Phu Quoc sells the sea in five different ways, and the cost of a day spreads by tens of times: from $17 per adult for an evening of squid fishing with John's Tours to 10,000,000 ₫ for the whole boat for a day with Flipper Diving Club. Between those edges sit a shared trip to the An Thoi islands at $25 per person, small-group snorkelling at 1,380,000 ₫, two dives at $78 to $90, private snorkelling from 1,040,000 ₫ per person and a place on a 24-metre sailing catamaran at 3,600,000 ₫ per guest. What follows is a map of that market: what is in the price, where the boats leave from, when the north of the island closes and what to ask before you pay.
- The entry price in each of the five categories and the unit the operator prints it in
- An Thoi, Duong Dong and the Cua Can river: where the boats leave from and what the transfer costs
- The north of the island shuts for part of the year — and two operators name different dates
- Age and height thresholds: where children are counted in years and where in centimetres
- Six questions it is too early to pay without
Important
The north of Phu Quoc is a seasonal product, and operators name different windows for it. Flipper Diving Club states on its own page that snorkelling and diving in the north are not available from 10 May to 20 October; Kimie's Tours prints in capitals on its northern diving page that those dives run in the dry season only, from November to April. In both versions the south of the island works all year, and almost every shared departure stays there.
What do people do at sea in Phu Quoc, and what does a day cost?
The five categories differ not only in price but in unit. Boat trips and diving are almost always counted per person. Boat rental is counted sometimes by the whole hull and sometimes by the seat on a sliding scale, and dividing a hull by guests makes sense only within the capacity the operator has printed. There is exactly one sailing charter on the island. Fishing splits in two: a short evening after squid costs less than any boat trip, while big-game fishing from a private boat costs more than anything else in this table.
| Category | Price from | Unit | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boat trips | 720,000 ₫ | per adult from 1.4 m | Red River Tours, wooden boat to three islands |
| Diving | $78 | per person for two dives | Kimie's Tours, north, dry season only |
| Fishing | $17 | per adult from 10 years | John's Tours, evening after squid |
| Sailing charter | 3,600,000 ₫ | per guest on the shared departure | VEGAYACHTS, the catamaran La Fiesta Libera |
| Boat rental | 1,040,000 ₫ | per person, a group of 7 to 12 | Kimie's Tours, private snorkelling |
The spread inside boat trips is wide on its own. Red River Tours charges 720,000 ₫ per adult for a wooden boat with fishing tackle and a seafood lunch cooked on board, and 800,000 ₫ for a new speedboat around four islands. With John's Tours the entry is $25 per adult for seven hours and two stops, while three islands cost $32 on the slow boat and $33 on the speedboat. A small group with OnBird costs 1,380,000 ₫ per person with a cap of ten guests, and the evening trip with a barbecue on the island costs the same. The most expensive shared day is with Layla Mermaid Tours: 1,950,000 ₫ per person, minimum four guests, maximum twelve. How these departures differ by route is set out in The An Thoi islands: which Phu Quoc boat trip goes where.
Why the same word "tour" means different money is a story of its own: some operators print the price per person, others per hull, and the shop window does not always show which. That difference is worked through with examples in Per person or per boat, and the shared-versus-private arithmetic in Private boat or shared trip on Phu Quoc.
Where the boats leave from: An Thoi, Duong Dong and the Cua Can river
The geography of departures on the island is simple, and it explains half the prices. Almost the whole shared fleet leaves from An Thoi port at the southern tip: John's Tours, OnBird and Kimie's Tours all drive their guests there, and the routes around the An Thoi archipelago start from there too — Hon May Rut, Gam Ghi, Buom, Hon Dam, Xuong. The second harbour is Duong Dong in the middle of the west coast: northern trips and some evening ones leave from it. On its night dive Kimie's offers a straight choice between An Thoi and Duong Dong.
The dive centres are not in the harbour but along the main road: Vietnam Active and Phu Quoc Diving Club sit in Cua Lap, Duong Dong, almost door to door — 10.187778, 103.969698 and 10.187994, 103.971798. Flipper Diving Club is further north, at 10.265418, 103.959304, and collects guests by bus to either Duong Dong or An Thoi, depending on where the boat is going. The sailing catamaran is based at Sunset Town in the south, in An Thoi, but VEGAYACHTS does not name the exact berth on its page and confirms it when you book.
Northern trips cost more for a reason: from Duong Dong harbour it is about an hour and a half to the dive site, usually Turtle Island, and the water there is nine metres deep — that is how Kimie's Tours describes the route. A northern day therefore runs seven hours, with hotel pick-up from 7:30 to 8:00.
That is why the transfer on Phu Quoc is a separate line of spending rather than a courtesy. Almost every operator drives for free only from central Duong Dong and charges a published rate for everywhere else.
| Area | Red River Tours, per guest | OnBird, per group |
|---|---|---|
| Ong Lang, Cay Sao, Ham Ninh | 100,000 ₫ | 250,000–300,000 ₫ |
| Cua Can, Vung Bau | 200,000 ₫ | 350,000–450,000 ₫ |
| Bai Dai, Ganh Dau | 400,000 ₫ | 450,000–500,000 ₫ |
On top of that, OnBird adds a fuel surcharge of 300,000 ₫ per trip on private departures, paid to the guide in cash, and a holiday surcharge of 100,000 ₫ per person on Vietnamese public holidays and over the Lunar New Year. Kimie's Tours drives for free only from hotels in Duong Dong and charges extra for other areas, but does not publish the amounts.
The season: what runs all year and what runs only in winter
The island's main seasonal fork runs not through holiday months but through the points of the compass. The south works all year; the north does not, and exactly how long it is shut depends on whose page you read.
Flipper Diving Club prints one line on its snorkelling page: snorkelling and diving in the north are not available from 10 May to 20 October. By that version the northern window runs from 21 October to 9 May. Kimie's Tours prints in capitals on its northern diving page that those dives run in the dry season only, and names that season as November to April. The windows differ by about a month at each end, so in late October and early May it is worth asking the specific operator rather than relying on a general rule.
The south behaves differently. On the shop window of its small-group snorkelling OnBird states that the trips run year-round and are unaffected by the rainy season, and that departure times are set against its own forecasts of water conditions. Kimie's southern dives carry no season at all. The one southern OnBird trip with a stated window is the evening picnic with a barbecue: its shop window says October to May.
One more caveat deserves to be heard in full, because it comes from the operator itself. Vietnam Explorer states that diving here is accessible all year round and that the best site depends on the conditions of the day, but adds honestly that the island sits close to the Mekong delta, and that peak-season visibility is rarely what it is on Vietnam's eastern seaboard. More on northern and southern water in winter in North or south Phu Quoc: where the boats dive in winter.
Diving and snorkelling: what each costs and how the centres differ
Diving on Phu Quoc is counted in days rather than dives, and almost everywhere a day means two tanks with a transfer and lunch. Kimie's Tours charges $78 per person for two dives in the north with a certificate and $85 without one. The southern day with the same operator costs $90 for two fun dives and $100 for two try dives. Ecodive Vietnam prints the unit in words — USD /Pax — and holds $90 for a day of two dives, $170 for two days and four, $240 for three days and six. A night dive with Kimie's costs $150 per person for two descents after dark, and the price is the same for the north and the south.
Vietnamese operators often print a price with no unit at all, and that is not a detail. Poseidon Diving School writes "Only $80" for its 2 in 1 programme and "Only $90" for fun dives — and nowhere says whether that is per person or per outing. A figure like that stays a figure without a unit until the operator names it in writing, and that is worth settling before paying.
Snorkelling is bought three ways. The cheaper one is a seat on a dive boat: Ecodive sells it for $35 per person, and the day follows the divers' timetable. The dearer and calmer one is a small group: OnBird charges 1,380,000 ₫ per person with a cap of ten guests and puts into the price an air-conditioned car transfer, the speedboat, an English-speaking guide, anti-fog gear including prescription masks, iced water on board and fresh fruit on the beach at the end of the route. The third is a boat of your own on a sliding scale: Kimie's Tours charges 4,940,000 ₫ per person for a single guest, 1,560,000 ₫ at four and 1,040,000 ₫ for a group of seven to twelve. What the mask actually shows is set out in Snorkelling on Phu Quoc: what a boat day costs, and prices and contents of a dive day in Diving on Phu Quoc: what a two-dive day costs, and the first dive without a certificate in Discover Scuba on Phu Quoc.
With children and for beginners: from what age and height they take you
There are two kinds of threshold on the island, and confusing them is expensive. Some operators count children in years, others in centimetres of height, and the same child falls into different fares on neighbouring boats.
OnBird runs a separate private speedboat trip for families: 6,600,000 ₫ per boat with a minimum of two guests and up to 8,900,000 ₫ for five, with children from ten charged separately. On its ordinary private snorkelling page the same operator points families with children straight here.
| Operator | How they count | Child fare |
|---|---|---|
| John's Tours | by years | adult fare from 10 years, child fare from 4 to 9, free under 4 |
| Red River Tours | by height | free below 1.0 m, child fare from 1.0 to 1.4 m, adult from 1.4 m |
| OnBird, family trip | by years | minimum two guests; children from 10 years are charged separately |
| Layla Mermaid Tours | by years | children under 5 go free |
| Les Rives | by years | children 4–12 pay 2,799,000 ₫, infants 0–3 free |
| Flipper Diving Club | by years | Try Diving and PADI Discover Scuba Diving from 10 years |
Two details do not fit the table but can spoil a day. First: John's Tours includes a mask, a snorkel and fins, but there are no fins in children's sizes on board — the operator says so itself. Second: Red River's wooden boat states plainly in its own inclusions list that there are no snorkels in children's sizes on board either. If a child needs their own set, it is easier to bring it.
Beginners without a certificate have four roads on the island. Flipper charges 1,900,000 ₫ for Try Diving with one dive and 2,500,000 ₫ for two, while the full PADI Discover Scuba Diving costs 3,000,000 ₫; the threshold is ten years. OnBird runs its discovery day in a small group at 2,150,000 ₫ per person. Kimie's sells two try dives for $100, Ecodive a one-to-one session for $100. OnBird also advises against taking part for guests with high blood pressure, heart conditions, epilepsy or severe asthma, for pregnant women and for guests over 65. Ages across every category are gathered in Phu Quoc with children.
Fishing: night squid and the big fish
Fishing on Phu Quoc is the cheapest and the dearest line at the same time. An evening after squid with John's Tours costs $17 per adult for four hours from 17:00 to 21:00: a wooden boat, tackle, a light dinner and a bottle of water. The child fare here is the same one the operator uses on its daytime trips: $12 for a child aged 4 to 9, free under four.
The big fish works differently. John's Tours prints its eight-hour private outing in a column headed "Price / Pax (USD)", so the unit is per person — but the scale falls like an avalanche: $646 for one guest, $337 each for two, $234 for three, $182 for four and $170 at five. Six or more on request. The price covers the car, the boat, breakfast and lunch on board, tackle, life jackets and ten live squid baits per person; extra bait is 25,000 ₫ each. This is not a seat on a shared boat but a private hull divided among the party, and with a single guest it costs as much as a small charter. The three fishing formats are compared in Fishing on Phu Quoc: day trips, night squid and the big-fish charter.
An honest caveat from the operator itself: John's writes on the evening trip's page that catching squid at sunset is a matter of luck and weather, and frames it as a chance to try rather than a guaranteed programme.
The sailing catamaran: the only one on the island
The sailing charter on Phu Quoc is a single vessel, and it is a category of its own not by the whim of a catalogue but by the shape of the product: what is sold here is not a route around the islands but an evening on board. La Fiesta Libera is a 24-metre VEGAYACHTS catamaran with a maximum capacity of 74 people including crew, and a place on the shared departure costs 3,600,000 ₫ per guest.
The operator makes two caveats about this vessel itself. First: a "50% discount" banner sits next to the price on the page, but its deadline was 31 December 2024, so it has expired, and the base rate is the one printed. Second: VEGAYACHTS publishes neither a duration nor an inclusions list, and names the berth only on booking — the page says only that the vessel has been receiving guests at Sunset Town in An Thoi since October 2024. The operator names no age limit at all.
What to ask before you pay
Six questions close almost every gap between the shop window and the bill on Phu Quoc. The first is the unit. On OnBird's shop window the shared trips show a range labelled "/ Group", but the variation table is strictly linear: 1,380,000 ₫ multiplied by the number of guests, up to 11,040,000 ₫ for eight. On the same operator's private speedboat the row is not linear — 5,900,000 ₫ for one guest, 6,500,000 ₫ for two, up to 14,450,000 ₫ for twelve: the second guest adds 600,000 ₫, not another full fare. The same label means two different things in those two cases.
The second question is what is included. Red River Tours packs the speedboat, drone footage, gear, lunch at an island restaurant, a guide, water and travel insurance into 800,000 ₫, but tickets for the helmet sea walk and the water activities at the Ocean World stop are paid separately — the operator says so in plain words. Les Rives already includes government tax and the service charge in its fare, while halal catering costs an extra $10 per person. Ecodive publishes no inclusions list at all.
The third is the transfer and the surcharges set out above. The fourth is a contradiction on the page itself. Flipper Diving Club's snorkelling headline names 1,000,000 ₫ for both north and south and converts that itself to about 38.5 USD, while the booking form for guests staying in the centre of the island shows 900,000 ₫ per person — and that is not all: the form for guests staying in the south shows 1,800,000 ₫ and 2,100,000 ₫ depending on the departure time. That is a discrepancy inside one document, and asking which line applies to you is cheaper than finding out at the pier.
The fifth is weather and cancellation. On its helmet sea walk Red River writes that in rough seas it may cancel the schedule on its own initiative and refund the price. Les Rives puts it more softly: in bad weather the tour may be rescheduled or cancelled. John's moves the big-game trip to another day. Layla Mermaid Tours serves the barbecue in a restaurant rather than on the beach when rain is forecast, and warns that the islands on the route change with the weather. The sixth question is the deposit: no Phu Quoc operator publishes the size of a prepayment, so it has to be established separately. What is in the price and what is paid on the spot is set out in What is included in a Phu Quoc boat trip.
