From Page to Screen: Why the People We Meet on Vacation Movie Swapped Palm Springs for Barcelona

Perhaps the most significant departure from the source material is the setting of the "present day" vacation. In the novel, the climax of the story takes place in the sweltering heat of Palm Springs, California, for the wedding of Alex's brother. The desert heat serves as a physical manifestation of the rising tension between Poppy and Alex as they navigate a broken air conditioner and their own unspoken feelings.

In the Netflix film, the production moves the action across the Atlantic to Barcelona, Spain. Director Brett Haley and Emily Henry herself noted that while Palm Springs was the original vision, Barcelona offered a "sexy, sultry" backdrop that felt bigger and more romantic for a cinematic finale. While the broken air conditioner subplot remains, the change to a European destination wedding adds a layer of high-fashion gloss that differentiates the film from the book's more grounded, gritty desert vibe.

The book and movie also differ in how our favorite duo first crossed paths. In Emily Henry's novel, Poppy and Alex meet during their college orientation at the University of Chicago. They don't exactly hit it off immediately; instead, they slowly form a bond over the course of a school year before embarking on their first fateful road trip back to their hometown of Linfield, Ohio.

The movie simplifies this timeline significantly. Instead of attending school in Chicago, the cinematic versions of Poppy and Alex are students at Boston College. Furthermore, the film frames their first car ride home as their true "meet cute," with the two characters having never met until a mutual friend suggests they carpool. This change accelerates their chemistry, making the road trip the foundation of their entire decade long friendship.

To fit a 400 page novel into a two hour runtime, the movie condensed the supporting cast. In the book, Alex is the eldest of four brothers, and his role as a parental figure to his younger siblings is a major part of his character arc. The film reduces this number, giving Alex only one brother, David, whose wedding serves as the central plot device.

Similarly, Poppy's family life is scaled back. While the book dives deep into her relationship with her two older brothers and the chaotic, messy home life she felt she needed to escape, the movie focuses more narrowly on her parents, played by Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck. While their performance is a comedic highlight, fans of the book might miss the deeper exploration of Poppy's "hometown trauma" that was so prevalent in the novel.

In the novel, Alex's long term girlfriend Sarah and Poppy's various boyfriends are often mentioned but rarely take center stage. They are obstacles in the minds of the protagonists rather than active participants in the drama.

The movie takes a more traditional rom com approach by giving the "significant others" more screen time. Sarah Catherine Hook portrays Sarah not as a distant school teacher, but as a flight attendant from a wealthy real estate family. By making the partners more visible, the film ramps up the external conflict, though some purists argue this shifts the focus away from the internal emotional barriers that made the book so poignant.

One of the most debated changes among the "EmHen" fandom is the ending. In the book, Poppy and Alex eventually find a middle ground by splitting their time between the fast paced life of New York City and the quiet stability of Linfield. This compromise symbolized their growth: Poppy learning to find "home" in a person rather than a place, and Alex stepping out of his comfort zone.

The film opts for a more definitive "happily ever after" in the Big Apple. The movie concludes with the couple settling in New York, where Alex takes a prestigious teaching position at Sarah Lawrence College. While the film implies they still value their roots, the decision to have Alex move permanently to the city feels like a significant shift for a character who spent the entire story advocating for a small town life.

Due to the constraints of film pacing, not every trip made the cut. One notable omission is the trip to Croatia, which in the book was the final vacation before their two year estrangement. In the movie, the events of Croatia specifically the moment their friendship "broke" are largely merged into the Tuscany trip. While the emotional fallout remains the same, the loss of the Croatian backdrop means one less beautiful location for the audience to enjoy.

Ultimately, the People We Meet on Vacation movie is a love letter to the spirit of Emily Henry's work, even if the itinerary has changed. It prioritizes the "rom" and the "com" for a global audience while keeping the heart of Poppy and Alex's bond intact.