EXPLORING A FASCINATING MARINE WORLD ON THE SMALL-GROUP SNORKELING TRIP IN PHU QUOC ISLAND

1. The Small-group Snorkeling Trip Brief

The group of 7 guests (adults) joined us on the small-group snorkeling on 17 June. Among that:

Meiji (2 Thailand girls) stayed at Sol by Melia: they have moderate experience in snorkeling but they are eager to explore corals in Phu Quoc.

Khue and her boyfriend (they are living and working in SiAnnapore) stayed at Novotel: Kay has good swimming skill but her husband had never done snorkeling before that. Khue’s eyes are short-sighted about 7 diopters thereby we prepared a dedicated mask for her so she did not need to bring her contact lens.

Vanessa and her boyfriend (a German couple) stayed at Phu Quoc Valley Resort: have very good swimming skill but Vanessa told us she has a fear of open waters like on the sea.

Anna stayed at Cay Sao Beach Resort: she is living in Russia and came back Vietnam and Phu Quoc for holiday, she had very little snorkeling experience before, and she joined a 4-island tour before booked with us for this snorkeling trip. She told us she is not confident in the water.

As usual, OnBird uses our own dedicated water conditions tracking model to schedule snorkeling trips 5 – 7 days in advance. And the water conditions on 17 June afternoon was very so that we could explore one of the most diversified coral reefs in South Phu Quoc: North-east Coral Reef.

The itinerary was arranged with 4 venues on a touristy-avoiding route among that 2 coral reefs were: Coral Mountain and North-east Coral Reef with 2 main underwater guides (Tuna and Steven) and a trainee support guide.

2. Briefing and Safety Guide Session Before Snorkeling

After pickup time our 17-seater minivan head the An Thoi harbor for the speedboat embarkation. We took a 20-minute speedboat ride to the first spot: Pier beach, where we spent around 50 minutes for 7 guests to get acclimated to the Phu Quoc water:

Water temperature was very warm as it is the summer time in Phu Quoc, in the dry season the water is cooler.

At the first spot we found that Khue’s boyfriend was feeling not so comfortable with the mask, his mask was usually leaking as he got some skin fold on the cheek, our guides instructed him to clear the water out of his mask but we knew that we need to take a special care of him in snorkeling time. Khue was feeling confident with the dedicated mask prepared for her.

For Anna, she was not good swimmer but as we knew that the water was super calm on that afternoon so it is much easier for her to do her second-time snorkeling in Phu Quoc. Our underwater guide instructed her to stay floating in snorkeling and kick the fins, proper use of snorkel mask and tube.

Everything was very smooth to other people, guests were not only practicing but also enjoying the water very much: calm, clean and quite. Our guides also instructed guests underwater signals, safety guides and especially guidelines to not damage the corals in the shallow water because we visited Coral Mountain (which is very shallow coral grove) right after that.

Vanessa was more confident with the accompany of our underwater guides and the clear underwater visibility, we took her to a water of 2 m. Let she to get familiar to water floating with the floatation support devices.

On reflection of risk, our guides decided to kindly ask Anna to wear life vest at the first spot for her to practice in real with mask, tube and fin and at the second spot she would try without life vest.

3. Explore The Largest Cactus Coral Grove in PHU QUOC

The Coral Mountain is the largest Cactus coral grove in whole Phu Quoc water ever found. The water was very clean with the underwater sight of about 7 – 7m.

Our guide Tuna was in charge of taking care of Khue’s boyfriend and, he got few time nervous in the water, we took him to the outer of Coral Mountain in case of averting coral damage by accident by him. We stop in deep water area where guests made water standing and then we separated into 3 groups of 2 and 3 to explore the Coral Mountain in turn.

Steven took groups of 2 – 3 guests to the Coral Mountain, we waved the Button corals that living interspersed with the Cactus corals and guests were surprised at the massive size of the Coral Mountain, the “color changing” phenomenon of the Button corals and the close distance with the corals. We spent around 1 hour here before moving to the next spot where an amazing sea world awaiting us.

Venessa very enjoyed the open water that she was scared of before, but with the support of underwater guide and safety equipments so she felt very comfortable in this open water snorkeling. Venessa was not the first guest we took that scared of the open water that why at the firs spot in the snorkeling trip, we get guests more comfortable with the water by simulating snorkeling route, area, handle with the shallow and deep water.

At the water around Coral Mountain we ran into another group of guests on an island tour, some of them stood on the coral because they doest not have guide to tell them which ones are corals. So our guide came to them and asked then pushed them back to the deep water where they swam freely. One of many important reasons why underwater guide is to prevent guests from breaking corals by accident, even experienced snorkelers, divers we took but they does not have good handle in the shallow water so they can still risky break the corals

4. Dive Into The Marine World In The North-east Coral Reef

Luckily for the group, they came on the right time, the water conditions on the date was even much better than usual in the dry season. By the time we went to the North-east Coral Reef, the underwater conditions were so good: 7 m down in comparison to the average depth just 2 – 4m and there was no current. There was no one else but our group of 7 guests to explore whole the reef.

Jumping of the speedboat, where we put down the anchor is a sandy bottom with the depth of 10m. Tuna and Steven accompanied guests closer to the coral reef. North-east Coral Reef is a likened coral city because we found here around 20 different coral species, corals covered completely the reef.

Anna was encouraged to take off her life vest and use our floatation device with the guide beside; she was feeling very confident in such calm water of North-east Coral Reef.

Meiji, Khue, Para (friend of Meij) were eager to explore the reef, our guide instructed them to hold breath and took descends in a safety depth to see marine life closers (we don’t recommend guest to descend down without safety instructions). We saw anemone gardens, flowerpot corals, sea urchin, table corals, cauliflower corals and especially giant tubes.

5. Time For Relaxing After Snorkeling

So amazing coral city we explored on the date. After 1 hour of exploring the reef, we got back to speedboat and head to a beautiful island where we spend time to chill, relax, talking and recharge energy with fruit and fruit juice included in the tour.

6. Speedboat Ride On The Way Back

As the group was small of 7 guests, so a 20-seater speedboat was spacious for guests, after a long exploration on the sea, we

7. The Reviews Of The Small-group Snorkeling Trip By Guest

Vanessa wrote a review about the trip on our Google map (OnBird Phu Quoc) under Vanessa Ng:

Such a great tour operator! We went on a snorkeling trip around the island and it’s been a blast! The tour guides Can, “Tuna” and “Frank” were just perfect. They took care of us, explained everything very well, gave us just the right amount of information about the area and are funny and friendly as well. Normaly I’m not that comfortable out on open water. But with these dedicated tour guides, I could just enjoy it to the fullest. We were just a group of 7 customers whis is another positive aspect. I would definitely recommend this tour to friends and family! Must do when in Phu Quoc!

Anna wrote a review about the trip on our Google map (OnBird Phu Quoc) under name Anna Nguyen:

“Tour was today, on 17tg of June.

I would like to thank your guys (Tuna, Can and Frank) so much for such a great experience. You made my last day in Phu Quoc. I wish I would tried your tours earlier. And definitely would recommend it to others.

I appreciate that you not just give masks to people but also teach and do it with proper attention to every member of the tour. That’s why you have only small groups. And so appreciate that you take care of the nature: when someone from another tour stood in corals, our guide Tuna swam to him and asked him and other people not to do it. That’s amazing! I would also mention the vibe tour guides created — very friendly and makes everyone be open “

Khue wrote a review about the trip on our Klook (OnBird Phu Quoc) under name Khue:

Meiji and her friend made a review about OnBird through their instagram: