What to do in Phu Quoc when it rains: My go-to plan

Here’s the order I do things in when the day is gone, and then afterwards why a wet day here costs you more than a wet day somewhere else.

The short version of that: the rain isn’t usually the problem. The sea is. So the plan below is really a cancelled-boat-day plan and it works whether or not it’s still coming down while you follow it.

• Quick Answer: A washout day in Phu Quoc goes cooking class or chocolate workshop in the morning, a long lunch somewhere with walls and air conditioning, a mud bath or massage in the afternoon, and the night market in the evening once it eases. That fills a day properly. The island has one cinema and one museum and neither gets you through more than two hours.
• The Plan, In Order:
  • Morning: cooking class, three to 4 hours with lunch built in. Or the chocolate workshop at 19 minutes.
  • Midday: Chuồn Chuồn for the air-conditioned room and the view of the weather. ANBA on Trần Hưng Đạo if you just need somewhere to sit.
  • Afternoon: mud bath, 2 to 3 hours, and the one thing bad weather improves. Sóc Nâu shuts at six.
  • Evening: the night market in Dương Đông, mostly under cover, or the bar strip in hẻm 118.
• What Fills How Much:
  • Cooking class, 3-4 hours, around 900,000 VND.
  • Mud bath, 2-3 hours, 400,000 to 550,000 VND.
  • Chocolate workshop, 90 minutes, around $19.
  • Massage, 60-90 minutes, from 180,000 VND.
  • Cinema at TR Mall, 2 hours. Cội Nguồn Museum, 30 minutes, 50,000 VND.
• Sounds Indoor and Isn’t: Vinpearl Safari, VinWonders, the cable car, the national park trek. All four run in rain. None of them are any good in it.
• Why It Matters: the southwest monsoon blows onto the west coast from May, boats stop going out, and the sea stays rough for a day or two after the sky clears.

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.

My Go-To Plan for a Washout

The order matters more than the items, because most of the indoor things here shut early.

Morning: something with your hands

A cooking class is the strongest single answer to a wet day. The good ones run three or four hours, start at a market, and finish with you eating what you cooked, so they take out the morning and lunch together.

Troc’s Kitchen at Cửa Lấp and The Hidden up at Ông Lang are the two I’d look at, and both are around 900,000 VND.

The chocolate factory workshop is the shorter option, ninety minutes and about $19, and apart from ten minutes in the garden it’s all under a roof. With children it’s the easier of the two, since nobody handles a knife and everyone leaves with a box they made.

Both need booking, and in the wet season they’ll usually have space the same morning. That’s one of the few things bad weather makes easier.

If neither appeals, some spas will stack several treatments into a three-hour package if you ask at reception. Not thrilling, but it’s warm and dry and it’s three hours.

Midday: eat somewhere with walls

Less obvious than it sounds, because a lot of eating here happens under awnings, and in real rain those places are miserable and half of them close.

Chuồn Chuồn Bistro is where I’d go. Up the hill behind Dương Đông, proper indoor air-conditioned section, and on a wet day you’re watching the weather cross the island and go out to sea. It’s expensive by island standards and some of that is the position. On a wet night it’s also wide open, when normally you’d need to book.

ANBA Coffee on Trần Hưng Đạo is the cheap version and my default when I need two hours somewhere dry. Indoor seating, good wifi, food better than a café needs, open until half nine.

What I’d avoid at lunch is anywhere on the beach itself. Those places are built open-sided for the sea breeze and there’s nowhere to sit that isn’t getting wet sideways.

Afternoon: the one thing rain improves

A mud bath. This is the slot I’d protect on a bad day.

They make more sense in bad weather than good, because you’re wet anyway, the hydrotherapy pool and sauna are under cover, and the whole thing runs two to three hours.

Sóc Nâu north of Dương Đông is the quieter of the two, around 425,000 VND, and it closes at six, so start by three at the latest. You’re in the mud itself for maybe fifteen minutes; the pool and the sauna are the rest of it.

Versailles at Cửa Lấp runs to ten and has more indoor space, around 550,000, though the beach club half of it is pointless in rain.

If you’d rather not give up the whole afternoon, a straight massage is ninety minutes from about 180,000 VND. Which places I’d use is in the massage piece.

Evening: it will probably have eased

Rain here nearly always drops off in the evening even on bad days, so don’t cancel dinner at 4pm.

The night market in Dương Đông runs to around midnight and most of it is under cover. It’s better wet, because everyone crowds under the same roofs and it stops feeling like a car park with stalls in it.

Vui Fest at Sunset Town is cleaner and better run but it’s a long drive in bad weather and I wouldn’t bother.

Otherwise the bar strip in hẻm 118 Trần Hưng Đạo is walkable end to end in two minutes, which matters when it’s coming down. Who’s who down there is in the nightlife piece.

The Indoor List, Ranked by How Much of a Day It Fills

The cinema

One on the island, Beta at TR Mall in Sonasea, open eleven until eleven. It shows major English-language films on short runs, so check listings before driving over.

Screen is smallish and the popcorn is sugar or caramel only. There’s a supermarket in the mall, so you can stretch it to three hours.

The museum

Cội Nguồn on Trần Hưng Đạo, 5 floors, 50,000 VND, 7am until 4pm.

Closes at 4pm, so it’s a morning stop and not somewhere to fall back on at three. Straight about it: dusty, the English signage was translated badly a long time ago, display cases not clean.

There’s real material on the island’s history in there if you’ll work for it, and the view from the top floors is the best part. Half an hour, and only because it’s 50.000 VND and it’s raining.

Things That Sound Indoor and Aren’t

Vinpearl Safari.

Runs in rain, still avoid it. Most of it is walking outdoors and the animals go and lie under cover where you can’t see them. The safari bus is fine, the rest of the day isn’t, and it’s not a cheap ticket.

VinWonders

There’s an aquarium and some indoor sections, but you’re paying full price for a water park you can’t use. The one exception is if you’ve got children and the alternative is a hotel room, in which case the aquarium and the indoor rides will buy you three hours.

The cable car

Closes in high wind and thunderstorms, and when it does run you’re paying to look at cloud.

The national park trek

Tempting, because it goes ahead when the boats don’t, and I’ve said so in the trekking piece. Heavy rain turns that trail slick though, and the leeches are out through the wet months. Fine in drizzle, not in a downpour.

Why a Wet Day Here Costs More Than Elsewhere

From May the southwest monsoon blows straight onto the west coast, which is where every hotel on this island sits. That churns the water and the boats stop going out. And the sea doesn’t calm the moment the rain stops, so you can get bright weather and still no boat for a day or two afterwards.

Nearly everything good on Phu Quoc happens on the water. So when people say the rain ruined their trip, what actually happened is the sea took the island hopping day away, and then the beach day was no use either because the west coast is churned up and full of jellyfish and sea lice.

Which is why the plan above isn’t really about rain. Half the days I’ve used it on were dry by lunchtime.

One habit worth having in the wet season: check the night before whether your operator has cancelled tomorrow. Most message by seven in the morning, some don’t message at all until you’re standing at the pickup point. Ask how they’ll tell you when you book.

The rain itself is short and violent here, usually forty minutes to two hours, often late afternoon or overnight, and mornings are frequently clear. August and September are the exception, when it settles in for days at a time. That’s the stretch this plan is really for.

If you’ve been in the wet season, tell me what you did on the worst day, because my list is short and I know it. There aren’t many indoor options on this island and I’d like to add whatever I’ve missed.

For everything else, things to do in Phu Quoc has the fuller list.

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