The new rom-com People We Meet On Vacation which you can stream with a Netflix subscription, is a perfectly fun movie. If you’re a fan of the genre, it’s not going to shock you with twists and turns, but it’s a great movie to watch if you’re looking for something lighthearted and nice. It does, however, have one moment, at least for me, that really hits home. It comes early in the movie, when Poppy (Emily Bader) says to Alex (Tom Blyth), “You can be anyone you want on vacation.” It’s a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. There are some spoilers ahead, so travel safely.
I Don’t Reinvent My Whole Self, But I Do Things I Wouldn’t Do At Home
In one of the scenes of the film, which is based on a book by Emily Henry, showing one of their vacations together, Poppy and Alex are in New Orleans and invent a story about how the two friends have just gotten engaged. They play it up for the rest of their trip, even though they aren’t actually a couple (yet). While I’ve never done anything quite on that level, I do like to take a full vacation from life when I have the opportunity.
This includes, for example, wearing clothes that I might not ever wear at home. I have a bad habit of doing a lot of shopping before a trip. I might buy a hat I’d never wear normally (I recently bought a Panama Hat for a trip to Mexico, for example), or I might step out of my comfort zone and wear a bold shirt I wouldn’t dare be seen in at home, where my style could be described as “normcore.” I don’t know what that says about me, but, as Poppy says, she likes “Vacation Alex,” I really like Vacation Me.
I’m also more prone to, say, eating a weird type of food that I wouldn’t normally seek out. That food almost always tastes better on vacation, anyway. Or I might sit in a bar by myself and strike up a conversation with a stranger. I wouldn’t make up a wild story like Poppy and Alex do in New Orleans (at least before Poppy's boyfriend shows up), but Vacation Me is more outgoing than I am normally.
This Is Hardly Unique Advice
In a post-Anthony Bourdain world, I don’t think this is the most profound sentiment in film history, but that's ok. I think a lot of people travel like this. They are more adventurous on vacation, and they are more outgoing and willing to try new and different things. I do think it’s a good reminder that this is how we should think of vacation. We can be whoever we want on a trip.
Vacation Alex might occasionally be pulled too far by Poppy, and sometimes she doesn’t respect his boundaries, but for me, at least, that would be a good thing. Well, to a point, of course. Vacation Me likes being challenged like that when I’m in a foreign land. It’s always good to be reminded that it’s ok to be that way!
The 2026 Netflix schedule is off to a good start in the doldums and cold of January with People We Meet On Vacation, and I'm looking forward to more rom-coms this year, too!
