Phu Quoc Sunset & Night Squid Fishing: Expat Guide & Review

I did Phu Quoc squid fishing with John’s Tours during my month on the island, and came back thinking it was the flattest four hours of the trip. I’ve also told people since, in the Phu Quoc nightlife piece, that it’s a good evening out. Both are true. The difference is what you think you’re buying.

What you’re buying is a Phu Quoc sunset cruise with dinner and a fishing line attached. Most people on the shared boats catch one squid or none, the sunset only happens in half the year, and the dinner is the same whether you catch anything or not. Book it for those things and it’s a cheap, pleasant evening. Book it to catch squid and the shared tour is the wrong product.

Living in Vietnam changes how I’d book it too. The same boat costs a lot less in dong, booked direct in Vietnamese, than it does in dollars through a booking site, and the version I’d pick now isn’t the one hotel desks sell.

• Quick Answer: Phu Quoc squid fishing is a four-hour evening trip, usually 4:30 or 5pm to 9pm, on a wooden boat from Duong Dong: sunset on deck, then the boat anchors, turns on bright lights and everyone fishes with hand lines and lures, with a dinner of squid porridge, prawns, noodles and fruit. Shared tours cost about 380,000 VND booked direct with Red River, or $11 to $32 through booking sites. Most people catch little or nothing. The sunset is only on the programme from November to April.
• The evening:
  • Pickup 4:30 to 5pm in central Duong Dong, boat out of Duong Dong harbour.
  • Sunset on deck, then anchor, lights on and hand-line fishing.
  • Dinner on board, back at your hotel around 9pm.
• Prices (2026):
  • Shared tour direct with Red River: 380,000 VND adults, 266,000 children between 1m and 1.4m, free under 1m.
  • Shared tours on booking sites: about $11 to $32.
  • Private boat: about $230 for the an adult.
  • Drinks other than one bottle of water, and extras like oysters, cost more.
• Catching squid: expect one or two at best. The crew catch more. Fishing time is often closer to an hour than two.
• Season:
  • November to April: calm sea, sunset from the boat. Sunset around 5:35pm in December, 6:10pm in April.
  • May to October: boats move to Sao Beach or An Thới, no sunset, more cancellations.
• Before you go: eat something first, take seasickness tablets if you need them, bring a light jacket and cash for drinks. Free cancellation is usually 24 hours ahead, 48 on some sites.

You’ll notice I’ve linked to a few hotels and activities I used or recommend, you can even highlight any text to check prices and book instantly. If you make a booking through them, I receive a small commission, which really helps support the work I do here, at no additional cost to you.

Phu Quoc Squid Fishing: What the Evening Actually Is

Pickup is between 4:30 and 5pm from a hotel in central Duong Dong, the stretch from the night market down Trần Hưng Đạo. Anywhere further out costs extra, which I’ll come back to.

A van takes you to the harbour, you climb onto a two-deck wooden boat, and it motors out a little way off the west coast for the sunset.

Once the sun’s down, the boat anchors and the crew switch on a bank of powerful lights over the side, which is the whole trick: squid come up toward light. Then they hand out the gear, which on the shared tours is a hand line wound on a plastic tube, with a coloured lure on the end that carries a cluster of small hooks. You drop it over the side, let it sink, twitch it now and then and wait.

Dinner comes out somewhere in the middle of the fishing. It’s the same on almost every boat: squid porridge, steamed prawns or squid, stir-fried noodles with vegetables and a plate of fruit. Anything the group catches goes to the cook and comes back cooked, though it’s rarely enough to change the meal.

One bottle of water is included. Beer and soft drinks are extra, and so are the grilled oysters and shellfish the crew will offer. Around 8:30 the lines come in, and you’re back at your hotel at about 9pm.

My John’s Tours evening had all of that and about forty people on the boat. The sunset was lovely. After it, there was nothing to look at but a lit patch of black water and a deck full of people holding plastic tubes, and that’s where an evening like this lives or dies: on how many people are on the boat, how long the fishing really lasts, and whether anyone catches anything.

Will You Actually Catch a Squid in Phu Quoc?

Probably not, and it helps to know that before you go.

Across the people who’ve written about these trips in the last couple of years, the pattern is consistent. A boat of twenty or thirty might land a handful of squid between them, and often the crew catch most of those, using proper rods while the guests have hand lines.

One family in January 2026 caught exactly one. Another group pulled up an octopus and let it go. Plenty of boats catch none. The people who are happy afterwards are nearly all happy about the sunset and the dinner.

The fishing time is also shorter than the listings suggest. They say two hours. In practice it’s often nearer one, partly because the boat starts heading back around 8:30 and partly because the crew stop to take orders for oysters and shellfish, which can eat half an hour of the time you’re supposed to be fishing.

If you do want a squid, these are the things that help, and none of them is guaranteed:

• Fish later. Squid gather under the lights as the night goes on, so the last half hour is better than the first, and the shared tours stop just as it gets good.
• Fish slowly. Let the lure sink, lift it gently and drop it again, and when the line feels heavier, bring it up steadily. A hard pull and the squid comes off the hooks.
• Move. If one side of the boat is dead after fifteen minutes, try the other side, closer to the lights.
• Watch the moon. Two guides say a full moon makes the boat’s lights less effective, and one says it’s the best time. I’d choose a night away from the full moon if I had the choice, and I wouldn’t move a trip for it.

The local boats that fish for a living go out later and stay longer. Some small operators run private trips from 6:30 to 11pm, and even through the night, and that’s a different evening from a shared tour that has you back at your hotel by nine.

Phu Quoc Sunset Time and the Season: When You Get a Sunset

The sunset is the part most people enjoy most, and it’s the part most likely to go missing.

From November to April, the shared boats leave from Duong Dong on the west coast and the sun sets straight into the sea in front of you. The sea is calm and the skies are mostly clear. Phu Quoc’s sunset time moves less than an hour through the year: about 5:35pm in late November and December, 5:50 to 6pm in January and February, and about 6:10pm by April. In December that’s tight, since the boat is only just leaving the harbour, so on those dates the sunset is often watched from the harbour mouth. January to April is the window where the boat is out in time and the weather is reliable.

From May to October, the west coast gets the southwest monsoon and the boats move to Sao Beach or An Thới on the other side of the island. The sea there is calmer, but you’re facing the wrong way, and the listings say plainly that there’s no sunset in these months. There’s more cloud, more rain, and more trips cancelled on the day, either by the operator or by the border guard post that controls boats going out. A cancelled trip is refunded or moved to another date.

So for the sunset version of Phu Quoc squid fishing, it’s November to April and ideally January to April. In the rainy season it’s a night-fishing trip with dinner, and I’d only book it with that in mind.

Which Phu Quoc Squid Fishing Tour to Book

The shared tours are much of a muchness. The boats, the menus and the timings are close to identical, and what decides the evening is how full the boat is, which nobody will tell you in advance.

Red River’s own page is the clearest of the lot, with prices, what’s included, a child fare by height and a list of pickup charges, and booking with them directly in dong is the cheapest way to do exactly the same trip the booking sites sell for twice as much.

Booking it the way people who live here do comes down to two habits.

• The first is asking in Vietnamese, by phone or Zalo, how many people will be on the boat that night: “tàu tối nay bao nhiêu khách?” English listings almost never give a number, and when I went through John’s Tours for their review, their Vietnamese site sold their island-tour boats, carrying 30 to 90 passengers, as a selling point for groups, something the English listing never mentions. The answer tells you what kind of evening it’ll be.
• The second is paying in dong, in cash, to the operator. The booking sites add their margin and charge in dollars, and the boat is the same.

The pickup charges are the thing to check if you’re not staying in town. Red River adds 50,000 VND a person from Long Beach, 100,000 from Ông Lang or Hàm Ninh, 200,000 from Cửa Cạn, An Thới or Bãi Khem, and 400,000 from Bãi Dài or Gành Dầu, which for a family from the north end more than doubles the price.

From Ông Lang, where I spent the middle of my month, a Grab to the Red River office at 379 Trần Hưng Đạo costs less than the surcharge for two people.

For night squid fishing in Phu Quoc where the squid actually matter, the private boat is the one I’d book now. It costs more, it runs an hour longer, and it’s just your group, which deals with the two worst things about the shared boats, the crowd and the short fishing time.

Cheaper again, if you speak some Vietnamese or have someone who does, is going down to the harbour at An Thới or Gành Dầu in the afternoon and agreeing a price with a boat owner directly, bait, gear and food included. Expect to bargain, expect no English, and settle the price, the hours and the food before anyone casts off. That’s the closest thing to how the island’s own fishermen do it, and the one I’d most like to try.

For a full day, izitour and a few others sell a combined trip: pickup at noon, a pearl farm, an afternoon swimming and snorkelling at Sao Beach, then sunset and squid fishing, back at 9pm. It’s a lot of boat for one day, and I’d only do it on a calm one.

Seasickness, Safety and What to Bring

An anchored boat rocks more than a moving one, and on a choppy evening it rocks a lot. The advice that works is the old advice: eat something before you get on, since an empty stomach makes it worse, take a tablet an hour beforehand if you’re prone to it, and keep your eyes on the horizon while there’s still light. Ginger, fresh or as tea, helps some people.

Boarding is where people get hurt. On some trips you step from the pier or a small tender onto the boat, often in the dusk, on wet boards. Shoes with grip matter, and so does a hand from the crew.

None of this is suitable for anyone who can’t climb on and off a boat, whatever a listing says about wheelchair access, and the operators also rule out pregnant passengers and anyone with back or heart problems. Life jackets are on board, and I’d keep mine within reach.

What I’d take:

• A light jacket. It gets surprisingly cool on the water once the sun’s gone.
• Insect repellent and sunscreen. Some operators say plainly they carry no medical supplies.
• Cash for drinks and extras.
• A towel or wet wipes, because squid ink goes everywhere when someone does catch one.

Vegetarians need to say so when booking, and most boats will make a separate plate. On Red River, children between 1m and 1.4m pay 70% and get their own line, and children under 1m go free with an adult.

Is Phu Quoc Night Squid Fishing Worth It?

As a sunset dinner on a boat for under $20, yes, between November and April. It suits families with children who’ll enjoy the lights and the lines, first-time visitors who want an easy evening, and anyone who thinks of the squid as a bonus.

As a fishing trip on a shared boat, no. If catching something matters, the private boat or a fisherman’s boat later in the night is a different and better product. And if all you’re after is the sunset, a beach bar at Ông Lang or on Long Beach gives you the same view with no seasickness, and the night market sells grilled squid for 20,000 to 30,000 VND a skewer afterwards. The rest of what’s on offer is in the things to do in Phu Quoc, and the John’s Tours review explains why I’d choose a different operator for this one.

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