‘People We Meet on Vacation’ Changes Destinations: Why Netflix Swapped Palm Springs for Barcelona

While “People We Meet on Vacation” may have been the first of Emily Henry’s books to be adapted for the screen, the author was well aware of the “humbling” experience of being the voice for the source material. 

The New York Times bestselling author told TheWrap that she was lucky director Brett Haley made room for her voice in the room and kept readers in the forefront of his Netflix film adaptation. 

“It’s a pretty torturous process to be an author in the adaptation experience,” she admitted to TheWrap. “But all that being said, I do feel very lucky that our director, Brett Haley, was really adamant about keeping my voice and my readers’ voices in his ear.”

“He was always checking in and trying to make sure that any changes were things that I could feel good about or at least neutral about,” she added.

One of the biggest changes from the page to the screen was the location for the wedding that brought decade-in-the-making friends-to-lovers Alex and Poppy back together. In the book, Alex’s brother’s wedding is in Palm Springs, but in the film it takes place in Barcelona, Spain.

Henry told TheWrap that shockingly it was cheaper to shoot in Barcelona than in the desert city. The director told her that due to financial reasons and practical reasons, such as the temperature, Palm Springs was one of the most critical location changes the team needed to make.

“Even the movie ‘Palm Springs’ was not shot in Palm Springs,” she added. “The other thing that was being discussed throughout the process was that we are essentially making a romantic comedy – no, we’re essentially making a James Bond movie with a romantic comedy budget.”

Because of the premise of the movie, which is that Alex and Poppy meet up every summer to go on elaborate vacations, the selling point is the striking views and enviable trips that the duo take throughout the film. Haley had to be strategic about shooting locations to allow scenic backdrops to double as multiple locations. 

“We didn’t have the budget to shoot in 11 different places,” Henry said. “Brett did the legwork of figuring out where he could get the most bang for his buck, where he could get the most settings and have them still feel authentic.”

The film’s stars Emily Bader and Tom Blyth told TheWrap that Spain doubled as Barcelona, Tuscany and even parts of Canada – where Alex and Poppy go on their first trip together. 

Blyth noted, “I was kind of glad we did double some because we got to spend more time in one place and really get to know it, and get to fall in love with Barcelona, and kind of become semi local for a month and a half.”

The film did shoot the New Orleans trip in New Orleans, though. Haley insisted that no other city could replace the historic, singular American city. 

Henry added that moving some of the trips abroad helped elevate the movie to make it feel more like an “aspirational” summery movie. The only thing that mattered to the author was that, despite not being in Palm Springs, the wedding location needed to be just as hot. 

After watching the movie, admittedly, at the time of our interview, Henry said that some of her favorite moments were the scenes that were completely original for the movie. She liked seeing the characters she created expanding their budding love story and friendship outside of the set pieces she wrote. 

Henry has several other books of hers in development, including “Beach Read,” “Book Lovers” and “Happy Place.” Looking ahead, she hopes that her collaborations continue to be an open line of communication about changes like she had with Haley and the “People We Meet on Vacation” team. 

“I just got very lucky that he cared to do that, because they’re under no obligation to,” she said. “This movie is not my baby. It is their baby, and my whole role was just to be the voice for the readers, which I wouldn’t have necessarily gotten to do unless the people working on the movie were willing and open to having that voice.”

“People We Meet on Vacation” is available to stream on Netflix.

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