People We Meet on Vacation: Book vs. Movie
Brett Haley's 2026 film People We Meet on Vacation adapts Emily Henry's book. Emily Bader and Tom Blyth play Poppy and Alex, longtime travel companions whose friendship leaves some important feelings unspoken.
From Books Adapted
What changed from the book
The movie combines trips and moves the wedding
The movie covers Henry's novel through its ending and keeps the summer-by-summer flashbacks. Some trips are combined. Poppy's ankle injury moves from Vail to New Orleans.
In the book, Poppy and Alex meet at freshman orientation, then share a drive home at the end of the year. The movie makes the car journey their first meeting.
The present-day wedding moves from Palm Springs to Barcelona. Henry told TheWrap that cost and practical considerations drove that change. She wanted the new location to keep the intense heat, which matters to what happens between Poppy and Alex during their stay.
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Alex proposes to Sarah in the movie
The falling-out that stops the annual trips happens differently. In the book, Poppy and Alex kiss in Croatia. Alex pulls away because he wants a relationship they have deliberately chosen. Poppy understands his withdrawal as rejection.
The movie moves the rupture to the Tuscany holiday with their partners. Poppy and Alex almost kiss after her pregnancy scare, but she calls him her best friend when he asks what they are to each other. He proposes to Sarah the next morning. In the book, Alex buys an engagement ring but never proposes.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Emily Henry
- Year
- 2021
- Pages
- 400Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 10 hr 46 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Julia Whelan
Poppy and Alex build a friendship around annual summer vacations despite their different temperaments and lives in different cities. After one trip ends badly, they stop speaking for two years. Poppy proposes another holiday to repair the damage, but returning to their old routine means facing feelings that neither has been willing to name.
- Director
- Brett Haley
- Year
- 2026
- Runtime
- 1 hr 58 min
- Cast
- Emily Bader, Tom Blyth, Sarah Catherine Hook, Lucien Laviscount
- Genre
- romantic comedy
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Poppy's job takes her around the world, but the trips that matter most are the ones she shares with her reserved best friend, Alex. After a rupture in their friendship, his brother's wedding in Barcelona offers a chance to reconnect. Memories of earlier holidays complicate their reunion as they confront feelings that have never fitted neatly into the word friendship.
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