Take a tour of Anthony Bourdain’s Vietnam haunts

Vietnamese travel firm Exotic Voyages has announced a new tour package called "A Tribute to Anthony Bourdain: Taste of Vietnam."

The tour will follow in the footsteps of Bourdain as he collected cuisine experiences across the country, from the north to the south.

The 14 day, 13 night tour will cover several cities and provinces including Saigon, Da Nang, Hoi An (Quang Nam province), Hue and Hanoi.

Food destinations like the Com Nieu Restaurant in Saigon, or the now-famous Huong Lien Restaurant in Hanoi, where Bourdain and former U.S. President Obama drank a beer and had a dish of Bun cha (noodle and grilled pork) in 2016, will be featured in the itinerary.

Other activities include a show at the Saigon Opera House, a cruise along the Chet Say River on the Mekong Delta, and a walk through the ancient Hoi An town.

A woman rides a bicycle past a typical yellow house of Hoi An. Photo by Christian Berg

Diep Nguyen, a Vietnamese travel expert who assisted Bourdain in 2016 when he traveled to northern Vietnam for an episode of the TV program "Parts Unknown," will lead the tour.

“The experience of a lifetime not only helped me understand the man himself but how his love for my beautiful Vietnam developed over good food and conversation,” she said.

She also said that the new tour package is a thank you and a tribute to the late chef, who committed suicide in June.

She hopes that guests would fall in love with Vietnam and its cuisine, just as Bourdain did, Nguyen added.

The tour package, which covers all food and accommodation expenses, starts at $3,755 per person.

Anthony Michael Bourdain, born 1956, was an American celebrity chef, author, travel documentarian and television personality.

He hosted and starred in several programs featuring international cuisine, culture and the human condition, including the travel and food show "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," which uncovered the cultures and cuisines of several lesser-known places around the world.

Vietnam was featured on the program’s fifth episode of the fourth season and the second episode of the eighth season.

In June, Bourdain was found dead in a hotel room in Kaysersberg, France. At 61, he had committed suicide by hanging, it was reported. While he is known to have suffered from depression, the reasons for committing suicide remain unknown.