Emily Bader and Tom Blyth List Their Vacation Travel Pet Peeves (Exclusive)

Emily Bader and Tom Blyth’s characters in People We Meet on Vacation have strong opinions, as do the actors themselves.

Bader and Blyth star in the new Netflix romcom, based on Emily Henry’s 2021 bestselling novel.

People We Meet on Vacation follows Poppy (Bader) and Alex (Blyth), longtime friends who embark on a yearly vacation together. After one fateful trip drives them apart, the duo set aside their differences years later for one last getaway.

The slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance is a BookTok favorite, as is the chemistry between Poppy and Alex. The protagonists also have some famous hot takes throughout the book — on everything from music to exercising — which Bader, 29, and Blyth, 30, don’t necessarily agree with.

“I love saxophones,” Blyth, contrary to his character Alex, tells PEOPLE. “I love a bit of jazz, so I can’t relate to that at all. There were so many things that he hates. He hates sandals and flip-flops, and I’m like, ‘I don’t care. You can wear flip-flops if you want.’ ”

“I don’t hate running in the same way [Poppy] does, but I do feel very strongly about itineraries,” Bader adds. “I don’t like to over-plan a trip. I think it ends up just being more stressful, and when you try to cram a million things … I feel like that’s when you see the people on vacation that look so unhappy. … I just like to go with the flow.”

As for their own travel hot takes, Blyth has a strong stance about a certain airport faux pas.

“It’s the trays in the airport security. If people take their bags and their shoes and their clothes and they don’t take the tray and put it in the pile of trays — I think that is criminal,” he says.

“It should be a criminal offense, because you’re holding up everyone, and then someone else has to get all the trays for you,” he says. “My hot take is that people should be arrested, and not allowed to go through the airport until they learn how to pick up a tray and put it down.”

People We Meet on Vacation, directed by Brett Haley and also starring Sarah Catherine Hook, Lukas Gage, Lucien Laviscount and Jameela Jamil, is the first of Henry’s novels to be adapted for the screen. Several of the author’s other bestsellers, including Beach Read, Book Lovers and Happy Place, are set to get the page-to-screen treatment.

Blyth says he was particularly excited to do a romcom after taking on more serious roles. The actor played young Coriolanus Snow in the 2023 Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and stars in the upcoming thriller Watch Dogs.

“I was just eager to do something light and fun, and a bit sexy,” he says. “I’ve been doing a lot of serious films back-to-back. So, I was ready for something a bit more light. This came along, and I realized what a big deal Emily Henry was, and I wanted to get onboard the Emily Henry train.”

The movie also allowed Bader to take on a more comedic role for the first time.

“It was really fun to just fall on my face a lot with this character,” Bader says. “I think that was the only way I knew how to even get in. I was like, ‘I just have to make some very silly decisions, and follow my gut.’ And that’s a very fun way to film a movie. I had a great time.”

People We Meet on Vacation is on Netflix Jan. 9.