How to Get from An Thoi to Bai Thom, Phu Quoc: Time, Cost and Best Options

Where Are An Thoi and Bai Thom - and Why the Trip Is Longer Than It Looks

An Thoi is Phu Quoc's southernmost town, home to the An Thoi pier, the fishing harbour and the cable-car station for Hon Thom. Bai Thom sits at the far north-east tip of the island, a quiet fishing and pepper-farming village facing the Gulf of Thailand towards Cambodia. On a map the two points look close - both sit on roughly the same longitude - but the island's shape forces you to travel the long way round.

There is no road cutting straight across the island's protected national-park interior. Every route from An Thoi to Bai Thom must first run north along the coast to Duong Dong or through the island's midsection, then swing east and north again along the DT47 coastal road past Ham Ninh. That is why the real distance is 42-45 km even though the straight line is barely 25 km.

The payoff for the extra kilometres is the ride itself. The stretch north of Ham Ninh is one of the island's most scenic drives: the sea on your left, forested hills of Phu Quoc National Park on your right, and almost no traffic. It is the kind of road where you stop every ten minutes for a photo, so budget a half-day for the trip rather than treating it as a commute.

Route Options Compared: Scooter, Taxi, Private Car or Cable Car?

One warning about the cable car: many travellers assume the Hon Thom cable car - at 7.9 km one of the longest over-sea cable cars in the world - connects the south of the island with the north-east. It does the opposite. It runs from An Thoi south across the sea to Hon Thom island, where attractions like Coconut Garden (open daily 9:00-16:30, from 300,000 VND per adult) and the Mango Buffet (10:30-15:00, 370,000 VND adult / 270,000 VND child) are located. It is a great day trip from An Thoi, but it takes you zero kilometres closer to Bai Thom.

Riding a Scooter from An Thoi to Bai Thom: Route, Fuel and Road Conditions

The standard route runs like this: leave An Thoi on the DT45 north, pass Duong Dong's southern edge or cut through the island's centre on the Tran Hung Dao - DT47 combination, then follow the coast past Ham Ninh. From Ham Ninh the road hugs the shoreline for the final 25 km to Bai Thom, and this is the best part of the ride. The tarmac is generally in good condition, but expect occasional potholes, sand drifts across the road near the beach, and dogs, water buffalo and chickens as the main traffic hazards.

Fuel is simple: petrol stations are spaced along the main roads, and in the villages you can buy petrol from glass-bottle roadside stalls for around 25,000-30,000 VND per litre. For the 90 km round trip a semi-automatic 110-125 cc bike uses roughly 3 litres. Start with a full tank in An Thoi anyway - bottle stalls north of Ham Ninh become sparse.

Ride timing matters. Leave An Thoi by 8:00-8:30 and you will reach Bai Thom before the midday heat, with time for lunch and a swim before riding back in daylight. Riding the east-coast road after dark is not recommended: unlit stretches, wandering livestock and the occasional drunk rider make it genuinely risky, even for experienced riders.

Taxi or Private Car: What It Costs and How to Book

Grab operates in the Duong Dong and An Thoi areas, but coverage thins out dramatically in Bai Thom - do not count on booking a return Grab from the village. The reliable pattern is a metered taxi (Mai Linh and Vinasun both operate on the island) or a private car arranged in advance. A one-way metered ride An Thoi to Bai Thom typically lands at 600,000-750,000 VND, and drivers will often negotiate a waiting-and-return package for around 1,200,000-1,600,000 VND.

A private car with driver for the day - typically a 4-7 seater SUV - costs about 1,100,000-1,500,000 VND and is the smartest choice if you want to combine Bai Thom with stops at Ham Ninh's seafood stalls, a pepper farm, or Phu Quoc's northern beaches. You set the itinerary, the driver waits, and you avoid the fatigue of 90 km on a scooter in tropical heat.

This is also where a local operator earns its keep. Sabrina Rental arranges scooters delivered to your hotel in An Thoi and can connect you with trusted English-speaking drivers for the Bai Thom run - useful if you want the flexibility of a car without haggling the price yourself.

Making a Day of It: Stops Between An Thoi and Bai Thom

The beauty of this route is that it stacks several of Phu Quoc's highlights into one line on the map. A sensible day plan looks like this:

Note that Ham Ninh's food carts, market stalls and shops cluster at the main intersections, so if you are hungry on the way north, that is the place to stop - not Bai Thom, where options are fewer and close earlier.

Where to Eat in Bai Thom: From Pho Bo to Full Seafood

Bai Thom is a working village, not a resort strip, and the food reflects that. Small local eateries serve steaming bowls of pho bo (beef noodle soup) and com tam (broken rice with grilled pork), typically for 100,000-200,000 VND per person including a drink. Some simple street orders - a baguette, a plate of fresh fruit, a bowl of soup - cost well under 30,000 VND.

For a sit-down meal, Bai Thom Retreat at Cau So 30, Bai Thom is the village's most established address, open daily around the clock and reachable on +84 93 867 65 55 if you want to call ahead. It sits right by the water, and the seafood here is exactly what travel writers mean when they list Bai Thom among Phu Quoc's four standout areas for seafood - the other three being Duong Dong, Ham Ninh and Ganh Dau.

A typical seafood dinner for two - grilled scallops, a whole crab, spring rolls and a couple of beers - runs 300,000-600,000 VND at local spots like this. That is noticeably cheaper than the equivalent meal at the resort-strip restaurants in the island's south, and the crab comes straight off the boats you can see from your table.

When to Go: Weather, Road Conditions and Timing

Phu Quoc has two seasons, and they change this trip completely. From November to April the skies are dry, the east-coast road is clean, and the ride is straightforward. From May to October the south-west monsoon brings daily downpours: the road north of Ham Ninh holds water in dips, sand washes onto the tarmac, and visibility in a squall drops to a few metres. Scooter riding in heavy rain on this stretch is genuinely dangerous, not just unpleasant.

Even in the dry season, start early. The return leg into the afternoon sun with no shade is draining, and you want to be off the east-coast road before dusk. If you are on a scooter and the sky turns black at midday, the sensible move is to wait it out under a village roof with a coffee - the rain rarely lasts more than an hour.