How to Turn Public Holidays into Long Weekends (Bridge Days Explained)
By the Kindly Useful team, updated 2026-11-05
See holidays and long weekends by country
Two people with the same number of vacation days can end up with very different amounts of time off. The difference is planning around public holidays. Here's the method.
The weekday of a holiday is everything
Where a public holiday falls in the week decides how much it is worth:
| Holiday falls on | What you get | Vacation days needed |
|---|---|---|
| Monday or Friday | 3-day weekend | 0 |
| Tuesday | 4 days off (take Monday) | 1 |
| Thursday | 4 days off (take Friday) | 1 |
| Wednesday | 5 days off (take Mon-Tue or Thu-Fri) | 2 |
| Saturday or Sunday | Nothing, unless your country moves it to a weekday | Nothing |
A day you take off to connect a holiday to the weekend is called a bridge day. In many countries, schools and businesses close on bridge days too.
Look for holiday clusters
The biggest wins come where several holidays sit close together:
- Christmas to New Year. Depending on the year, 3-4 vacation days can turn into 9-11 days off.
- Easter. Where both Good Friday and Easter Monday are holidays, taking the four days between Easter and the following weekend gives you 10 days for 4 vacation days.
- Spring holidays. In many European countries, May has several public holidays (Labour Day, Ascension, Whit Monday) that create bridge opportunities.
What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?
It depends on the country:
- Substitute days: the UK, the US (for federal holidays), Australia, Canada and others move the day off to the nearest weekday (often the Monday, sometimes the Friday before).
- No substitute: many countries, including Germany and France, simply lose the day off that year.
Our calendar pages mark substitute days where the official rules include them.
How we'd plan a year
Take your country's holiday list for the year (the 2027 calendar is a good start) and look for holidays on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Those are the ones worth a bridge day. A Tuesday or Thursday holiday turns one vacation day into four days off, which is about as good as it gets.
Then book early. Everyone at work has spotted the same days, and flights and hotels around them get expensive fast. If you can, leave a few days unplanned for the end of the year, when the Christmas and New Year holidays often create the best bridges of all.
Regional holidays
In Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the US, Australia and other federal countries, some holidays only apply in certain states or regions. Check the rules where you live, and check with your employer too, because private companies don't always follow the official list.
To plan yours, open your country on our calendar page. Every country page already lists that year's long weekends and the bridge days worth booking.