Bãi Sao

Bãi Sao — Star Beach — is on the south-eastern side of Phu Quoc, Vietnam's largest island, lying in the Gulf of Thailand much closer to Cambodia than to the Vietnamese mainland. It is a crescent of exceptionally fine white sand, a couple of kilometres long.

Its season is determined by which side of the island it is on. The south-west monsoon, roughly May to October, makes the western beaches rough and pushes debris ashore while leaving this eastern side calm; from November the pattern reverses. Phu Quoc's western sunset beaches get the reputation and the resorts; Bãi Sao gets the flat water for the months when they do not have it.

The sand is unusually fine and pale, squeaking underfoot, and the water is shallow, warm and clear in season with a gentle entry. Fishing boats moor at the northern end. The island has developed extremely quickly since an international airport opened in 2012 and a large-scale resort programme followed, and Bãi Sao has gone from empty to busy within a decade.

Development is a line of beach clubs and restaurants along the sand with loungers, and a road behind. Marine debris is a genuine and documented problem on Phu Quoc's beaches, with volumes varying by season and by wind, and cleanup is done by the businesses on their own frontage. Bãi Khem, a few minutes north, is the other fine-sand bay on this coast and was a military zone until recently; the western beaches at Long Beach and Ong Lang are where the sunsets and most of the resorts are.

Fine enough to squeak, calm from November to April on this side of the island while the western beaches are rough, and busier every year since the airport opened in 2012. Marine debris is a documented seasonal problem here and the clubs clean their own frontage.