Hon Thom Cable Car, Phu Quoc: What 850,000d Buys and Why the Morning Crossing Is Worth Twice the Afternoon One

1. What the ticket buys, and the one decision that changes the day

A round trip is about 850,000d, it already contains the water park, and the only decision that really matters is whether you cross in the morning block or the afternoon one. The two cost the same and buy very different days.

The cable car does not run continuously. It works in two blocks with a break of roughly two hours in the middle, and every attraction on the island stops at 16:45 while the cable car itself carries on until about 17:00. Put those two facts together and the arithmetic is blunt.

The same ticket, two different days

That is the whole planning problem in one table. Most guides to Hon Thom📍Map lead with the Guinness record and the price; neither of those is what ruins an afternoon.

If the rest of the island is still open in your plan, the Phu Quoc travel guide covers the beaches, the north and the practicalities in one place.

2. The two operating blocks, and the 16:45 wall

Sun World’s current notice puts the cable car in two blocks, roughly 09:00 to 11:30 and 13:30 to 17:00, and closes the island’s attractions at 16:45. Within a block the cabins circulate continuously, so there is no departure to catch and no timetable to read. Between the blocks there is no crossing at all, in either direction.

The last fifteen minutes are not yours

The gap between 16:45 and the end of cable car service is the return leg, not extra time. When the water park empties at 16:45 everyone walks to the same station, so treat 16:45 as the moment your day ends and the queue begins, and give yourself more margin than that if you are travelling with small children or a lot of bags.

Nothing here is guaranteed

Sun World states plainly that the schedule moves with its own calendar, with weather and with maintenance. On an island cable car in the south of Phu Quoc, wind is the usual reason. The hotline is 0886.045.888, and the operator’s Facebook page is updated faster than its website.

3. The official sources disagree with each other

Sun World’s own website carries three different sets of operating hours at once, and only the newest one is right. This is worth a section because it is the single easiest way to arrive at a closed station.

The two-block structure is the part every source agrees on, and it is the part that governs your day. The morning start is the part that wobbles: the current notice says 09:00, several booking pages say 09:30. Turning up for 09:30 costs you nothing either way.

The same page that carries the superseded schedule is also where the official price table lives, which is why the figures here are quoted as approximate and why it is worth a look at the notice banner on the operator’s own Hon Thom page before you set out. It is an image rather than text, so it does not show up in searches.

4. What is included, and what is charged separately

The round trip covers the ride, the theme park, Exotica Village and the water park. It covers nothing back in Sunset Town. That last point catches people out, because the Kiss Bridge and the evening shows are also Sun World, sit beside the same station, and are sold as entirely separate tickets.

The ticket is same-day and single-entry, so you cannot leave the island and come back on it, and you cannot split it across two days.

The lunch combo

Sun World also sells the round trip with a lunch buffet at about 1,150,000d for an adult and about 900,000d for a child. Whether that is worth roughly 300,000d over the plain ticket depends on how long you are staying: on a full morning-block day you will eat on the island regardless, and the restaurants there are not cheap. On a three-hour afternoon visit it is money spent on time you do not have.

5. The ride itself

It is 7,899.9m long, takes about fifteen minutes, and holds a Guinness record as the world’s longest three-rope cable car crossing the sea. It opened in February 2018 and still reads as the main event rather than a transfer.

The line runs from Anh Duong station📍Map over two smaller islands, Hon Dua and Hon Roi, before it reaches Hon Thom. The stretch worth watching for is the fishing village below, where the boats cluster at Bai Xep and the roofs sit tight against each other, and the Sung Duc pagoda on the way across.

A cabin takes thirty people and fills before it moves, so a window seat is a matter of queue position rather than luck. The return leg looks better than the outbound one in the late afternoon, with the light behind Sunset Town.

If you have already ridden the one at Ba Na Hills or the sea crossing at VinWonders Nha Trang, this is a longer, flatter ride with more water under it and less to look at directly below.

6. Aquatopia, and the hours that constrain it

Aquatopia opens at about 09:45 and closes at about 16:45, which makes it the reason to take the morning block. It is the largest single thing your ticket contains and the one that needs the most time.

The park opened at the end of 2019 with more than twenty rides. On a morning-block day you can reasonably give it three or four hours and still see the rest of the island. On an afternoon-block day it is essentially the whole visit, and you will be queuing for lockers at the same time as everyone else who arrived at 13:30.

Bring a swimsuit you are happy to walk around in, because there is no practical way to use the ticket’s biggest component without one. Lockers and towels are charged separately, as is the food.

7. Exotica Village and the beach

Exotica Village and the beach are both inside the ticket, and both close at 16:45. They are what fills the day around the water park rather than reasons to come on their own.

The beach on the island’s north side is the calmer half of the day: sand, shallow water and the cable car overhead. What is not included is anything motorised or instructed, so the diving, the sea walking and the jet skis are all charged at the beach. If a package you were sold mentions “water sports at Hon Thom”, check whether that means the free swimming or the paid activities.

Exotica Village is a themed area with a viewing tower. It photographs better than it entertains, and half an hour to an hour covers it for most people. With children it tends to absorb more time than adults expect, which on an afternoon-block day is time the water park needed.

8. Plan A: the morning block

This is the version of the day the ticket is priced for. Cross early, use the water park before it fills, eat on the island, and keep the last hour for the beach and the queue home.

The midday closure is only a problem if you planned to leave at noon. If you planned to eat, it costs you nothing.

9. Plan B: when the afternoon block is all you have

You pay the same 850,000d for roughly three hours and a quarter, so go in knowing what you are giving up. This is the shape of the day for anyone arriving on a late morning flight, or anyone whose driver only has the afternoon free.

If this is your only option and the water park was the point, consider whether the day is better spent elsewhere on the island. The things to do in Phu Quoc guide has the alternatives, and there is an indoor water park comparison in the Mikazuki write-up for Da Nang if you are still choosing between destinations.

10. Your island-hopping tour may already include all of this

Before you buy anything, check what your boat tour covers, because the standard four-island trip lands on Hon Thom, includes Aquatopia, and gives you the cable car back. People buy the round trip separately and then discover they have paid twice for the same island.

The usual shape of those tours is the reverse of an independent visit. You leave from the harbour in the morning, snorkel and swim at two or three of the smaller islands, eat lunch, and only then transfer to Hon Thom by speedboat in the early afternoon. The cable car is the way home rather than the way out, so you ride it once, in the direction with the better light.

Which one you actually want

If the water park is the reason you are going, buy the round trip and cross in the morning. Two hours in an afternoon is not what a full-day water park ticket is for, and the 16:45 closing applies to tour groups exactly as it does to everyone else.

If you want the archipelago, the snorkelling and the beaches, and Hon Thom is a bonus at the end, take the tour and accept the short stop. What you should not do is book both.

Two things to check on the tour listing before you book. It should name the Aquatopia entrance and the cable car explicitly, because some cheaper boat trips pass Hon Thom without landing. And it should say which direction the cable car runs, since a one-way ride is what almost all of them include.

11. Getting to Anh Duong station

The station is in Sunset Town, on Sorrento road, immediately beside the Kiss Bridge. It used to be called An Thoi station, and that older name is still on older blogs and in some map apps, which is worth knowing when you tell a driver where you are going.

Grab works on Phu Quoc, and the Grab and Xanh SM guide covers how the apps behave here. For a fixed-price car with a driver who waits, a booked transfer is the calmer option on a day that is already governed by a closing time, particularly if you are coming straight from the airport.

One thing a taxi cannot solve: you cannot take luggage across. See the practicalities section below.

12. Buying the ticket, and the rules that come with it

Every ticket is paid in full up front, and once paid it cannot be changed or refunded. Sun World’s terms are unusually firm, and they interact badly with a cable car that stops for weather.

You can also buy at the station, either at a counter or from a machine, which is the flexible option on a day with uncertain weather. Booking ahead is the better option on a busy one. Given that the date cannot be moved, buying on the morning itself is a defensible choice in the wet months.

Prices on resale platforms vary and sometimes undercut the counter, but read what each listing actually contains, because some are the plain round trip and some are the lunch combo or a package with transport.

13. Weather, closures and the refund problem

Wind stops cable cars, the schedule says so explicitly, and the ticket terms give you nothing back. That combination is the one genuine financial risk in the day.

Southern Phu Quoc is exposed, and the island’s rainy season runs roughly from May to October with the strongest weather towards the end of it. The month-by-month guide to Phu Quoc has the detail on which months are worth the gamble. The practical rules are short:

• In the wet months, buy on the day rather than in advance.
• Check the operator’s Facebook page the night before and the morning of, because it moves faster than the website.
• If the morning block is suspended, the afternoon block may still run. Do not write the day off before 13:30.
• If you have pre-booked and it closes, ask at the counter anyway. A published policy and what a desk does on the day are not always the same thing, though do not count on it.

14. Bags, swimsuits and going with children

You cannot take a large suitcase in a cabin, so the airport-on-the-way plan does not work. Sun World’s cabin rules bar anything over 80cm or 30kg, along with animals, frozen or strong-smelling food, and anything chemical or flammable.

With children, the height rules are the ones to know: the child fare covers 1m to 1.4m, under 1m is free, and over 1.4m pays the adult rate regardless of age. Individual rides at the water park have their own height limits, so a tall nine-year-old and a short twelve-year-old can have quite different days.

Data is worth sorting before you go, since the schedule can change and the operator posts updates on Facebook. The Vietnam eSIM comparison covers the options, and how to handle cash and cards is the other practical piece.

15. Whether to add Sunset Town to the same day

The station is in Sunset Town, so you are already there, but the shows are a separate ticket and a separate evening. The Kiss Bridge and the two water shows are all charged on top of the cable car ticket.

The natural pairing is a morning-block day on the island, back by about 17:00, then dinner in Sunset Town and a show afterwards. That works because the timings do not fight: the island closes before the evening starts. What does not work is trying to fit an afternoon crossing and a show into the same few hours.

Which show, and whether either is worth it, is a longer question than it looks, and the comparison of Symphony of the Sea and Kiss of the Sea goes through both.

If you are staying in the north of the island, a day that ends with a show in Sunset Town is a long one. The guide to where to stay in Phu Quoc sets out how much the choice of area costs you in driving time.

One last note on addresses. Phu Quoc is no longer part of Kien Giang province: the 2025 reorganisation made it a special zone within An Giang, and Sun World’s own contact details already use the new form. Most English-language listings still say Kien Giang, which is harmless for finding the place but a reasonable way to tell how recently a page was written.

Common questions

Still building the rest of the trip? The Phu Quoc travel guide puts the beaches, the areas and the practicalities in one place.

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