‘A Tourist’s Guide to Love’ Filming Locations: Where Was the Rachael Leigh Cook Movie Filmed?

If you’ve never been to Vietnam, you’ll a chance to experience the country via your television screen with A Tourist’s Guide to Love, the new Netflix romantic comedy that began streaming today.

Directed by Steven K. Tsuchida, with a screenplay written by Eirene Tran Donohue, A Tourist’s Guide to Love stars Rachel Leigh Cook as a travel industry professional named Amanda, who finds herself unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend (played by Ben Feldman). To help take her mind off the break-up, Amanda’s boss (Missi Pyle) sends her on an assignment in Vietnam, to scope out a family-owned tour company for a potential buy-out. But when sparks fly between between Amanda and her Vietnamese tour guide, Sinh (Scott Ly), that complicated the business (and the pleasure) side of things.

The story might be familiar, but the setting will likely be new to many American audiences. Just as Amanda gets a tour of Vietnam, A Tourist’s Guide to Love offer viewers a first-hand look at some of the country’s most beautiful spots. “There are almost no American movies set in Vietnam that aren’t about the trauma of war,” noted screenwriter Eirene Tran Donohue in an interview with Tudum. “I wanted to change the conversation about Vietnam, to highlight it as a modern thriving country whose stories are worthy of being told.”

Read on to learn more about A Tourist’s Guide to Love filming locations.

Where was A Tourist’s Guide to Love filmed?

A Tourist’s Guide to Love was filmed on location in Vietnam in April 2022. The production shot in many Vietnamese locations including Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hội An, Hanoi, and Hà Giang.

In a recent interview with Decider, star and producer Rachael Leigh Cook said, “The hardest part about doing press for this movie is—dead honest with you—is trying to describe Vietnam. Because there are truly no words. It’s just more of a feeling than anything. And it’s good that we have images, and instead of me trying to explain it to people!”

Every spot that Amanda visits in the movie was filmed on location, Cook said. But Cook’s personal favorite location? Hội An, a city famous for it’s markets, temples, and well-preserved ancient town. “I was really blown away by Hội An,” Cook said. “Just the magic in the air there. And it’s so near Da Nang, the beach town, so this sort of two-for-one that you get there is incredible.” That said, Cook stressed she would be happy to return to any part of Vietnam—as long as she got to drink the coffee. “I just want all of the coffee straight into my bloodstream. American coffee is not as good. There, I said it! Their coffee is better.”

The film is loosely based on the story of how screenwriter Eirene Tran Donohue, whose family is Vietnamese, met her current partner while taking an extended vacation in the country following a break-up. “On my last week in Vietnam, I met a Canadian backpacker who was very much a free spirit and very adventurous,” she said in an interview with Tudum. “It made me realize that I didn’t actually want a safe predictable life. He was supposed to be my holiday fling, [but] we have been together ever since — 22 years.”