The Person I Met on Vacation Was Me
Watching People We Meet on Vacation is a reminder that sometimes the most important person you meet while travelling… isn’t someone else at all.
With tears streaming down my face and a grin that will likely last all week, People We Meet on Vacation might just be the movie of the year — and it’s only the 11th of January!
If you’re here for a movie review, Rotten Tomatoes can help with that. This is something else entirely — a reflection on travel, identity, and the quiet versions of ourselves we meet along the way.
Anyone who’s been following this journey over the past few years will know that travel has quite literally become my personality. Lonely Planet guides clog laundry cupboards, and boarding passes doubling as bookmarks.
So when anything even slightly travel-related comes onto my radar, I’m in.
I don’t know if it’s Tom Blyth’s contagious smile or his dreamy blue eyes, but something about this movie did something to me.
For an hour and forty minutes, I was transported back to 2023 — into memories that once lived behind my closed eyes, hidden from the world, now brought to life on the big screen.
Once you hit play and settle in, you’re introduced to Poppy and Alex — long-distance best friends whose connection is built on a shared desire to escape their hometown of Linfield and explore the world together.
Alex and Poppy | People We Meet on Vacation (2026)
Yeah, I know, right — where is my travel BFF?
What is so chef’s kiss about this masterpiece of a story is the intentional juxtaposition of its two protagonists, written with such care by Emily Henry.
Poppy yearns to explore, to seek adventure, to burst beyond the small-town bubble holding her back. Alex, on the other hand, is tentative by nature — a lover of familiarity, cautious in the face of change.
But as Poppy’s wild-child energy and life-loving zest unfold, we’re introduced to ‘Vacation Alex’ — a shoulders-down, deeper-exhale, off-itinerary kind of human.
Director Brett Haley’s seamless balance of discovery and change, moving between summers and shared trips, shows that while this is undoubtedly a heart-warming love story that keeps you glued until the end, it’s also a narrative about so much more than romance.
It’s about finding new identities.
It took me back to a familiar feeling — standing by the beaches of the Andaman Sea (a classier way of describing Phi Phi Island in southern Thailand), aged 23, Chang in hand, catching the feels with a similarly Blyth-resembling Brit.
That one-way adventure was my chance to escape the raging battle playing out inside my head — and an opportunity to finally listen to a gut feeling.
A knowing that there was more to life than butterflies, restrictive rules, and the relentless cycle of self-doubt. A version of myself trapped inside a box, waiting to see the world in her true colours.
Because Vacation Eve can be anyone she wants to be.
Eve’s Travel Diary Excerpt | 11th March 2023 | two weeks into solo travel expedition
Feeling very lucky to have met the people that I have. 2 days in to have meet the most genuine, fun, carefree, happy, confident, smart and friendly people.
It feels like a dream. It feels like I’m meant to be experiencing each and everything. good and bad. It feels like I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.
I am carefree. I am self assured. I am brave. I am trusting. I am smart. I am fun — but most of all, I am me. I am beginning to see that I am worthy and capable of good things, people and places.
I am learning what I enjoy and what doesn’t serve me. I am learning what kind of people make me feel good and those I can learn from. I am learning that not everyone is meant to stick around but they all have something to give.
I have learnt that age is just a number. There are so many people, personas and personalities. Some mesh and some don’t. Regardless of age, gender, social class or race. All that matters is the person you choose to be.
You will not be for everyone, but you will be for someone.
I laughed like I used to. The kind of laughter you can only get from sharing a connection with the right person at the right time. I am thankful for these experiences of fun and connection with no pressure, expectation or motive. Simply enjoying each moment as it comes.
I am beginning to let go. No restrictions, no guilt, just intuition and feeling. My body knows what it needs. I know each day is different.
Maybe this is the lifestyle I am meant to live. Maybe I have found a home away from home?
I am excited to see what is next. I am proud to be here. Life is good.
And that, my friends, is why I will forever be the world’s greatest advocate for the power of travel.
‘Vacation Alex’, ‘Vacation Eve’ and ‘Vacation You’ is the embodiment of freedom and liberty to be whoever you want to be. It’s the space and permission to escape any and all preconceived ideas of how you should act, what you are known for, and the person you think you should be.
It’s an opportunity to reinvent how you show up and the person you take home with you.
From quiet to confident, to confident to calm — People We Meet on Vacation proves how getting out of your comfort zone, trusting the process, and being brave enough to go for it will teach you more about yourself than you ever thought possible.
Sometimes you have to explore far and wide, meet people from all walks of life — to realise that the only person you had to meet on vacation…
Was you.
Vacation Eve is just Eve.
Vacation Eve | 2023
