The People We Meet On Vacation movie is basically the book’s chaotic little sister: same parents, same vibes, but she’s changed her hair, moved her holiday to Barcelona and refuses to acknowledge Croatia.
It still feels like Emily Henry, but there are some pretty major “wait, that did not happen like that in the book” moments fans are already debriefing in the group chat.
The 12 biggest differences between the People We Meet On Vacation book and movie
1. The meet-cute has been rejigged
On the page, Poppy (Emily Bader) and Alex (Tom Blyth) first clock each other during orientation at the University of Chicago, where she mentally files him under “too nerdy, will investigate later” and they don’t properly bond until a long drive home months down the track. The film skips the slow burn and has them first properly meet at the end of the school year at Boston College, when a mutual mate ropes them into carpooling back to Ohio, complete with Poppy locking the keys in the car and an emergency motel stay with — you guessed it — only one bed.
2. Palm Springs is out, Barcelona is in
In the novel, Poppy is the one who reaches out after two years of mutual ghosting, pitching a reunion trip around Alex’s brother’s wedding in steamy, budget‑strapped Palm Springs, which she pretends is a work assignment for her travel mag even after her editor knocks it back. On Netflix, the whole thing gets upgraded to Barcelona, Poppy is officially on the clock, and she rocks up to a much nicer apartment (still sweaty, still cursed by dodgy air‑con) after being invited directly by Alex’s brother, David (Miles Heizer).
3. The wedding invite dynamics are completely different
Book Poppy sort of sneaks herself into the wedding trip by aligning it with her “work” plans and tagging along as Alex’s plus‑one, which is very “this is fine” dog in a burning room energy. Movie Poppy, on the other hand, is invited in her own right by David and then loops Alex in, which shifts the power balance — she’s not crashing his plans so much as orbiting the same big family event from a slightly different angle.
4. Their families have been streamlined (justice for the siblings)
On the page, Alex is the eldest of four brothers — Bryce, Cameron and David all exist — and Poppy has two older brothers, Prince and Parker, plus a louder, more present family life. The movie trims that family tree right back: Alex only has David, and while Poppy’s parents do appear (played by Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck), her brothers are completely cut, which makes the story feel a little less crowded and a lot more couple‑centric. I loved the moments between Poppy and Alex’s dad in the movie, but could have done with more of a focus on how Poppy brings Alex’s family alive like in the book.
5. The itinerary: fewer trips, no Croatia, scrambled timelines
Emily Henry’s book takes you through a whole scrapbook of trips — Vancouver Island, Colorado, Tuscany, Norway, Croatia — complete with chaotic side characters and a very stressful pregnancy scare in Italy. The film condenses their decade of holidays into a smaller highlight reel (Squamish, New Orleans, Tuscany), keeps moments like the unhinged water taxi ride with Buck (Lukas Gage), but ditches Croatia entirely and relocates their big falling out to Tuscany instead.
6. The infamous Croatia kiss is gone (and Tuscany has to do double duty)
In the novel, the Croatia trip is the emotional hinge: that’s where Poppy and Alex drunkenly cross the line with a kiss and then both walk away convinced they’ve been rejected, setting up two years of silence. Because the film scraps Croatia altogether, Tuscany ends up carrying both the pregnancy‑scare angst and the friendship‑imploding drama, which makes the escalation feel faster and a bit less slow‑burn and yearn than us BookTok girlies might be used to.
7. Alex and Sarah’s engagement arc gets way messier
On the page, Alex quietly buys an engagement ring, tells his family he plans to propose to Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook), and then breaks things off before he ever gets down on one knee because he realises he’s in love with Poppy. In the movie, he actually goes to Tuscany planning to propose and instead ends up in a full‑blown confrontation with Poppy, who calls him out for settling — turning his relationship drama with Sarah into the on‑screen catalyst for their two‑year fallout instead of a private, internal realisation.
8. Sarah herself has a new job, history and exit
Book Sarah teaches at the same high school in Linfield where Alex works, and her final conversation with Poppy happens in those corridors, with a longer, more nuanced chat about how Poppy treated her and how Alex was never really hers. Film Sarah is a flight attendant who bumps into Poppy at the airport, where Poppy apologises and Sarah gives her a quick, clean absolution, making it clear Poppy wasn’t the root of their relationship issues and sending Sarah off into her own, more adventurous life, which honestly, I loved. Let the girl fuck around and fly out! JUSTICE FOR SARAH!!! Sorry I feel very passionate about how this movie would be a horror from Sarah’s POV.
9. Alex’s backstory and vasectomy plot are dialled way down
The book spends more time on Alex’s grief, including how his mum’s death in childbirth informs his fear of intimacy and leads him to get a vasectomy after a pregnancy scare, which is messy and controversial but very central to his character. The movie lightly touches on his history and anxiety but cuts the vasectomy entirely, which honestly was kind of disappointing but I still got that Alex really cared about Poppy.
10. Poppy’s career crisis and self-work are sped up
Novel Poppy goes home from the Palm Springs wedding, gets herself into therapy, buys a plant, runs into her high‑school bully on the subway and slowly realises her dream travel job actually isn’t fulfilling her. She only quits once she’s done some serious reflection and eventually channels that into a new column about why she loves travelling — the people she meets, obviously. Movie Poppy basically lands back from Barcelona, looks at her life, and immediately hops out of her job so she can chase what she really wants, romantically and personally, which gives the film a cleaner “fresh start” beat but less introspective mess.
11. The big confession: quiet dive bar vs rom-com sprint
In the book, Poppy returns to Linfield, finds Alex in a local dive bar full of his coworkers, and blurts out her feelings in a very public, very raw moment. He initially shuts her down, freaked out by how different their lives are, before following her to the car park to admit that he’s terrified of losing her, and they finally decide to try anyway. The film takes the opposite approach: post‑quit, Poppy literally runs around suburbia looking for him and ends up declaring her love in the middle of a crosswalk, full cinematic chase and all.
12. Where they end up living (and how locked-in it feels)
Book‑wise, the epilogue is very logistics‑chat: they agree to split time between New York City and Linfield, trialling both lives before deciding where they want to settle long term. On screen, it’s less spreadsheet, more fantasy poster — Poppy and Alex are just living together in New York with their dog, no “we’ll see” clause, which leans harder into a traditional, glossy happily‑ever‑after. Maybe we’ll find out they end up somewhere else when they pop up somewhere else in the Emily Henry universe.
How the movie treats all these changes straight from the author and director
Emily Henry has actually been really clear that she likes that the film is a little bit different, telling PEDESTRIAN.TV that the new material “added scenes, little alternate realities, little pocket universes” and saying it feels like “things that would have happened in the book” rather than a total rewrite. Director Brett Haley echoed that, saying any additions were designed to stay “absolutely in line with who these people are” and that Henry was involved at every stage, signing off to make sure it felt right for readers.
Henry has also reassured fans that “the book is always going to be there for you… it’s not gonna change”, and described the adaptation as device to give us “more Alex and Poppy” in a way that honours the spirit of the story while expanding it. Between that and Haley saying they “care deeply about the readers and… want them to feel seen and loved”, the overall vibe is less ‘we butchered your fave’ and more ‘here’s a bonus universe to spiral over after you’ve finished crying over the original’. And that’s exactly what I did after watching it for the 15th time on Netflix.
Lead image: Netflix
The post 12 Ways The People We Meet On Vacation Movie Changes The Book, From Croatia To Vasectomies appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
