Starfish Beach — Attraction in Phú Quốc

The starfish, the water and the beach are breathtaking, once in a lifetime experience!

Access is funky: as soon as u get near some local start to follow u and take u to the boats to get their commission, they also tell u that u cant access the starfish beach with the Scooter, is a lie… and they tell u that u aren’t allowed to walk, again a lie, personally I didn’t reach there with the scooter but I seen them on the beach but I walked there plenty times, it takes about 30 min and it adds to the experience (I go from the nearest pier, I recon it might take more if u walk from the I other one ) the first couple of minutes are hard to walk because full of obstacles that the locals put on purpose to justify the board saying : can’t walk for safety reasons… the boat is relatively expensive but depends, they charge what ever they want… when I went there the first time the boat didn’t even come to pick me up.

Tourist: westerns often walk there in small groups, respect the starfish and at time come back bringing garbage that someone else left.. often overreact when someone touch the starfish…. Chinese come in big groups, use the boat service and toss around the starfish as they please… some time kill them

The all things is extremely bad managed 1 government should charge a small environmental fee and use that money to pay a few persons to save the starfish, discipline tourist and clean the garbage 2 the boat service price should be reasonably cheap (is a 5 min ride) and they should not scam tourist or leave them like they did with me 3 government should take care of this, the road reaching this place is literally the worst on the island and probably all Vietnam and the fact that the all thing is wrongly managed can have serious implications: doesn’t the government realise that the millions of dollars that tourism bring on this island are, in some capacity, a byproduct of having such a unique beach? Obviously everyone knows it because the pics of the starfish are used as a primary mean to attract people on the island, displayed on socials, web sites etc etc

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Starfish Beach, Phu Quoc – A BAD experience from Start to Finish

The bad stuff begins before you even arrive at Starfish Beach. The road leading to the area is in appalling condition – a barely passable dirt track riddled with deep potholes and ruts. Driving on it feels like a battle, and the scenery does nothing to help: endless, fenced-off fields littered with trash. The sheer amount of garbage everywhere is shocking and sets the tone for the disaster that awaits.

When you finally get close, you’ll find that the road to the beach itself is closed, forcing you to take a motorboat if you want to visit. But don’t get your hopes up – what awaits you is nothing like the paradise advertised online.

The beach is a tragic tourist trap, where locals have relocated starfish to shallow waters near the tourist drop-off point. These creatures are dying, placed there solely to entertain and attract visitors. To make it worse, clueless tourists pull the starfish out of the water to take photos, then throw them back carelessly, leaving many of them to die. It’s an appalling sight and a shameful display of exploitation and ignorance.

The surrounding area is no better. Trash is everywhere, both on the land and in the water. The mismanagement of this site has completely destroyed what could have been one of the most beautiful spots in Phu Quoc.

Starfish Beach isn’t just disappointing – it’s infuriating. Between the terrible access, the environmental destruction, and the exploitation of marine life, this was by far the worst experience of our three weeks in Vietnam. Avoid it at all costs unless drastic...

The highlight of pho quoc for my family. There seems to be a few negative reviews, and I think this is from people who just drove out there and didnt take the boat. I thought the boat thing was a con as well, but its needed. I think it took about 60 mins drive from our hotline pho quoc to get here. As noted, you drive about 15 mins on some shabby roads, past a few military bases. The you end up in this unkempt area. The lady there did a deal for the boat which was 300 VND each for us, she sort of had the monopoly but you had to pay it. The boat takes about 5 mins ride in a rickety thing which is a bit of fun, and it looks like various operator have their own turf. The people we used had a vendor selling drinks, and there was a toilet there too. We were there a few days ago (Dec 2023) and there were plenty of starfish, very impressive. The water was warm and clear, it really was nice, and we spent an hour there. The boat then takes you back. We did not do this as a tour, we just had a driver we had used take us there (if they charge you more than quoted probably fair enough as their car gets hammered on that road!), and he helped with the boat lady translation. We also had a VN speaking family so it helped. This is worth doing on the island. Again, I think the negative reviews are from people who probably didnt use the boat as the starfish are no where near where you get dropped, and if you tried to walk to the starfish beach, it would take 30...