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'People We Meet on Vacation' movie vs. Emily Henry book – All the big changes

Clare Mulroy, USA TODAYJanuary 9, 2026 at 8:05 AM

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Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for both the book and movie of “People We Meet on Vacation.” Seriously, stop reading now if you don’t want to know what happens in the movie.

The Emily Henry universe is finally getting the Hollywood treatment.

Romance fans are trading their paperbacks for popcorn to catch “People We Meet on Vacation” starring Tom Blyth (Alex) and Emily Bader (Poppy), streaming now on Netflix. The flick marks the first of several Henry adaptations in the pipeline and another win for BookTok favorites.

But while the movie maintains the premise of two will-they-won’t-they travel companions reuniting, “People We Meet on Vacation” makes some major changes to the plot. Here’s a look at the biggest differences:

Actors Emily Bader and Tom Blyth bring a beloved book to life in Netflix's "People We Meet on Vacation."Poppy and Alex's ‘only one bed’ scene happens way earlier

In Emily Henry’s book, Alex and Poppy meet at freshman orientation at the University of Chicago, discovering they are from different sides of the same small town in Ohio. A year later, they’re set up by a mutual friend to drive home together.

The movie version skips right to a “When Harry Met Sally”-esque road trip from Boston College (another change) to Ohio.

In the book, the craziest thing to happen on the car ride was Alex and Poppy made future karaoke plans. But in the movie, the two get stranded at a gas station after Poppy locks the keys in the car, forcing them to spend the night in a motel where, you guessed it, there’s only one bed. This romance trope happened in present-day Palm Springs in the book, not in a flashback.

Poppy and Alex's reunion in the movie is very different from the book

The movie adaptation trades Palm Springs for Barcelona and makes a pretty drastic change to Poppy and Alex’s reunion at his brother’s wedding.

In the book, Poppy reaches out in hopes of giving their friendship another try. The two settle back into a friendly banter, and she suggests a trip. Alex tells her he already planned to go to his brother’s wedding in Palm Springs and asks if she’d like to come. Poppy unsuccessfully pitches Palm Springs to the travel magazine she writes for, and books the trip herself as time off. She lies to Alex and tells him it’s a work trip, and they stay in a budget-friendly rental apartment with no A/C and only one bed.

More: Emily Bader and Tom Blyth talk 'People We Meet on Vacation'

In the movie, Poppy has been invited to the wedding on her own and attends at the request of Alex’s brother, David. She convinces her boss to let her go to Barcelona.

There’s still the broken A/C and the construction outside, but this swanky Barcelona apartment is a far cry from the run-down lodging from the book. Plus, Alex isn’t even staying with Poppy in the apartment, except for when he injures his back and has to spend the night. Their reunion is more happenstance than a planned vacation to relive the old days.

Readers will be happy to know, however, that the steamy balcony hookup in the rain is captured faithfully.

People We Meet on Vacation. (L-R) Tom Blyth as Alex and Emily Bader as Poppy in People We Meet on Vacation. Cr. Courtesy of NetflixSorry, 'People We Meet on Vacation' fans, prepare for fewer on-screen travel adventures

With a two-hour runtime, the movie sacrifices much of the color of the trips and people featured in the book.

We see Alex and Poppy camp in coastal Squamish (similar to Vancouver Island in the book) and vacation in New Orleans and Tuscany. The sexy water taxi hookup is there, but what happened to the overbearing rideshare newlyweds? The bald photographer Bernard? Rafting guide Lita?

Alex and Poppy’s fall-out looks different in the movie

Readers may be disappointed to know there’s no drunken hookup in Croatia – in fact, there’s no Croatia at all. In the book, Alex and Poppy share a wine-hazed makeout in Croatia and it causes their friendship to awkwardly fizzle. It’s the first time they’ve ever acted on their feelings.

But in the movie, Alex and Poppy’s fateful last vacation happens in Tuscany on a couple’s trip with their partners, Trey and Sarah. This Tuscany trip happens in the book, but it doesn’t end with Alex proposing to Sarah like in the movie. Heartbroken and confused after a near-kiss the night before, Alex and Poppy don’t speak to each other for years. It’s only when she talks to Alex’s brother about the wedding that she finds out they broke off the engagement.

Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook) herself is a different character in the movie. In the book, she’s Alex’s unrequited college crush turned on-again-off-again girlfriend. In the movie, Sarah and Alex are high school sweethearts. Marrying her represents stability in small-town life, though Poppy berates him as “settling.”

Throughout their friendship, Poppy and Alex date other people. From left: Poppy (Emily Bader), (Trey) Lucien Laviscount, Alex (Tom Blyth) and Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook) in a Netflix's "People We Meet on Vacation"

While the movie does capture the chemistry between Alex and Poppy, it falters when it comes to the messiness that Henry painted in the book. Alex and Poppy date new people and become single again over the years, flirting and even getting close to being something real. But it’s a miscommunication about that drunken hook-up that causes them to fade out, not Alex choosing Sarah over Poppy.

Alex loses some of his Emily Henry charm

He’s anxious, he’s a bit neurotic, he’s tall and he loves cats – readers fell in love with Alex Nilsen when they read the book. I’m sorry to report that the movie version doesn’t exactly capture that. Rather than the protective eldest child who had to grow up too early and care for his siblings, we get a smoothed-over, cautious guy weighing settling down with his high school girlfriend.

The movie underutilizes Alex’s motivations, shaped by his mother's death during childbirth. This is the character who, in the book, literally got a vasectomy after Poppy’s pregnancy scare because he wanted to avoid accidentally impregnating someone. He’s a writer who once penned a short story so moving it made Poppy cry. He owned a medically frail cat named Flannery O’Connor.

In the movie, he seems more motivated by conformity and fear of the unknown.

The 'People We Meet on Vacation' ending gets a rom-com makeover

The movie maintains the nail-biter will-they-won’t-they ending, even if it’s executed differently. In the book, Poppy gets some closure after running into both her hometown bully, Jason, and Sarah, who clarifies that she and Alex weren't meant to be. She finds Alex at the school and tells him she wants to be with him, wherever they are. He’s her “home.”

In the movie, Poppy runs into Sarah at the airport. She’s become a travel agent, discovering she’s hungry for more than the suburbs. Poppy heads to Ohio, where she tracks down Alex in a rom-com worthy running scene, complete with a satisfying kiss in the middle of the intersection.

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].

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