Vacation Planner for Bridge Days
The vacation planner distributes available vacation days optimally across bridge days: a single day of vacation becomes the longest possible continuous break.
Example Bavaria 2026: with 1 vacation days placed on bridge days, up to 4 consecutive days off can be created.
The calculation takes all statutory public holidays of the selected federal state as well as the weekends into account. Overlapping blocks are excluded – the block with the longest continuous time off is always planned first.
Bridge days arise when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday: one vacation day connects the holiday with the weekend to form four days off. If a holiday falls on a Wednesday, up to five consecutive days off can be created with a single vacation day in some states (valid for 2026 and the following years).
Distribute Vacation Days Optimally
How the Planner Works
The planner checks every working day of the year that falls between a public holiday and a weekend. For each candidate, the resulting continuous time off is calculated. The algorithm then selects – sorted by block length, without overlaps – the best candidates for the available vacation days.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the optimal distribution work?
The planner sorts all bridge days by the length of the resulting break and selects the best opportunities one after another, without any blocks overlapping.
Are the bridge days the same for every federal state?
No. Since the statutory public holidays differ by state, the bridge days differ too – the planner calculates with the holidays of the selected state.
What if I have more vacation days than bridge days exist?
The planner uses all available bridge days and shows the remaining vacation days. These are most efficiently used directly before or after a public holiday.
Data Source & Freshness
- Feiertagsgesetze der 16 Bundesländer – official source Landesrechtliche Feiertagsregeln; bewegliche Feiertage per Computus berechnet.