Month by month, including the working calendar
Every guide to Phu Quoc tells you November to April. That is correct and it is half the story, because the farms and the fishing have their own calendar and it does not line up with the weather one.
The short answer
Come between November and April if you can choose. Come in February or March if you can choose precisely. Avoid the last week of January and the first week of February in most years, because Tet closes half the island and fills the other half.
If you can only come in the southwest monsoon, come anyway. Five of our seven days run unchanged, the island is green, the prices are lower and the crowds are gone. What you lose is the motorbike day and reliable sea conditions.
Month by month
| Month | Weather | Sea | Crowds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | Drying out, 26 - 31 C | Calming | Building | Very good |
| December | Dry, 25 - 30 C, breezy | Calm west, choppy east | High | Excellent |
| January | Dry, coolest, 24 - 30 C | Calm | Peak, plus Tet | Excellent, book early |
| February | Dry, 25 - 31 C | Calm | High | The best month |
| March | Dry, warming, 26 - 33 C | Calm | Moderate | The best month |
| April | Hot, 28 - 35 C, humid late | Calm | Moderate | Good, start early |
| May | First rains, 28 - 34 C | Turning | Low | Mixed |
| June | Wet, 27 - 32 C | Rough west | Low | Acceptable |
| July | Wet, 27 - 32 C | Rough west | Domestic peak | Mixed |
| August | Wettest weeks, 27 - 32 C | Rough west | Domestic | Poor for the sea |
| September | Wet, 27 - 32 C | Rough | Very low | Green, quiet, cheap |
| October | Easing, 27 - 32 C | Easing | Low | Improving fast |
The two monsoons matter more than the temperature, which barely moves. From roughly May to October the wind is from the southwest, which puts it straight onto the west coast where all the hotels are - hence surf on Long Beach and an unswimmable Cua Can. From November to April it comes from the northeast, which is onshore at Ham Ninh and Bai Vong and offshore everywhere you want to swim.
The working calendar, which nobody publishes
| Season | Months | Why it matters to a visitor |
|---|---|---|
| Pepper harvest | February - April | Picking, the drying yards full, the farm at its most interesting |
| Pepper pruning and tying | June - August | Quiet on the farm but the best time to hear how the business actually works |
| Anchovy season | July - September | Fish sauce barrels are filled. The vat houses are busiest and strongest smelling |
| Fish sauce drawing off | Roughly a year after filling | Happens continuously, so any month works for tasting |
| Squid, inshore | October - May | The evening squid boats out of Duong Dong and Ham Ninh |
| Flower crab | Year round, best Nov - Mar | The Ham Ninh trade never stops, but winter crab are bigger |
| Sim berry | June - August | The wine everyone tries to sell you is made now |
February to April is the only window where the weather season and the pepper season overlap, which is why we consider it the best time to come and why the pepper and fish sauce day is at its strongest then.
What runs when
| Our day | Nov - May | Jun - Oct |
|---|---|---|
| Fishing village morning | Runs, best months | Runs, cancelled about 15 mornings a year |
| Street food night walk | Runs | Runs, unaffected |
| Cooking day | Runs | Runs, unaffected |
| Pepper and fish sauce day | Runs, harvest Feb - Apr | Runs, barrels filled Jul - Sep |
| Back roads by motorbike | Runs | Does not run |
| Village homestay | Runs | Runs, river at its best |
| Authentic Phu Quoc, 4 days | Runs | Does not run - we sell it as three days instead |
Weeks to avoid, and one to consider
- Tet, the lunar new year, usually late January or February. Family kitchens close for four to seven days, the homestay does not take guests, half the island is visiting relatives and the other half is fully booked. Prices for hotels double.
- 30 April to 4 May, the reunification and labour day holiday. The largest domestic travel week of the year. Rach Vem is unbearable.
- 2 September, national day, and the weekend around it. Same effect, smaller.
- Mid-July to mid-August, the Vietnamese school holiday and the domestic peak, which coincides with the worst of the monsoon on the west coast.
- Worth considering: late September and early October. Genuinely wet, genuinely green, almost empty, and the cheapest hotel rates of the year. If you do not need the sea, it is the best value month on the island.
Rain, in practice
Rain in the southwest monsoon is not the all-day drizzle people imagine. It usually arrives as one or two heavy blocks of ninety minutes to three hours, most often in the afternoon, with sun either side. August is the exception: several days a month it genuinely does not stop.
For our days that matters in three specific ways. Red laterite roads become slippery clay, which is why the bike day stops. The farm walk becomes muddy but is otherwise unaffected, and the pepper vines look better wet. The food walk and the cooking day are indoors or under cover for almost all of their length and are simply not a problem.
Bring a light rain shell rather than an umbrella, which is unusable on a scooter and awkward in a market.
Questions travellers ask most
Is it worth coming in September?
If you want the villages, the food and the farms rather than the sea, yes - and it is the cheapest and emptiest month of the year.
If you want to swim, snorkel or ride the dirt roads, no. Come between November and April instead.
What is the weather actually like at Tet?
Usually excellent - it falls in the dry season. The problem with Tet is not the weather, it is that the island stops working for several days.
If your dates are fixed around it, tell us and we will be straight about which days can run.
How hot does it get?
Air temperature runs 24 to 35 C all year, so the season is about rain and wind rather than heat. April and May are the hottest, reaching 35 C on the pepper drying yard by early afternoon.
Humidity is high all year. Anyone who suffers in heat should take the early starts, which is most of what we run anyway.
Do prices change with the season?
Ours do not - we charge the same figure in August as in February. Hotels on Phu Quoc vary enormously, easily by a factor of two between September and Tet.
What changes for us is availability rather than price.
Read next
Tell us what you want out of the island
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.