imverge

I actually wanted to visit a newer Marriott property in Asia that had a beach location and wasn't full of tourists. I'd been to Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia... Vietnam was already on my radar.

ALGU

Remember stumbling on this property searching for Cat 5 JWs and Autograph Collections. Ended up brushing it off and redeeming a Cat. 6 at the Marriott Nagoya. Thought a country as cheap Vietnam in a not as well known location wasn't worth the award and especially not the prices for this property. Thank goodness for all "the meme redemption from shameless credit card shill bloggers hyping the place up" or else I wouldn't have changed my redemption and had one of my most memorable stays so far.

Phu Quoc doesn't get much recognition because it's still in development. Google maps shows the property still in construction and doesn't even provide the proper routing. The neighboring properties haven't opened, or just opened recently like the JW. Some of the main attractions like the pagoda had tons of locals and barely any tourists. Taxis in my experience, were completely honest, unlike many hit tourist places in Vietnam and SE asia. Kinda like Vientam's Bali before all the hype of Bali. So I can't imagine it was on many people's radar, even for me despite it's relatively close proximity.

There are probably other hidden gem Cat. 5s out there (Roomers Baden-Baden, University Arms) that I wish were as hyped up so I could get as much information as I did for this property.

ALGU

JW Marriott Phu Quoc Activities


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Entertainment


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Gold Elite Benefits


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Cocktail Invitation


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Lamark Times 1


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Lamark Times 2


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Lamark Times 3


JW Marriott Phu Quoc Lamark Times 4

deedszilla

​​​​I too stumbled upon it when it was a Cat 5. Had such an incredible experience at the JW in Singapore (which was absolutely Stunning) for the F1, I was searching for my next aspirational JW. This kept showing on the "new locations" and looked amazing. Vietnam has always been near the top of my travel agenda as well. Unfortunately, by the time I had worked plans out to get there it had jumped to a cat 6. With 5th night free I still feel it's a good value, a d really want to check it out. Will be there in November. Can't wait! Hoping they don't dumb down the incredible breakfast I keep hearing about as by then with the new program it 'should' be free. Hitting up Taipei and Angkor on the way in.

ALGU

Activities Guide!
-Schedule is released on Sunday so its best to have your stay start then or even on Saturday. Activities vary depending on the year with some new ones being added to the line-up and others being cut altogether. Activities get booked fairly quick but tend to have no-shows so its my advice to show up anyways as they might have openings. If there's enough demand, they end up opening another class at a different time to accommodate wait listed people. A waitlist are those who were unable to get on the initial list of people for an activity.

Hiking & Biking
-All of these except the University tour are the first activities in the morning, and can get cancelled depending on the weather. So I recommend booking the earliest date possible. They also require some level of conditioning, particularly the biking activities. The distance listed in the description is only one way so the Bee Farm Tour is actually 14km and the Ho Quoc Pagoda Tour is 24km. The cheapest place to get sunblock is in French&Co. (<170K VND~) NOT the Rue de Lamarck shops. The bike seats are a bit high and some participants were unconformable and one or two withdrew.

Hiking Tour
-Our first activity. Title was a bit misleading as it was more of a walking tour with no hiking involved, or at least what most of us think of regarding hiking. The tour starts from Rue de Lamark thorugh the main path connecting each building and then the majority of the tour continues on the road connecting the JW Marriott and the neighboring Premier Village. We had Antonio as our guide, which is probably the best hiking/biking guide available. He was even able to get us tour of the Premier Village while those booked the tour on other days said they were only available to tour the check-in area and then shortly returned back to the JW. If you're lucky like us, you might get to see some monkeys in the jungle across the main road. You're in the sun most of the time so maybe bring your complimentary in-room rice hat or umbrella and make sure to put on sun block. The bike tours do get cancelled in rain so this might be the case as well. The "hiking" tour itself is pretty bland so it varies heavily depending who's your guide. Antonio kept us pretty entertained!

Bike Tour to Bee Farm
-7km OW, 14km RT. We had Antonio guide us on our tour again, and thank goodness as some of the group was struggling and he was very accommodating. Only one bottle of water is provided so bring extra from your room. The tour is harder on the way to the Bee Farm due to the slopes. Once you exit the property, you're biking on the main road so keep that in mind. The Bee Farm was alright but not the most memorable. They do have a shop to buy honey but I was a bit thrown off that they didn't much of a system to prevent bugs from getting inside the mixture process. I enjoyed the journey more than the destination.
TIP: Make your sure your bike is functioning! There are two seats of gears: the primary on the right handlebar and the secondary on the left. My secondary gears were stuck on high gear the next bike tour and I only noticed after we left.

Bike Tour to Ho Quoc Pagoda
-12km OW, 24km RT. We did not have Antonio as our guide and boy did we struggle, my bike was stuck on high gear and that didn't help. The first 7 km are identical to the Bee Farm tour. The next 5km is on a two-lane road which got a bit scary when coach buses started to drive up. Again, make sure you're conditioned for this tour as people were struggling even on the Bee Farm tour. The Pagoda is beautiful and actually had a ton of Vietnamese people and not too many tourists. How long you can enjoy the Pagoda depends on fast the group took to get there, your guide, and if anyone has 10am activities. We were so exhausted we couldn't truly enjoy the place. Recommend taking a taxi for those who don't do the bike tour.

Bike Tour to Coconut Prison & Fish Sauce Factory
-2km OW, 4km RT. Cancelled due to weather. Those who were able to go said the Fish Sauce Factory is extremely pungent so keep that in mind. They also mentioned to highlight that its Coconut PRISON and not Coconut FARM, lol. There are some pictures online regarding Coconut Prison so maybe not the most family friendly.

University Tour
-Self explanatory. Short walking tour from the check-in area to Rue de Lamarck. Afterwards, you take a golf buggy for tour of the University buildings. A bit of an overlap from the walk/drive through to your room at check-in and the "Hiking" tour. Our least favorite hiking experience.

Food & Beverage activities
-Most of these have a fee (350K VND plus taxes & fees). I think they're entirely worth it, especially the Gastronomy classes as they substituted our lunch. They all come with a Lamark University apron (except Mixology), which at the time (or maybe still) was one of the few branded items available. Usually after lunch.

Coffee Atelier
-Comes with a Vietnamese Coffee and Jw Phu Quoc branded filter set. Felt like a true class with our instructor, Meow, giving us a lesson Vietnamese coffee before going into preparing the coffee. There are 4 different selections for coffee (full Arabica, full Robusta, and two Arabica-Robusta mixes), which is great for those deciding on which option to buy at the Rue de Lamarck coffee shop (not French&Co.) Thoroughly enjoyed the class even though me and a bunch of others weren't really coffeholics.

Mixology
-I don't usually drink but decided to give the class a go. Our bartender was Leo who was our favorite F&B instructor, and was fun even outside of class. You have the option of making two drinks, Cosmopolitan or Old-Fashioned. While its hinted that the girls make Cosmos and the boys make Old-Fashioneds, I'm sure you can have your pick. I was disappointed that these were the only two drinks they offer to teach given their signature mocktail is so delicious. Our least favorite F&B activity, especially with the cost of the class being really just the cost of the drinks, w/o happy hour price. Really think they could do more with this especially since it doesn't include any bonus items like the other F&B classes.

Pastry class
-As other's have mentioned, you're making a Creme Brulee (ours was Passionfruit flavored) rather than an actual pastry. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed our class. We had a great instructor, forgot his name but used to work at the JW in Hanoi. You get to make four servings. The first serving has already been prepared and is just there for you to caramelize and eat. The other three are refrigerated and set aside for consumption your following days. We only ate one extra and I find it hard to imagine many who ate all three. Verun, the F&B manager, mentioned they're working in improving this activity to hopefully include pastries. He mentioned finding a balance for those who are only there for short stays but also being able to prepare items that take more than a one hour sitting. I'll include a picture of the handout in the next post.

Gastronomy (Sushi)
-Gastronomy to the best of my knowledge is the only class that differs depending on the day. Our first Gastronomy course covered American style-sushi. You get to prepare two rolls, both a Vegetable Roll and a California roll. I'll also include a picture of the handouts in the next post. Very interactive course with enough challenge to make it interesting but not enough to make it frustrating. If the instructor sees your struggling though certain steps, he'll offer to take over and pass it back to you for the next steps. If you're extra hungry, can add larger quantities of ingredients, like we did unintentionally. Or omit certain ingredients, depending on your preference. Worth noting to eat a light lunch or omit lunch entirely to enjoy your food!

Gastronomy (Vietnamese)
-This time you get to make Fresh Spring Rolls and a Vietnamese-style pancakes. The downside with this activity is that they only have one cooking station so we were all huddled together watching each student one at a time. Thankfully since we were the last ones, we go to cook without the pressure as the others were able to leave. I discussed with Verun on having more than one cooking station available and hopefully they're able to improve this soon. The ingredients for the pancakes are already prepared so you pretty much just do the cooking and not the preparation. Really appreciate our instructor in getting our pancakes prepared to-go since we were full from the spring rolls. Same as above, worth noting to eat a light lunch or omit lunch entirely to enjoy your food!

Arts & Crafts
-These come with a small nominal fee or no fee at all. If it comes with a fee, it means you can take your "art" home! Classes are between 11am and 3pm.

T-Shirt Painting
-Out of the three of us, the third person was a kid, so it seems this is more of a family oriented activity. Also worth mentioning, that Kid's Club has another set of activities as well. Class is pretty self-explanatory. There's also template you can follow if you don't want to create your own T-Shirt. The class is only listed for an 1 hour but we all stayed back at least an extra 30 minutes. So if you have a design in mind or want to make more than one shirt hopefully it's within reasonable time constraints. 100K VND plus taxes and fees per shirt.

Hoi An Lantern Making
-Minimal to moderate difficulty. We decided to make only one lantern as a couple. There are several different models you can chose from in addition to different color selections and combinations. There's a string that binds the lantern into its shape and found it was easy to accidentally cut so cut with caution. The lantern can be compacted to be packed and taken home as a gift. 100K VND plus taxes and fees per lantern.

Vietnamese Basic Learning
-You get to learn basic phrases and counting. Nothing too complicated but expected as the class is only 1 hour. You probably can learn more from YouTube videos so come in with the expectation that you're here for the experience more than the lesson. Had a cute and fun instructor who also led the Aquafitness dance. This is the class where we met most of our "cohort" classmates who ended up joining us in a bunch of other classes.

Towel Sculpture
-Minimal to moderate difficulty. My favorite arts & crafts class since you get to make the towel art that hotels put on beds. The sculptures consist of starfish, crab, swan, dog, elephant, and others. I had a great time but my biggest gripe was that we went through the sculptures so fast that I ended up retaining nothing. You don't get to keep any of the towel art either

Fitness
-All are free! Some are aquatic and require swimwear. This is also the category we participated the least in so won't be able to review as much. Mostly in the latter half of the day, except for Water Flow Yoga.

Water Flow Yoga
-Not sure why its titled this way, as it has nothing to do with water. The usual, cookie-cutter morning yoga class. Note this is at 7am and breakfast starts at 6:30am, so this is the only day when we ate after 8am.

Aquafitness
-Can be summed up by saying this is Zumba underwater. Sometimes the moves don't translate well underwater which means you might be splashing everywhere and exerting lots of energy, but maybe that's the point. Good workout though!

Thai Yoga Streching
-Very fun couples class though not sure if this ideal for non-couples. You can get to practice some exotic and challenging massage techniques and stretches. When done properly it resembles something close to a massage, when done incorrectly it borders assault. I'm probably even worse at the techniques after the class but it was all good fun. Worth mentioning our instructor seemed very impatient with our group and ended up taking over several times.

Beer Yoga
-Didn't attend but heard it was a fun class. Initially avoided since we're not beer drinkers but when we went back to reserve after we found out beer wasn't mandatory, the class was already full.

Surf Yoga and Stress Remedy, Body balance workshop
-Had to cancel these to due to the cocktail party. I was told the Surf Yoga takes place in the pool and can get difficult since one person falling can make everyone else fall, especially if they're near the edge of the pool. I was under the impression it would be in the ocean. I was told the Stress Remedy, Body balance workshop wasn't that great but nothing more.

-Mindfullness
-Really wanted to book this activity but wasn't available on our dates. I wasn't able to get any feedback from other participants either.

ALGU

Gastronomy (Sushi) - California Roll


Gastronomy (Sushi) - Vegetable Roll


Pastry Class - Creme Brulee

They didn't have any handouts left for the Gastronomy (Vietnamese) class.

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the details on all the activities! Much appreciated.

Cheers.

ankomonkey

Legendary reporting, @ALGU. Sincere thanks. We'll be staying there in August

Sisyphus1carus

I really want to head here too.
Its going up AGAIN by another 5,000 points per night in the new merged programme and will be in the new Category 5.
Its unclear if a Travel Package certificate booked now in Cat 6 will still get a week at the JW Marriott Phu Quoc and it might need a Cat 7 TP for now. That's a HUGE jump. But then it did come in rather low for a JW Marriott.

Very tempted to get a TP before August 1st but concerned about the breakfasts incase Marriott Golds will no longer get even the 50% discount.

Typhoonpilot

I just booked this property today with a travel package Cat 6 certificate. The booking is for seven nights in June, 2019. I think as long as you book before the Category change takes place it is fine. If you wait until after the Category change then no, a Cat 6 will likely not work for it.

AbelianGrape

I stayed last year when looking for a place to redeem the 7-night Cat 1-5 certificate I got back in March 2017 for the Southwest miles (for the companion pass). Fortunately when we stayed they included free breakfast for gold and plat elites. Was it the be-all-and-end-all of hotels in Asia? No. Is it overpriced for Vietnam? Almost surely, though we didn't pay cash. Did we enjoy our stay and are we happy we went? Yes, and at the end of the day that's all that counts...

azepine00

Would i go half round the world to this place? Absolutely not - i can find a great hotel closer to home and Phu Quoc, especially this part of it, offers absolutely nothing in terms of culture, food, local experience or anything worth a visit outside the property...

yurtripper

Although I agree on the whole, it is a cool place to hang out if you've spent several weeks backpacking round Vietnam and haggling the bejesus out of everything.

And if you hire a moped to buzz around the island you can have a lot of fun and get some 'local experience' (nope, don't mean sex tourism!).

ankomonkey

Checked out of here today and had a brilliant stay. Was on a travel package 7-night stay.

Firstly, I was a pre-merger Marriott Gold (credit card) and became a post-merger Marriott Gold. Our stay started 3 days after the merger date. The hotel offered the pre-merger Gold/Plat offer detailed in post #679 . This saved us quite a lot of cash and was most welcome.

Beach was really clean and sea was calm and clean. Weather was pretty good - cloudy or sunny and very little rain. My kids spent hours kayaking and using the paddleboards - a brilliant no-cost option.

We travelled as 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 6 and 8). We had 5 nights in our booked room (basic redemption room) and were upgraded to a Turquoise Suite (block 4) for our last 2 nights. The basic room was actually really good; the suite was bigger and nicer than places I've lived. Overall, the accommodation and hotel buildings were fantastic.

The activities were great. We did lantern-making, hat painting and my wife/kids did a few others that I didn't do. We also did a hotel-run snorkelling activity which was decent, and an external snorkelling trip which was better than expected.

The breakfast was the best I've seen offered in a hotel. I could have spent the day there grazing, such was the variety and choice. The vanilla sauce was a highlight. Although it was meant for garnishing pancakes or crepes, some days I just had a small bowl of it. The lunch and dinner options varied from very good to mediocre. The Friday 'street market' made a refreshing change and was well implemented.

Finally, in our experience, the staff were the best aspect of an already-amazing offering. They were polite, helpful, reliable and seemed genuine rather than forced pleasantries. We spent quite a lot of time chatting to some of them as many other guests (mainly East Asian) seemed to be staying 2-4 days, so we were more of a constant presence. My kids became pretty friendly with about 3 of them and it really had a positive impact on our experience.

Overall, our stay was excellent in all regards. Despite the merger diluting the expected benefits, I felt the hotel were generous and we got tremendous value looking at the cash we paid and bearing in mind the accommodation was covered by a TP. More importantly than the cost, the experience couldn't be faulted. This was a high-end experience, well implemented and with some unique activities.

coljung

What costs could we be looking at? I have a 5n cert and im looking for a place to fly to from BKK. Was thinking on KohSamui, but none of the cat-5 hotels looks nice. This one does, by far. But i'd like to get an idea about food expenses for 2. I see just plane tickets alone are at least $250 direct flight.