A Tourist’s Guide to Love follows Amanda, who travels to Vietnam for work but ends up finding love and the adventure that was missing from her life. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Amanda is a travel executive. Her company, Tourista, is planning to acquire a small tour company called the Saigon Silver Star in Vietnam. Her boss, Mona, needs someone to go to Vietnam and assess if Saigon Silver Star is worth the investment or not.
When Amanda’s boyfriend decides to move to Ohio and asks her for a hiatus instead of proposing to her after five years of being together, Amanda opts to go to Vietnam. She will take a tour with Saigon Silver Star as Tourista’s undercover secret shopper.
In Vietnam, Amanda meets Sinh Thach, her tour guide, and his cousin, Anh, whose father owns Saigon Silver Star. She is also introduced to the rest of the tour group. She then finds out that Sinh, who is extremely resourceful, spent some part of his childhood in the US.
While Amanda likes to plan and prepare in advance, Sinh likes to go with the flow. He does not even follow a set itinerary, but he promises to make Amanda experience the real Vietnam.
Sinh makes Amanda try adventurous things that she would not have tried otherwise, and she starts enjoying the trip. He even makes her buy new clothes for Tet, the Vietnamese new year.
Amanda has a long list of places she needs to visit. When she fails to visit those, Sinh takes her to beautiful places across the city of Hoi An. Amanda realizes that this is exactly what she needed to see.
He also tells her about his life and how he started working as a tour guide for his uncle, and as the tour progresses, Amanda and Sinh start growing closer. Amanda also starts understanding that there is more to a country than popular tourist destinations.
When Sinh takes the group to My Son Sanctuary, Amanda decides that she wants more of such experiences that are not planned or even in her guidebook. To fulfill her wish, the tour group takes an impulsive detour.
The group is taken to Sinh and Anh’s family village, and the members stay with Sinh and Anh’s relatives. Their grandmother takes an instant liking to Amanda and offers to let her stay at her place.
The group takes part in the preparations for Tet, which is just two days away. They do everything that the villagers do, including cooking and cleaning, and experience the life that they lead on a daily basis.
At the same time, Sinh and Amanda start liking each other and have meaningful conversations on various occasions. When Sinh tells Amanda that his uncle is retiring soon and he is planning to take over the business, Amanda fails to tell him that his uncle is selling the business.
Later, she talks to Ahn, who knows that her father is planning to sell the company, but Amanda does not even tell her the real reason she came on this tour or that it is her company that is buying the business.
On the day of Tet, the members of the tour group bond with each other and celebrate the festival in traditional Vietnamese style. Amanda admits that she has started loving the idea of throwing away the guidebook and following her heart.
While walking alone with Sinh, she tries to tell him the truth about the purpose of her trip. Sinh mistakes her hesitation for something else, and Amanda loses the courage to come clean. The two kiss, but that does not make things easy for Amanda.
The group then bids goodbye to the villagers and travels to Ha Noi. Sinh’s grandmother knows that he likes Amanda, so she asks him not to mess this up.
A Tourist’s Guide to Love ending explained in detail:
Does Amanda get back together with John?
To Amanda’s surprise, she finds her ex-boyfriend, John, waiting for her in Ha Noi. John has come to apologize to Amanda and win her back, but his presence makes both Amanda and Sinh uncomfortable, as they both have feelings for each other.
On one side, there is adventurous and exciting Sinh, and on the other side, there is John, who is comfortable. Furthermore, John is only going to be in Ohio for a while, and then he can live with her, but Sinh lives in Vietnam.
John tells Amanda that the thought of marriage scared him, and that is why he was moving to Ohio, but he is ready to make a sacrifice for Amanda and marry her.
Amanda does not think that it should be a sacrifice; if John really wanted to be with her, he would have asked her to move to Ohio with him. The two decide to part ways, as they realize that they are not right for each other.
Does Tourista acquire Saigon Silver Star?
Amanda discards her previous assessment of the tour, as she now thinks that the tour is perfect and should not be changed. She asks Mona to submit their offer when Mona tells her that another company is trying to buy Saigon Silver Star.
When Ahn finds out that her father has sold the company, she tells Sinh about it in front of the group, and John accidentally spills the beans about Amanda’s job. The whole group finds out Amanda’s true purpose for being here.
Amanda tries to explain, but Sinh, who is upset and angry, refuses to listen. Sinh thinks he is losing the job that he loves, his dreams for the company, and the woman he likes — Amanda.
Amanda then convinces Mona to let Sinh lead Tourista in Vietnam, as he knows how to give people an authentic cultural experience. Mona agrees, and Tourista becomes Saigon Silver Star’s partner; Sinh and Ahn will get to run the business as they do now.
Do Amanda and Sinh end up together?
After sorting everything out with Mona, Amanda goes to confess her feelings to Sinh, but she finds out that he is leaving the city to go to his father’s place. He leaves behind a scarf for her that she wanted but could not buy earlier.
She chases him to the opera house and even overcomes her fear of crossing the road without traffic lights to get to him. She reaches him in time and apologizes to him for lying.
She tells him that he changed her beliefs and taught her a different way of living her life. She believes that she can live a happy life with him, and the two mark the beginning of their relationship with a kiss.
Also Read: The Marked Heart season 2 summary & ending explained