How the ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ movie differs from the book

It’s time to set those out-of-office notifications, because People We Meet on Vacation is finally here.

The new Netflix romantic comedy starring Emily Bader and Tom Blyth tells the story of Poppy Wright and Alex Nilsen, two unlikely college friends who fall in love. But it’s a slow burn — it takes the duo more than a decade of friendship, other boyfriends and girlfriends in between, and countless summer trips together before they admit their feelings for one another.

The story is based on popular romance author Emily Henry’s 2021 novel of the same name, and while the movie is generally faithful to the book, there are some key changes that readers will notice. Below, we break down the biggest differences between the People We Meet on Vacation movie and book.

How Poppy and Alex Meet

In the book, Poppy and Alex attend the University of Chicago, not Boston College. They meet during orientation week, and then don’t speak for the rest of the school year — Poppy’s first impression of Alex is that he’s kind of a nerd. But they both happen to be from Linfield, Ohio, and a mutual friend connects them at the end of the school year to drive back to their hometown together.

That drive is how the pair meet in the movie. Several aspects of the drive are the same, notably the conversation about things that they hate (saxophones, running) and things that they like. However, in the book, the conversation about their dream places to travel takes place the following school year, not in the car.

The drive is extended in the movie. The chain of events that leads them to stay in a motel overnight doesn’t happen in the book: they don’t stop at the gas station, Poppy doesn’t get out of the car to go to the wishing well, and so the keys don’t get locked in the car.

But in both mediums, Poppy and Alex end the drive as friends, and they agree to go on a summer trip together. 

Alex’s brothers

In the book, Alex has three younger brothers, but in the movie, he only has one, David. In both the book and film, David is getting married, and Poppy, a writer at travel magazine R&R, convinces Alex that she happens to have a work trip in the same city as the wedding, a perfect excuse for them to get together following two years of estrangement. In the movie, the wedding takes place in Barcelona, while in the book it’s in Palm Springs.

However, the movie draws on several elements of the Palm Springs trip and incorporates them into the Barcelona storyline. Most notably, Poppy’s apartment rental has a broken air conditioner and plastic covering all the windows and the sliding glass door to the balcony.

There’s a climactic moment in Palm Springs when Poppy cuts down the plastic just in time for a summer rainstorm to hit. Not only does it offer relief from the suffocating heat they’ve been experiencing due to the broken AC, but it also provides a romantic backdrop for the pair to finally hook up after several days of pent-up emotions and years apart. This scene happens in both the book and the movie.

Vancouver Island

Poppy and Alex’s first trip together is to Canada, in both the book and the movie. Most of this trip in the movie is very similar to the book — the movie even sneaks in the “it speaks to me” joke. Their water taxi ride with Buck (Lukas Gage), going to his party, and the character of Daisy are all the same. The most notable difference here is Alex’s skinny-dipping misadventure, which does not happen in the book.

Poppy’s parents

While Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck do a hilarious take on Poppy’s parents, Wanda and Jimmy, in the movie, Poppy’s family is featured more in the book. She also has two older brothers, Prince and Parker, who aren’t in the film. But that moment when Shannon, as Poppy’s mom, tries to give Poppy a Costco-sized box of condoms for her trip with Alex is straight from the book.

Poppy’s sprained ankle

A fan-favorite reader moment is when Alex carries Poppy down a motherf—ing mountain during a hike gone wrong on their trip to Vail, Colo. In the movie, we don’t see them travel to the Centennial State, but a similar moment happens when they are in New Orleans. After a night out and a few too many drinks, Poppy falls over a sidewalk curb and sprains her ankle. Alex picks her up and carries her back to the hotel (but not before making the same Seabiscuit joke as in the book). They arrive back at the hotel to find Poppy’s current chef boyfriend waiting for them; this boyfriend is a character in the book, but doesn’t surprise them on any of their trips.

Tuscany/Poppy’s pregnancy scare

The trip to Tuscany with Poppy, Trey (Lucien Laviscount), Alex, and Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook) does happen in the book, but Poppy’s pregnancy scare goes down a little differently. In the movie, Alex takes her into town to get a pregnancy test after she thinks she’s missed her period. In the book, she goes into town alone and doesn’t tell Alex until he finds her with a pregnancy test in her hand early in the morning on his way out for a run. In the movie, Tuscany is the last trip Alex and Poppy go on together before their fight and estrangement, but in the book, they have one more trip together beforehand.

Croatia

Alex and Poppy don’t travel to Croatia in the movie, but in the book, that is where their emotions for each other come to a head. What is supposed to be the best trip ever, funded by R&R, immediately starts to go south. Poppy’s R&R photographer ends up following them everywhere, so she and Alex don’t have a chance to talk about their respective breakups with Trey and Sarah following the Tuscany trip. On the last day of the trip, Poppy and Alex finally drunkenly kiss, but their inability to express their true feelings for each other leaves them both feeling rejected. Neither wants their friendship ruined by a relationship, despite their love for each other, but they end up ghosting each other, leading to a two-year friendship hiatus.

Alex’s proposal

In the movie, Alex proposes to Sarah in Tuscany the morning after Poppy takes the pregnancy test. Poppy tells Alex that she thinks he’s settling, and this fight leads to the rift between them. In the book, however, Alex never proposes to Sarah – though he does come close.

In the book, Alex’s brother David reveals to Poppy during his bachelor party in Palm Springs that Alex had purchased a ring for Sarah and had told the family he planned to propose. Later, Alex tells Poppy that he broke up with Sarah before ever popping the question because he realized he was in love with Poppy.

Poppy quitting R&R

Poppy quits her job at R&R upon returning from Barcelona in the movie, but in the book, it takes her much longer to realize she wants to leave. After she gets back to New York from Palm Springs, she starts therapy, and several weeks go by while she works on herself (she even buys a plant and manages to keep it alive!). She runs into her high school bully, Jason Stanley, on the subway. Jason was one of the reasons she grew to hate Linfield so much, but he apologizes to her, and she realizes that her past doesn’t have as much power over her as she thought it did. After this interaction, she recognizes that she’s unfulfilled in her current job at R&R and decides to quit. She ends up starting a column to write about what she loved about travel so much in the first place: the people you meet along the way. 

Poppy’s confrontation with Sarah

In the movie, Poppy has a notable exchange with Sarah in the Barcelona airport on her way home from David’s wedding. Sarah, now a flight attendant, recognizes Poppy and stops her as she heads to her gate. Poppy apologizes to Sarah for how reckless she was with her and Alex’s relationship, and Sarah accepts, telling Poppy that she has since realized that Poppy wasn’t the root of her and Alex’s problems. In the book, Poppy runs into Sarah in Linfield when she’s trying to find Alex at the high school where he and Sarah teach. They have a similar conversation, and Sarah gives Poppy her blessing to go after Alex. 

Final scene

The movie concludes with an epic chase through the suburban streets of Linfield, where Poppy has traveled to tell Alex that she loves him and will be anywhere to be with him. In the book, Poppy doesn’t run after Alex, but finds him in the local dive bar and confesses her love in front of all his coworkers. At first, Alex insists that their lifestyles don’t work together despite their love. But just when Poppy thinks she’s lost him, he follows her into the parking lot of the bar. He admits he’s been afraid of everything a relationship would entail, and that he’s afraid of losing her once he has her. Poppy reassures him, and they agree that they never want to be apart. 

Epilogue

The movie and book conclude very similarly. Poppy has her new column, and Alex has a new teaching job in New York City, where they live together (in the movie, they even have a dog). The book offers a few more details: they are trying out living in New York for several months before doing the same thing in Linfield, so that they can decide together where they want to be. But the resounding message in both is the same: home is wherever they are together.

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