Snorkelling in South Phu Quoc: Group Size Decides the Day
6 min read
The reefs south of An Thoi are the reason most people put Phu Quoc on a list rather than another island. They are also the reason the day can go wrong: the same water is sold on big group boats at the bottom of the price range and on speedboats for at most twelve people, and the difference is not the destination.
There are 94 snorkelling and diving offers starting at €12.07. Laid out by price and rating, they are worth reading before you pick one.
The pattern in the ratings
These are two of the small-group speedboats with the largest samples:
- Real snorkel & island hopping by speedboat, max 12 – €49.89, 4.3 stars, 677 reviews
- Pro Snorkeling Tour by speedboat, max 10 – €56.65, 4.9 stars, 726 reviews
Set them against the cheapest offers in the category, which start at €12.07, and compare the ratings before you book. A higher price is not a reason to assume a better day. It is a reason to treat the cheap group boat as a different product rather than a bargain version of the same one.
And the label itself proves nothing. The Real snorkel boat says max 12 in its title and ‘up to 14 people’ in its group-size line. And both boats above carry max 12 in the title while their ratings differ: 4.9 against 4.3 stars. The phrase in the headline is a claim, not a measurement; read the group-size line on the booking page.
What the ten-person boats actually do differently
The Pro Snorkeling Tour is run by OnBird and is the clearest example, because its booking page spells out the method instead of the mood. Six hours, twelve people maximum, and a fixed shape to the day: one safety stop in shallow water, two coral sites, one island to sit on afterwards. Actual time in the water is given as 1.5 to 1.8 hours.
The two coral sites are not fixed. The page names the pool they are drawn from – Coral Mountain, Coral Hill, Coral Steep, Half-moon Reef, U-Turn, North-east Coral Reef, Coral Garden, Sword Reef – and says the pair is chosen daily from a water-condition forecast, with the morning or afternoon slot picked for light and visibility rather than for convenience. Between April and October you can ask to visit their coral nursery garden.
Two house rules are printed on the same page and are worth knowing before you board: no fish feeding, and no traditional fishing reels on board. If part of the appeal for you was hand-feeding fish, this is not your boat, and the page tells you so honestly rather than after you have paid.
The listing also carries a line GetYourGuide awards rather than the operator: 95% of English-speaking travellers gave this activity a perfect score.
The honest bit the five-star reviews give away
Read the long reviews rather than the short ones. One traveller who gave five stars describes the guides sorting an unevenly skilled group – a family of four who had called themselves experienced, two of whom could not swim – into sensible pairings within minutes of getting on the boat. That is a competence you cannot see in a photo, and it is most of what you are paying a small boat for.
The same reviewer is blunt about the end of the day: the island stop has rusty, dirty shower water and is best avoided. Nobody’s marketing mentions that. Bring a towel and rinse at the hotel.
Rain season is not the same thing as rough water
Phu Quoc’s dry season runs roughly November to April; the southwest monsoon brings the wet half from May to October, with the heaviest rain usually in August and September. That is the island’s pattern and it is why some boat tours are cancelled outright in those months.
It is worth noticing that OnBird’s own page brackets the rainy season differently – July to October – and states that its trips run all year, unaffected by it; the sites are picked daily from conditions rather than fixed in advance. Those two statements are not in conflict, but they are not the same claim either. One describes the island’s climate; the other describes an operator’s scheduling. If you are here between May and October, ask the operator directly what happens on a bad morning, and book something with free cancellation.
Pick-up, and the fee that is easy to miss
Hotel pick-up is free from Duong Dong Center, Bai Truong and An Thoi town. Outside those areas the page lists a transfer charge per group rather than per person: 250,000 VND for Ong Lang, 350,000 VND for Cua Can, 450,000 VND for the Vinpearl area and 500,000 VND for Chuong Vic; from Ham Ninh pick-up may not be available. A holiday surcharge of 150,000 VND per person may apply on Vietnamese public holidays, Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year. On a couple’s booking that is a real addition; split across a group of six it is almost nothing. Check where your hotel falls before you compare prices between operators, because not every listing states this as clearly.
If snorkelling is not quite the point
Two neighbours of this category are worth a look. A scuba diving experience for all levels costs €126.30 and holds 4.8 stars from 55 reviews – a different budget, and for beginners a try dive of at most six metres, reached by car rather than by boat. At the other end, if what you want is a day on the water with islands and lunch rather than serious reef time, the island-hopping category holds 138 offers from €7.81, and the cable car day tours bundle a boat trip with the ride to Hon Thom – covered in detail in our guide to the Hon Thom cable car and the three-island day.
One last practical point. Before you trust a high score, look at how many reviews sit behind it. On a sample of a few dozen, one bad morning moves the number.
