Why People We Meet on Vacation Worked for Me (Even With the Changes)

Why People We Meet on Vacation Worked for Me (Even With the Changes)

If you were like me back in 2022, you probably stopped at one of those airport bookstores and picked up a fun travel read for your journey. One of my picks was People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry.

So I was both excited and nervous when I heard it was being adapted.

Book-to-screen adaptations are almost guaranteed to disappoint someone.

If a movie follows the source material too closely, it's criticized for playing it safe. If it takes creative liberties, readers inevitably begin keeping score, cataloging every missing scene and altered storyline. It's an impossible balancing act, especially when the book in question is written by Emily Henry, whose readers are famously protective of her characters.

So before I watched People We Meet on Vacation, I prepared myself for the inevitable comparisons.

Were there changes? Absolutely.

Did every one of them work? Not necessarily.

And yet, somewhere between the beautiful scenery, the easy chemistry between Poppy and Alex, and a soundtrack that seemed determined to keep a smile on my face, I found myself having a genuinely wonderful time.

Sometimes that's enough.

It Remembered That Romantic Comedies Are Supposed to Be Fun

One of the things I appreciated most about the movie was its willingness to simply enjoy itself.

In recent years, many romantic comedies have leaned heavily into drama, heartbreak, or emotional trauma. Those stories absolutely have their place, but every now and then I miss the feeling that made so many classic rom-coms memorable in the first place. I want witty banter. I want awkward moments. I want longing, laughter, and the kind of chemistry that makes you root for two people long before they realize they belong together.

People We Meet on Vacation delivered exactly that.

The movie felt bright, colorful, and genuinely optimistic without becoming overly cheesy. There was an energy to it that reminded me why I fell in love with the genre in the first place.

It wasn't trying to reinvent romantic comedies. It was simply trying to tell a charming love story, and I think there's something refreshing about that.

Poppy and Alex Felt Like People You'd Actually Want to Spend Time With

The best friends-to-lovers stories live or die by one thing: whether you believe the friendship before the romance.

That's what has always made Emily Henry's novel so compelling, and despite condensing years of memories into a two-hour film, I thought the adaptation did a good job preserving the heart of that relationship. While the movie changes how Poppy and Alex first meet and streamlines many of their vacations, it never loses sight of what matters most: the quiet comfort they find in one another.

Their relationship felt easy.

Not effortless, because they clearly carried years of unresolved feelings, but comfortable in the way long friendships often are. The conversations flowed naturally, the teasing felt genuine, and even the silences seemed intentional.

That's surprisingly difficult to capture on screen.

Not Every Change Needs to Be a Problem

Like most adaptations, the movie combines locations, trims supporting characters, and reshapes several key moments to fit a feature-length runtime. Entire vacations disappear, timelines are condensed, and some emotional beats arrive differently than they do in the novel.

Ordinarily, those kinds of changes would bother me.

This time, they really didn't.

Perhaps it's because the movie never felt like it was trying to improve the book. It simply felt like it was translating the same emotional story into a different medium.

Would I have loved to spend more time with Poppy and Alex?

Of course.

But I'd rather watch a movie that captures the spirit of a book than one that checks every plot point off a list while somehow forgetting why readers fell in love with it in the first place.

Sometimes You Just Need a Feel-Good Romance

Not every romance has to leave me emotionally devastated.

Don't get me wrong. I'll happily read an 800-page romantasy that destroys my emotional stability for a week. But there's something equally satisfying about a story that simply makes you smile.

That's exactly what People We Meet on Vacation did for me.

It was warm.

It was funny.

It was romantic without taking itself too seriously.

Most importantly, it left me happier than I was when I pressed play.

There's something to be said for stories that don't ask you to carry the weight of the world for two hours. Sometimes they're exactly what you need.

My Final Thoughts

Will every Emily Henry fan agree with me?

Probably not.

I know many readers wished the movie had included more vacations, preserved additional scenes from the book, or stayed even closer to the original story. Those are fair criticisms, and I understand where they're coming from.

For me, though, the movie succeeded because it made me feel exactly what I hoped it would.

It reminded me why I love romantic comedies.

It gave me two characters worth rooting for.

And it embraced the kind of lighthearted, bubbly romance that feels increasingly rare without ever becoming shallow.

Not every adaptation has to be perfect to be enjoyable.

Sometimes it's enough that it leaves you smiling when the credits roll.

People We Meet on Vacation did exactly that.