How Vietnam's Phu Quoc is becoming Koreans' favorite vacation getaway

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How Vietnam's Phu Quoc is becoming Koreans' favorite vacation getaway

Published: 30 Apr. 2026, 07:00 Updated: 30 Apr. 2026, 08:52

SEO JI-EUN
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A couple kisses at Sun Group’s iconic Kiss Bridge in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, where the two ends are designed to almost meet with a 30-centimeter gap. [SEO JI-EUN]

PHU QUOC, Vietnam — Two decades ago, the island of Phu Quoc — with its pristine emerald waters — was one of Vietnam’s best-kept secrets.

But with word of mouth and the development of lavish resorts, the southern getaway is beginning to rival other well-established holiday destinations in attracting Koreans to the Southeast Asian country.

The first clue is the music.

From the open-air bistros lining the coast to the beachside stages and from the speakers mounted on pastel-toned lampposts along waterfront: Psy's "Gangnam Style" (2012) and Rosé's "APT." (2024) — the kind of crowd-ready K-pop that fills stadiums back home — can be heard.

The second clue is the signage.

A menu board at an ice cream stall inside Sun World Hon Thom Nature Park in southern Phu Quoc features Korean translations underneath the English text, reflecting the island's focus on its largest tourist market. [SEO JI-EUN]

At every restaurant and every tour desk on Phu Quoc, the text follows a specific hierarchy: Vietnamese first, then Korean. English often comes third, sometimes fourth if Russian is included.

Korean visitors to Vietnam numbered 4.3 million last year, according to Vietnam's General Statistics Office, meaning one in every five international arrivals in the country is Korean. For years, Vietnam's coastal city of Da Nang absorbed most of them, earning the local nickname "Da Nang City, Gyeonggi."

But the center of gravity is moving south.

Phu Quoc, an island that not long ago was known mainly for its pungent fish sauce and fiery black pepper, has a new title — the Jeju of Vietnam — with Koreans filling its resorts.

The Sun World cable car passes over the terminal designed like the Roman Colosseum in Phu Quoc, Vietnam. [SEO JI-EUN]

Amalfi of Southeast Asia

Stand at the edge of Sunset Town on a humid afternoon, and the surroundings offer little indication of being in Vietnam.

The Mediterranean-style streetscape of Positano Street in Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, Vietnam [SEO JI-EUN]

Pastel buildings in terra-cotta, cream and pale yellow run along the seafront, evoking Italy's Amalfi Coast. The street signs reference Positano. A clock tower rises from a central piazza modeled after Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy. Directly ahead, the cable car terminus rises in the imposing shape of the Roman Colosseum.

The transformation of Phu Quoc is arguably the most dramatic reinvention in modern Vietnamese history.

Map of the Phu Quoc Island [YUN YOUNG]

In the early 2000s, the Vietnamese government decided the quiet island should rival Hawaii or the Maldives, and handed the $2 billion project to two conglomerates: VinGroup in the north, Sun Group in the south.

The fishing village became a boulevard. The jungle road became a corridor of luxury resorts, landscaped roundabouts and half-finished towers. There are now more than 30 five-star hotels on an island that had none two decades ago. Sun Phu Quoc Airways recently added a direct route from Incheon.

Arriving after a 20-minute drive from the airport, the architecture of Sunset Town is genuinely impressive at first.

But the feeling that settles in, slowly, is more like the set of "The Truman Show" (1998) than Amalfi — a world designed to look lived-in, without quite being so. The occasional beer bar or massage parlor is open, but between them, many neighboring businesses are not yet.

Crowds gather at the Vui-Fest Bazaar in Phu Quoc to enjoy local street food and live entertainment. [SUN GROUP]

At golden hour, something switches.

The night market rolls open, music rises and the piazzas fill with strollers, families and couples.

The longest crossing in the world

The journey to the heart of Sun Group’s vision begins inside the Colosseum, where a cable car departs for Hon Thom Island across 7.9 kilometers (5 miles) of open sea — the longest over-sea cable car on earth, a Guinness record that Sun Group mentions at every opportunity.

Cable car cabins glide over the turquoise waters of Phu Quoc, Vietnam, offering visitors a bird’s-eye view of Sunset Town’s European-inspired architecture and the traditional fishing village below. [SEO JI-EUN]

The 20-minute crossing is unexpectedly beautiful.

From the glass cabin, Sunset Town's manicured seafront gives way to the older Phu Quoc: rugged fishing villages, salt-weathered boats in a dozen shades of turquoise and a coastline that existed before any of this and continues to exist just below. It is the most honest 20 minutes on the island.

Hon Thom itself is a full entertainment complex.

The Roaring Timbers wooden roller coaster in Hon Thom Island, Phu Quoc [SUN GROUP]

It houses the Aquatopia Water Park, an amusement park featuring Roaring Timbers — a massive wooden roller coaster often compared to Everland's T-Express — and a 360-degree observation tower for those who prefer altitude to velocity.

On a Saturday morning, the lines were short enough to ride the coaster twice in a row without queuing, an unheard-of luxury in the theme parks of Seoul.

The Kiss Bridge in Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, is complemented by jet skiers performing in the surrounding waters. [SUN GROUP]

The show that must, and does, go on

As dusk falls, the island’s most Instagrammable landmark takes center stage.

The Kiss Bridge, designed by Italian architect Marco Casamonti, consists of two 400-meter (1,312-foot) platforms approaching each other from opposite shores. The installation allows couples to walk toward each other and stop just 30 centimeters (12 inches) short of meeting.

To bridge the gap, couples lean over the railing and kiss across the divide, silhouetted against the setting sun melting into the Gulf of Thailand. At peak hour, the bridge operates less as infrastructure and more as a slow-moving romantic traffic jam.

Flyboard performers put on a spectacular show in the waters off Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, with the island's European-style skyline in the background on April 19. [SEO JI-EUN]

As night deepens, the entertainment escalates.

At 5 p.m., the Awaken Sea show opens near the bridge, with international athletes on jet skis and flyboards performing stunts close enough that spectators can reach out and high-five them as they pass.

A flyboard performer reaches out for a high-five with spectators during the Awaken Sea show in Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, on April 19. [SEO JI-EUN]

Kim Eun-jung watched with her husband and their children, aged 11 and 9.

This was the family's second Vietnam trip, after Nha Trang. She had come with two other school friends, each bringing their own families.

"We chose Phu Quoc because it feels safer and more convenient for kids," Kim told the Korea JoongAng Daily on April 19. "Most of the people I know have already been here or are planning their trip for this summer."

The Symphony of the Sea show, featuring a dazzling display of fireworks and jet ski choreography, is viewed from a seaside restaurant in Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, on April 19. [SEO JI-EUN]

At 7:30 p.m., Symphony of the Sea takes over — the same flyboarders now shooting fire from their suits as they race across the open water, a combination of speed and pyrotechnics that makes watching feel slightly dangerous.

The main event, the Kiss of the Sea show, begins at 9 p.m.

A 1,000-square-meter (10,764-square-foot) water screen serves as a canvas for 3-D projection mapping, lasers and fire effects inside a 5,000-seat outdoor arena — a production that holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest outdoor multimedia show.

The show tells the love story of a boy from Phu Quoc and a girl from the cosmos, though by the finale, the highlight is the fireworks.

Fireworks illuminate the night sky during the Kiss of the Sea show in Sunset Town, Phu Quoc, on April 19. [SEO JI-EUN]

Shell after shell tears the sky open without pause, as if someone decided the entire pyrotechnic warehouse needed to be emptied in a single night. As the fireworks set to the tune of Queen's "Show Must Go On" (1991), the spectacles indeed go on, running every evening, rain or shine, twice a night.

The white-roofed villas at Premier Village Phu Quoc. Nestled at the southern tip of the island, it is one of the few places in the world where guests can witness both the sunrise and sunset over the ocean from a single location. [SUN GROUP]

The luxury of silence

There is another Phu Quoc, reached through a road shaded by old-growth forest that makes you forget, briefly, the neon spectacles you just saw.

Premier Village Resort sits at the tip of a private peninsula.

The resort's 215 pool villas are spread across grounds so large that guests have to travel by buggy.

A villa of the Premier Village Phu Quoc [SUN GROUP]

The villas are designed for privacy so that it is possible to share a multiroom accomodation with colleagues and spend an entire day without knowing whether they're in or out.

The resort offers a wellness program that feels almost satirical in its contrast to the previous night's fireworks.

At 6:30 a.m., a yoga instructor leads a beach session with a singing bowl. Lying on the mat, eyes closed, the bowl's low hum bleeding into the sound of small waves a few meters away — a moment of profound peace.

The activities of choice that follow — paddleboarding and aqua yoga in the resort's lagoon — neither demands much.

A staff member at Premier Village Phu Quoc demonstrates coconut hunting on April 19 using a bamboo pole. [SEO JI-EUN]

During a coconut picking activity, an instructor walks guests through knocking a fresh coconut from a palm with a long pole. When it hits the ground, he opens it on the spot and passes it over with a straw. The fresher the coconut, the instructor explained, the more water inside. Both were so full that finishing even one was a real effort.

By midmorning, other guests were drifting through the grounds — almost everyone, predictably, was Korean.

"More than 70 percent of our guests are Korean," said Thian, a resort staffer. "They seem to prefer this resort because it offers a quieter, more private experience than the hotels [in the center.]"

The vibrant nightscape of Sunset Town [SUN GROUP]

The empty storefronts of Sunset Town suggest the island's ambitions are still, in places, catching up with themselves.

The cable car lines, the crowds leaning over the Kiss Bridge, the Korean menus and K-pop playlists are already planning to come back to tell a different story.

"Korea has long been one of Phu Quoc's most important international markets," said La Vinh Nam, deputy director of sales at Sun Phu Quoc Airways, at a gala dinner marking the launch of the Incheon direct route. "Phu Quoc is changing fast [and Korea is a reason why]."

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]

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