How Does the People We Meet on Vacation Movie Ending Differ from the Book? Here’s What Changed for Poppy and Alex

People We Meet on Vacation sees its main characters travel across the globe and dance around their feelings for each other — until it all comes full circle in the end.

Based on Emily Henry’s best-selling novel of the same name, People We Meet on Vacation premiered on Netflix on Jan. 9. In it, Emily Bader and Tom Blyth bring outgoing writer Poppy and quiet school teacher Alex from page to screen.

After the unlikely duo cross paths in college — while sharing a car ride home to their small hometown of Linfield, Ohio — Poppy goes on to fulfill her dreams of working for a travel magazine in New York City, while Alex returns to his Ohio roots and begins teaching at Poppy’s alma mater.

Despite living hundreds of miles away from each other, the best friends who can never seem to get their timing right, meet somewhere new once a year for their annual summer trip.

That is, until an incident leads them to halt their annual vacation — and their friendship — for two years. But when they find themselves reunited in Barcelona, Spain, they have one more chance to see if their relationship can make it.

So, do Poppy and Alex end up together? Here’s the People We Meet on Vacation ending explained, including how it differed from the book.

Warning: People We Meet on Vacation spoilers ahead.

How does People We Meet on Vacation end?

Throughout the movie, Poppy and Alex’s friendship grows deeper with each summer trip they take, from coining the term “Vacation Alex” in Canada to faking their engagement to relish in special treatment in New Orleans.

Things go south when an incident one summer leads them to put an end to their annual vacation. But after reuniting at Alex’s brother David’s (Miles Heizer) Barcelona wedding, the pair are forced to confront their feelings.

At the rehearsal dinner, Alex learns Poppy had rearranged her Greece trip just to attend and not as a work trip for R&R as she’d claimed. When he later presses her, Poppy admits she missed him and wanted things back to how they were. However, Alex insists that’s impossible.

A heated (literally, thanks to the broken AC in Poppy’s lodging) fight about the status of their friendship results in several confessions between the pair. They admit that they want to be together, and Poppy tells Alex she has loved him since “probably always,” before they share a steamy kiss on the balcony in the pouring rain.

The next day, they attend David’s wedding hand-in-hand, share a romantic slow dance and appear to have finally made it as a couple. But it’s not a happy ending for them just yet, as Alex soon realizes they might not be on the same page after all, and leaves Poppy on the dance floor.

It’s only once they’ve returned home that Poppy realizes her inability to commit has cost her the one person she has ever truly cared about. She quits her job at R&R, realizing that she doesn’t need more vacations from her life — she just needs a life.

So, she flies to Linfield and proclaims her love after doing the one thing she hates more than anything: running. She both comedically and romantically chases him down the street, and after finally catching up to him, tells Alex that she will always love him. Poppy tells him that there isn’t anything she wouldn’t give up to build something new with him.

Poppy admits that she knows she has things to figure out still. Still, she knows one thing for sure — wherever Alex is in the world, that’s where she belongs — and they share a heartfelt kiss.

Why did Poppy and Alex stop talking for two years?

The pair’s friendship took a hit after a tense couples’ trip in Tuscany, Italy, with their respective partners, Poppy’s R&R colleague-turned-lover Trey (Lucien Laviscount) and Alex’s on-again, off-again high school sweetheart, Sarah (Sarah Catherine Hook).

The already awkward trip — which takes place in Croatia in the novel — takes a turn when Poppy thinks she might be pregnant, leading Alex to console her and go with her to find a test. The nerves of the situation — which ultimately sees Poppy learn she is not pregnant — prompts an emotional hug between them.

When Poppy slowly leans in to kiss Alex, he pulls away at the last second and soon asks, “What am I to you?” Poppy apologizes, telling him she was just confused and doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, which Alex says is “fine.”

The next morning, Poppy wakes up to Trey singing some big news throughout the sprawling estate: Alex and Sarah are engaged.

When Poppy and Alex reflect on the news shortly after, he tells her they plan to stay in Linfield and Poppy accuses him of “settling,” reminding him of his dreams to pursue his PhD and teach in Europe or New York.

The two get into a fight after Alex says she lives in a “fantasy land,” and he ultimately tells her he thinks this will be their last trip together. Poppy does her best to hold back tears and doesn’t respond.

What happened between Alex and Sarah?

Things were never quite steady between Alex and Sarah, as they seemed to break up and make up nearly every summer. But after their Italy engagement, Alex tells Poppy it was “time” for him to propose to Sarah, and that he wants a “stable, loving relationship,” which he claimed to have.

However, shortly before reuniting at David’s wedding, Poppy learns — via Alex’s brother — that Alex and Sarah broke off their engagement, but doesn’t know why. It’s not until after the rehearsal dinner that Alex admits to Poppy that she is the reason he and Sarah broke up.

Later, Poppy runs into Sarah, now a flight attendant, while on her way to Ohio to proclaim her love to Alex. She uses the opportunity to apologize for her friendship with Alex not being “fair” to Sarah.

In response, Sarah tells her that while she thought Poppy going away would solve all of her and Alex’s relationship problems, their two years of silence actually made matters worse for them.

Do Poppy and Alex end up together?

In the final scene of the movie — which closely resembles the book’s epilogue with a few key changes — Poppy and Alex are living in their shared New York apartment, one year after their Linfield kiss.

They also resume their annual summer vacation, this time as a couple. The final scene features them jetting off, holding hands on an airplane and sharing a kiss at a secluded beach later on.

How does the ending differ from the book?

While Poppy and Alex also end up together in Henry’s novel, there are a handful of changes from page to screen.

In both versions, Poppy returns to Linfield when she realizes she is ready to be with Alex and proves her devotion by doing the one thing she hates most. While in the movie that’s running, the book has her return to her other most-hated place: her old high school, where Alex is a teacher.

Upon her arrival, she runs into Sarah, another teacher there, who tells her he is with his colleagues at a local bar. She arrives at the bar and delivers a heartfelt monologue about how she’ll do anything to be with him, even if it means returning to Ohio.

Additionally, the book’s epilogue reveals that Alex is set to start as a full-time substitute teacher in New York; he eventually becomes a teacher at Sarah Lawrence College in the movie. As for Poppy, she is still a writer in both versions, but no longer at R&R.