dao are few, but they’ re stunning
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