The newly-opened cable-car ride from Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island to Hon Thom, also known as Pineapple Island, is a genuinely breathtaking experience. You soar over a turquoise sea and coral reefs, hopping between islands, with an amazing bird’s-eye view. At almost 8km long, the Phu Quoc cable car is also the longest non-stop three-way cable car in the world, as verified by the Guinness Book of World Records.

Riding the Phu Quoc cable car to Pineapple Island

When you arrive at the cable car station in Phu Quoc, the first thing you notice is that everything around you looks distinctly Italian. The building appears to have been modelled on Rome, liberally borrowing from various different eras.

I think this was done to contrast the start of your journey in Phu Quoc with Pineapple Island, and make your arrival there feel like washing up on a tropical paradise island, because the cable car station when you arrive in Pineapple Island is decked out with this kind of thing:

The ride itself is a pretty amazing experience. You get a 360 degree aerial view of the An Thoi Archipelago, flying over green islands, turquoise coral reefs and charming fishing boats. You can actually look down at the harbour and the water is so clear you can see the shadows of the boats on the sea bed, and watch fishermen wearing cone-shaped hats sailing their boats out to sea.

Is the Phu Quoc cable car ride scary?

If you are scared of heights, then I do think this would be a pretty challenging experience. It’s VERY high up and the cable cars aren’t entirely steady. Occasionally they stop in mid air for a minute or two and swing slightly, and as they pass the tall cement pillars on each island that hold up the cable lines, they dip and plummet downwards a TINY bit, as if you’re on a very gentle roller coaster.

That said, I truly think it’s so worth it. Unless you have an actual phobia, I’d highly recommend going for it. Nobody on the cable car ride with me in either direction seemed to be nervous at any point, except for when we stopped in the air the first time and people seemed to be wondering if that was normal (turns out it is!).

The Phu Quoc cable car station on Pineapple Island

What’s on the other side of the Phu Quoc cable car ride when you get to Pineapple Island?

The short answer: not much. The cable car takes you to Hon Thom Nature Park. There’s a lovely but small golden-sand beach, which features a fun jumping-castle-style playground in the water, deck chairs and swings from the palm trees. Oh, and water so turquoise it makes you want to cry. The cable car ticket includes free return transfers to this beach. Open-air shuttle mini buses (kind of like long golf buggies) leave pretty much constantly throughout the day in both directions and it’s only a few minutes’ drive from the cable car station on Pineapple Island to the beach.

The beach at Pineapple Island

There are also a couple of restaurants along the beach, but they are clearly all owned by the Sun Resorts company that built the cable car, rather than charming local eateries. They’re also quite expensive by Vietnamese standards, although still pretty good if, like me, you’re used to London prices! There’s a restaurant that offers an all-you-can eat Vietnamese buffet for 205,000 Vietnamese Dong, which is around £6.50 / $9. This also included a somewhat bizarre but entertaining show featuring various types of dancing, including people doing typical fire-dancing tricks except with LED sticks instead of burning torches.

To be honest, for me this experience is all about the cable-car ride. The beach is delightful, but no more so than various other gorgeous beaches on Phu Quoc island itself. If you just want to spend a day at the beach, you can do that in Phu Quoc for cheaper and have just as nice a beach experience. Riding over the An Thoi Archipelago though and watching the turquoise coral reefs and islands from the sky felt like a genuinely once in a lifetime experience.

How long does the Phu Quoc cable car ride last

The cable-car ride from Phu Quoc to Pineapple Island takes about 15 minutes each way, so you have time to really enjoy the amazing views. It’s a fast ride at times (up to around 30km an hour apparently) so you genuinely do feel like you’re flying above the water.

How to take great photos from the Phu Quoc cable car?

There are narrow windows at the top of each end of the cable car, plus there are small and thin windows in the top half of the door, so you can get a partial look at the view and take photos at some angles unrestricted by glass. I’d definitely bring a polarising lens for your camera or a clip-on polariser for your phone.

A polariser is just a glass lens you screw onto your camera or clip over your phone’s camera that cuts out reflections on glass or water, and you can buy them inexpensively from Amazon and electronics shops.

Using a polariser will allow you to get photos of the views through the cable car’s glass walls with less distracting background reflection. I stupidly didn’t bring mine with me for the cable car ride and so took most of my photos by holding and tilting my camera out of the windows like that time Michael Jackson dangled a baby over a balcony and everyone freaked out — NOT RECOMMENDED.

How much does the Phu Quoc cable car cost?

The cost of the Phu Quoc cable car ride is 500,000 Vietnamese Dong, which is around £16 / $22 USD. The ticket price covers the cable car ride both ways, plus a return shuttle to the beach on Pineapple Island once you get there. There’s a cheaper price of 350,000 Dong (£11/$15) for children under 1.3 metres tall and kids under 1 metre tall can ride the cable car for free.

How to get to the cable car in Phu Quoc

The cable car in Phu Quoc is located in the south, just outside the town of An Thoi. Unfortunately there’s not much in the way of public transport on Phu Quoc island, so you either need to take a taxi or hire a motorbike. The taxi ride from the Long Beach area, where most beach resorts and hotels are located, costs around 300,000 Vietnamese Dong, which is around £10 / $13.

The cable car only opened recently and my taxi driver didn’t know what I meant when I asked to go there, so I showed him a photo of it! Because the cable car station in Phu Quoc is a bit isolated from the nearest town, I was really concerned about how I was going to get back again after my trip, but I didn’t need to be worried because in the afternoon when I got back a row of taxis was waiting to transport people back to their hotels.

Lots of travellers do hire motorbikes, but even though it’s a small tropical island, the traffic on Phu Quoc is still pretty hectic on the bigger roads, so only do this if you’re a confident motorbike rider. It’s easy and relatively inexpensive to hire a motorbike, but if you have an accident and need medical attention your travel insurance almost certainly won’t cover you if you don’t have a motorcycle license, so make sure you check on this and are aware of the risks!