Emily Henry is all the rage these days in contemporary romance, with a whopping five of her novels being adapted for the screen. The first of these is People We Meet on Vacation, which hit the 2026 movie calendar on January 9 and can be streamed with a Netflix subscription. So how does the rom-com live up to the popular novel? Let’s see what critics are saying.
Emily Bader and Tom Blyth star as our main couple, Poppy and Alex, longtime besties who travel together every summer until one disastrous trip. In the flick, Poppy reconnects with Alex for one more trip together, inspiring her to explore their friendship and the tension between them. Angie Han of THR says the People We Meet on Vacation movie is not a life-changing venture, but a pleasant one — similar, in fact, to Alex and Poppy’s trips. Han says:
Trips are fun precisely because they are not real life — because they allow us to slip into a prettier, funner, freer existence for just a spell, and then leave it all behind again before we can get to complaining that the sun’s too strong or the margs way too sweet. People We Leave on Vacation might not be anyone’s idea of a forever home. But it’s a lovely place to visit for a few lazy hours.
John Serba of Decider says the push and pull between Alex and Poppy’s differing life views drives the book-to-screen adaptation and keeps it from becoming too cutesy. Director Brett Haley isn’t afraid to trade a little realism for idealism, but overall, it’s worth the watch, Serba says, writing:
People We Meet on Vacation is engineered to be predictably satisfying, and offers few real surprises. It’s generally content to be vague on character details and heavy on the romantic yearning, rendering it less substantial than it could be. But if you’re a sucker for an appealing central performance and some sweetly alchemical interactions between two attractive human beings (disclosure: I am one of those suckers), the movie offers an opportunity to forget about your troubles for a bit so you can yell JUST DO IT AND GET IT OVER WITH!!! at your television for two hours.
Guy Lodge of Variety writes that the adaptation coasts on the charms of and chemistry between the lead actors, not doing anything to elevate the classic rom-com formula. But while People We Meet on Vacation may be predictable, it is comfortably so, the critic says. He continues:
A summer-soaked Netflix release cannily scheduled to counter the January fug, People We Meet on Vacation offers no surprises, to an audience that isn’t after any. From the second that free spirit Poppy and straitlaced Alex meet as ill-matched college students, you know where they’re going to end up, and precisely how they’re going to end up there. Moreover, the film knows that you know: It offers the comforting satisfaction of pieces falling predictably into place to any viewers wishing their own life would slot together so neatly.
Alistair Ryder of Looper rates it a 6 out of 10, saying Tom Blyth and Emily Bader have sweet opposites-attract energy that’s hard not to get swept up in. However, the story’s parallels to When Harry Met Sally are harder to ignore on the screen than in the book, and People We Meet on Vacation doesn’t stand a chance against comparisons to possibly the best romantic comedy of all time. Ryder continues:
What played like loving homage on the page is something far easier to be cynical about on the screen, where the looming parallels with Reiner and Ephron's superior film can't be so easily shrugged off as a tribute. Now, it just looks like a Gen Z-friendly update with less of the laughs and unexpected warmth of the original prickly pairing, forever destined to live in the shadow of a movie that you should probably be streaming instead of this.
Marya E. Gates of RogerEbert sees very little of the charm mentioned by other critics above. Calling the movie, “Netflix’s latest vapid attempt at reviving the rom-com genre,” Gates says Poppy and Alex get very little character development. The critic gives the movie just 1.5 stars out of 4 and says:
It’s all just really bizarre, limp copies of better films. Ultimately, People We Meet On Vacation is a movie that seems to have been crafted for viewers to turn into steamy fan cams on TikTok and GIF sets on Tumblr. It’s also another film that would rather spend more time in rich destination settings around the globe, than in the small town where these characters both grew up.
Regardless of some critics’ complaints of a predictable and formulaic movie, it seems that the adaptation wins them over more often than not. People We Meet on Vacation has compiled a score of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, and my guess is fans of the book are going to ride for this movie despite any shortcomings mentioned above, because the audience score already stands at an impressive 84%.
If you’re ready to allow yourself to be charmed by Poppy and Alex’s love story, People We Meet on Vacation is streaming now on Netflix.
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