11 Biggest ‘People We Meet on Vacation’ Book Changes in the Movie

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the movie and book versions of People We Meet on Vacation.]

When Poppy says, “When art speaks to you, you find a way to make it work,” she is clearly talking about a way too toothy wooden statue, but when it comes to book-to-screen adaptations, we see her vision.

Condensing a beloved book into a movie is no easy feat, so there have to be some sacrifices along the way. Emily Henry‘s first onscreen adaptation, People We Meet on Vacation, was no exception. The effervescent rom-com, starring Emily Bader as Poppy and Tom Blyth as Alex, stays incredibly true to the source material. However, fans have already started to notice a few key differences between moments in the book and their onscreen counterparts.

Scroll to find out the 11 biggest differences between the People We Meet on Vacation book and movie, and be sure to check out Swooon‘s full interview with screenwriter Yulin Kuang about adapting People We Meet on Vacation (and a potential sequel!) here.

David & Nam’s wedding is in Barcelona

While David (Miles Heizer) and Nam (Tommy Do), Tham in the book, tied the knot in Palm Springs on the page, Netflix gave their wedding a new venue. On August 2, 2024, Emily Henry revealed that some of Poppy and Alex’s vacations needed to change locations due to production reasons. She wrote in her newsletter, “The big one I wanted to personally tell you about so it doesn’t come as a surprise: Palm Springs. Turns out Palm Springs is actually a very difficult place to film! Who knew! But we knew we wanted a place that could feel BIG and BEAUTIFUL and romantic and also hellishly hot if your AC were to break, for example. So all that to say, get ready for a very sexy, sultry summer in Barcelona.”

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David invites Poppy to his wedding

Right off the bat, the movie features one major change. Instead of Poppy coming back into contact with Alex by simply texting him, it’s actually Alex’s brother, David, who breaks the ice, calling Poppy and asking why she hasn’t RSVP’d to his wedding in the movie. In the book, Poppy asks if Alex wants to stretch his trip to Palm Springs so that they can have another epic weeklong vacation. There she lies, saying that R+R has completely covered their trip when she’s really paying out of pocket. Of course, David is still thrilled that Poppy is coming to his wedding, even if she wasn’t invited, telling her, “SO happy you’re coming with Al! Tham’s excited to meet you, and of course you are invited to EVERYTHING.”

In the movie, Poppy was originally supposed to travel to Santorini, but she tells Alex that she is doing a piece on destination weddings in Barcelona instead. Her boss, Swapna (Jameela Jamil), approves the piece, and Poppy is off to the wedding, with her trip covered by R+R.

Poppy and Alex meet at the end of freshman year

In the novel, Poppy and Alex meet at orientation, a full school year before they travel back to Linfield together. At the time, she’s “fairly confident” they’ll never speak again. However, after occasionally seeing Alex around campus during their freshman year, Poppy’s roommate, Bonnie, set up their road trip back to Linfield after the school year. In the movie, Poppy specifically mentions that they had never met until Bonnie suggested they should carpool. Thanks for the meet-cute, Bonnie!

Poppy and Alex go to Boston College

While Poppy and Alex are University of Chicago alums in the EmHen book universe, they attend Boston College in the movie. To us, this isn’t a big deal, but we can imagine that UChicago rom-com lovers are feeling pretty bummed. Meanwhile, all the bookish girlies at BC are feeling pretty pleased. You win some, you lose some.

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Naked Alex

Without Poppy’s internal monologue, the movie is sans Naked Alex. No, we’re not talking about the skinny-dipping, full-mooning Alex we see during their Canada trip. Instead, in the book, Naked Alex is how Poppy refers to her best friend when his walls are down. When he is dramatic, ardent, and absurd. According to Poppy, Naked Alex is his most authentic self. Of course, we see Naked Alex throughout the movie, and Vacation Alex steps in to liven the mood multiple times, but Poppy’s poorly named description of Alex’s alter ego stays home.

There’s more than one bed

People We Meet on Vacation (the book) contains one of the greatest known uses of the there’s-only-one-bed trope, which comes when Poppy and Alex move into their boiling and dilapidated wedding week apartment. At The Desert Rose, the duo is supposed to receive a room with two beds and a working AC unit. Instead, they receive a single bed and an AC that can only cool by one degree at a time. While the AC problem remains the same, R+R covers Poppy’s hotel room while Alex is in another, causing the single bed situation to completely go away.

That being said, the movie still incorporates all of the best parts of Alex and Poppy’s Desert Rose stay. From the wonky AC to the construction curtain, the charm and functionality of the setting do not change. Plus, Alex’s back spasm brings them right back to the forced proximity of the novel. We’ll be the first to say that this separation was a surprisingly welcome change.

No Flannery O’Connor

What is a romance movie without a literary named cat? In the movie, Alex’s cat, named after American novelist and short story writer Flannery O’Connor, is nowhere to be seen. While we would have loved to behold a cat, this, of course, is remedied by Alex and Poppy’s wiener dog at the end of the movie.

Fewer summers, fewer vacations

Of course, Palm Springs isn’t the only trip lost from book to screen. The movie did a fantastic job of condensing Alex and Poppy’s twelve summers of knowing each other and nine trips together into nine summers of knowing each other and four on-camera vacations.

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In the book, Poppy and Alex travel to Victoria, Nashville, San Francisco, New Orleans, Vail, Sanibel Island, Norway, Tuscany, and Croatia, in that order. In the movie, their Canadian camping trip to Victoria becomes a camping trip to Squamish, then we skip Nashville and San Francisco. New Orleans remains the same, including the moment when Alex needs to pick Poppy up from Vail. Poppy and Alex’s cancelled trip to Norway, which becomes a sick staycation at Poppy’s, was spot on in the movie. And then their trip to Tuscany, with Poppy’s pregnancy test, and their trip to Croatia, where they kissed and then stopped talking, are combined as well.

Alex proposes to Sarah

While Alex is planning on proposing to Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook) in the book, he actually does propose to her in the movie, during their couple’s trip to Tuscany. In Tuscany, Poppy thinks that she is pregnant, only to take a negative test with Alex. While this moment is mostly focused on Poppy in the movie, the scene in the book focuses on Alex, who is terrified for Poppy because his mom died in childbirth.

In the book, Alex and Poppy go back to their significant others after the emotional scene, and their first kiss is saved for their next trip. In the movie, Alex and Poppy almost kiss after she sees the negative result, inspiring a “what are we” conversation that neither is ready to have. The next morning, Alex proposes to Sarah, and Poppy is left heartbroken.

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Sarah becomes a flight attendant

In the book, both Sarah and Alex work as high school teachers in Linfield. When Poppy returns to Linfield to win Alex back, she goes to the high school and finds Sarah instead. The movie features Sarah charting a new course as a flight attendant, thanking Poppy for showing her that she had no idea what she wanted out of life.

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Poppy chases Alex

At the end of the book, Poppy tracks Alex down to their hometown bar, pours her heart out to him and then leaves. After a moment, Alex chases after her, telling her that he saw a therapist who thinks he’s afraid to let himself be happy. While Poppy is afraid Alex will realize she’s too much, Alex is afraid she’ll realize he’s boring.

The movie ends in a slightly different way, with Poppy literally chasing Alex as he goes for a run with sound-cancelling earbuds. There, after Poppy tells him everything on her mind, confessing her full feelings, he doesn’t wait for her to leave. Instead, he kisses her right then and there.

Comment below with any other differences you noticed between the People We Meet on Vacation book and movie, and let us know which new scene was your favorite!

People We Meet on Vacation, Streaming Now, Netflix