Who we are, and what we do badly
We are a small company on Phu Quoc running seven days a week in groups of six to eight. This page covers who we are, how we choose what to run, and the things we are not good at.
What we are
A small tour operator based in Duong Dong, running village, food and farm days on Phu Quoc and nowhere else. Five guides, two vehicles, a mechanic who looks after the bikes, and about a dozen families and producers we work with regularly.
Four of our five guides grew up in Ham Ninh, Cua Can or An Thoi. That is not a marketing line, it is the operational reason a kitchen opens for us at six in the morning and a farmer talks about his accounts rather than his heritage. The fifth is from Rach Gia and has lived here for eleven years.
We do not run boat trips, snorkelling, diving, the cable car, the safari park or anything in the An Thoi islands. Those are all fine things and several of them are good. They are simply not what we do, and we will name someone else rather than improvise.
How we choose what to run
- Would it happen without us? If the answer is no, it does not go on the list. This rules out reconstructed villages, staged fishing and anything with a ticket gate and a performance schedule.
- Does the money reach the person doing the work? Flat fee, agreed for the year, no commission. If a partner would rather have commission we work with someone else.
- Can we run it at eight people without wrecking it? If a place needs twenty-five people to be viable, it is not a place we can use.
- Can we describe it honestly and still sell it? If the honest description of a day makes it unsellable, the day is the problem, not the description.
- Will it still be there next year? Increasingly the answer is uncertain, and we say so on the page rather than in the small print.
What we do badly
Every about page on the internet lists strengths. Here is the other list, which is more useful to you.
- Large groups. We are bad at them and we do not take them. Above eight people everything we do stops working, and we have turned down business that would have been easy money.
- Luxury. Our vehicles are clean nine-seat vans, not Mercedes. Our homestay is a fan room. If you want a private guide, a chilled towel and a car with curtains, there are companies here that do it properly and we are not one of them.
- Water. We run nothing on the sea. No snorkelling, no diving, no island hopping, no sunset cruise. That is roughly seventy per cent of what visitors to Phu Quoc book, and we have simply given it up.
- Languages. English, and French or Russian with two weeks notice. Not German, Korean, Mandarin or Japanese, which are significant markets here.
- Last-minute changes. Because we work with families who shop the day before and kitchens that take one group, we are less flexible at 24 hours notice than a larger operator would be.
- Wet season sea conditions. We cancel the fishing morning about fifteen times a year and we have no equivalent replacement to offer that morning.
Why there are no reviews on this website
There are no customer testimonials anywhere on this site and there will not be. Written reviews on an operator own website are unverifiable by definition, they are trivially faked, and everybody now discounts them accordingly - which means the honest ones are worthless too.
What we offer instead: if you are deciding between us and someone else, ask and we will put you in touch with a previous guest of the same nationality who did the same trip, to talk or exchange messages directly, with no involvement from us in the conversation. About one enquiry in twenty takes this up and it has never gone badly.
Public reviews on third-party platforms are a different matter and you should read them, including the bad ones. We do not respond to them with paragraphs and we do not ask guests to post them.
The practical facts
| Based | Duong Dong, Phu Quoc, Vietnam |
| What we run | Seven scheduled days, all on Phu Quoc |
| Group size | Six to eight maximum, depending on the day |
| Guides | Five, salaried, four from island villages |
| Languages | English; French and Russian with notice |
| Season | Year round, except the motorbike day, November to May |
| Payment | 25 per cent deposit, balance 14 days before |
| Partners | About a dozen families and producers, paid a flat fee |
Company registration, licence number and tax details appear in the footer of every page and on the booking terms. If any of those fields look empty, this site is not finished and you should tell us.
Questions before you book?
Ask us anything, including whether one of our days is a bad idea for you. We answer questions from people who never book anything and it costs us very little.
Questions travellers ask most
How long have you been running?
We would rather not print a number we cannot substantiate on a page about honesty. Ask us directly and we will tell you, and we will also tell you which of our guides has been doing this longest, which is the more useful figure.
Are you licensed?
We hold the Vietnamese international travel business licence required to sell tours to foreign visitors, and the number is in the footer of this page.
If that footer field is empty, this website has not been fully configured yet and you should ask us for the number before booking.
What happens if something goes wrong on a trip?
The guide handles it on the spot and has the authority to spend money without calling anyone. If a day fails through something we control, we refund it without an argument.
If it fails through weather, you get another date or a full refund, which is set out on the how to book page.
Can you organise a private trip that is not on the list?
Within the island and within what we know, yes. A private harbour morning at An Thoi, a longer farm day, a photography-led early start - all reasonable.
Outside the island, or on the water, no. We will name someone who does it rather than subcontract something we cannot stand behind.
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.