The Beach

The beach at Bamboo Cottages is the reason most guests book, and the reason they return. It is a quiet, curved stretch of pale sand on the eastern side of Phu Quoc, sheltered from the big waves, lined with casuarina trees that keep the afternoons mercifully cool.

In the early morning it belongs to the fishermen and the herons. By nine it belongs to the yoga class and the coffee cups balanced on driftwood. At noon the water is glassy and warm, ideal for long swims, and by late afternoon the light turns gold and everyone drifts to the hammocks with a book they may or may not read.

We keep it simple and clean. Wooden loungers in the shade, cold showers by the path, a small bar that brings coconut coffee down to the sand. No jet skis, no vendors, no loudspeakers. The loudest thing you will hear is a fishing boat, and even that sounds polite from here.

Swimming is safe for children in the dry season, and the reef a little offshore rewards snorkelers with parrotfish and the occasional shy octopus. At night, if you walk to the far end of the beach and turn off your flashlight, the plankton sometimes glow around your ankles. It never gets old. Neither does the beach.