Bridge days 2025: How to cleverly plan your holiday around the holidays
Are you wondering: How do I best plan my vacation in 2025? If you want to treat yourself to as many long breaks as possible, you should pull out your calendar and check how many long weekends there are. Because with particularly clever planning, you can more than double the number of days off in 2025!
In terms of leisure time, 2025 is particularly good for employees in Germany. Nationwide, there will be an average of 248.1 working days. This is 0.7 fewer than in 2024 and the lowest figure since 2019, when there were 247.8 working days. The following overview shows all public holidays in 2025:
The fact that people will work less in 2025 is due, among other things, to the fact that holidays like Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve comparatively rarely fall on weekends. This also means that there will be more bridge days in 2025 – and thus the opportunity to have more free time with fewer vacation days.
Our bridge day planner allows you to calculate the available bridge days for 2025. You can view the bridge days for all of Germany or for individual federal states, allowing you to plan your vacation around them:
New Year in January 2025
January 1, 2025, is a Wednesday. This means that the holiday isn't a traditional bridge day, but falls right in the middle of the week. However, it's still a good time to plan your vacation. Here's how to request your vacation days around New Year's Day 2025:
- Submit vacation request: January 2nd to 3rd
- Vacation days: 2
- Holidays: 5 (January 1 to January 5, 2025)
Epiphany in January 2025
Those who live in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, or Saxony-Anhalt are in luck: January 6, Epiphany, is a public holiday there. In 2025, it falls on a Monday. While it's not a bridge day, those who take the day off around it get an extra day in these three lucky states, meaning they have the day off from January 1 to January 6—six days in a row.
International Women's Day in March 2025
Those living in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania actually have an extra holiday: International Women's Day on March 8. But in 2025, people there are unlucky because it falls on a Saturday—so the holiday is useless when planning a vacation around the bridge days.
Easter in April 2025
While there aren't traditionally any long weekends around Easter—Good Friday and Easter Monday, as the name suggests, fall on the days immediately before and after the weekend—you can still use the holidays to plan a long vacation. Here's how:
- Submit vacation request: April 14 to 17
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 10 (April 12 to 21, 2025)
Additional tip: Ten days of vacation around Easter aren't enough for you; you want more than two weeks off? That's possible. You won't be using your vacation days quite as efficiently as with the solution we just suggested. But you can, of course, request vacation during both periods. Then you'll have invested eight days of vacation and will receive 16 consecutive days off, from April 12 to 27, 2025.
Labor Day in May 2025
There are two holidays in May: The first is Labor Day (May 1st). It's a Thursday in 2025—making it a classic bridge day. Here's how to make the most of your free time:
- Submit vacation requests: April 28-30 and May 2
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 9 (April 26 to May 4)
Ascension Day in May 2025
Ascension Day also falls on a Thursday; in 2025, it will be May 29. Here's how to apply for leave around the end of the holy month:
- Submit vacation requests: May 26-28 and 30
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 9 (May 24 to June 1)
Pentecost in June 2025
You already have three days off on Whitsun because Whit Monday, as always, falls on a Monday. That means a short vacation from Saturday, June 7, to Monday, June 9. Want more? Then you'll have to invest a few more vacation days.
Apply for leave for Pentecost 2025:
- Submit vacation request: June 10 to 13
- Vacation days: 4
- Free days: 9 (7 to 15 June)
Corpus Christi in June 2025
Pentecost is followed by Corpus Christi – at least in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland, this is a public holiday. Employees there can treat themselves to an additional long weekend. Corpus Christi falls on June 19th in 2025 and, as always, on a Thursday – a classic bridge day!
Apply for leave for Corpus Christi 2025:
- Submit vacation requests: June 16-18 and 20
- Vacation days: 4
- Free days: 9 (June 14 to 22)
Assumption of Mary in August 2025
Do you live in Bavaria or Saarland? Then you're in luck and get a free day off with the Assumption of Mary holiday on August 15th. In 2025, it falls on a Friday, so it's not a bridge day. You can still use it for vacation planning.
Apply for leave for the Assumption of Mary 2025:
- Submit vacation request: August 11 to 14
- Vacation days: 4
- Free days: 9 (9 to 17 August)
Augsburg residents have an extra portion of luck: They will celebrate the Augsburg Peace Festival on August 8, 2025, and have an extra day off on that Friday.
World Children's Day in September 2025
Thuringia celebrates World Children's Day on September 20th – it has been a public holiday in the state since 2019. However, in 2025, employees are out of luck because it falls on a Saturday, making it impossible to plan vacations.
German Unity Day in October 2025
All German states benefit from German Unity Day, which falls on a Friday in 2025. Here's the most effective way to request vacation time around the holiday:
- Submit vacation request: September 29 to October 2
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 9 (September 27 to October 5)
Reformation Day in October 2025
Almost half of the German states miss out on Reformation Day. It's not a public holiday everywhere. People in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia can celebrate. Here's how to apply for your leave most effectively:
- Submit vacation request: October 27 to 30
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 9 (October 25 to November 2)
All Saints' Day in November 2025
Those federal states that do not celebrate Reformation Day have a public holiday on All Saints' Day. This applies to Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland.
But in 2025, employees will be left out in the cold, because All Saints' Day falls on a Saturday and cannot be used to plan vacation.
Day of Repentance and Prayer in November 2025
Those living in Saxony also have the Day of Repentance and Prayer on November 19 as a public holiday. It falls on a Wednesday in 2025. Those who use four vacation days have nine days off:
- Submit vacation requests: November 17 and 18 and November 20 and 21
- Vacation days: 4
- Holidays: 9 (November 15 to 23)
Christmas and New Year's Eve 2025
In 2025, Christmas Day will fall on a Thursday and Christmas Day on a Friday, allowing employees to get a lot of free time with just a few days of vacation.
- Submit vacation requests: December 22-24 and December 29-31
- Vacation days: 6
- days off: 13 (December 20, 2025 to January 1, 2026)
Bridge days, also known as window days, occur between a public holiday and a weekend. They offer the opportunity to bridge a long weekend without a workday in between. Anyone who submits their vacation request to their employer on a bridge day – Monday or Friday – receives four days off in a row.
Every year, there is a legally fixed bridge day: the Friday after Ascension Day. This holiday always falls on a Thursday. Corpus Christi also always falls on a Thursday, but it is only a public holiday in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland.
In addition to the national holidays, there are regional holidays. Employees in some states are luckier than others. Here's the ranking of the states:
- 14 Holidays: Bavaria
- 12 public holidays: Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Saarland
- 11 public holidays: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia
- 10 public holidays: Berlin, Bremen, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein
Bavaria will be the leader in 2025 when it comes to optimal vacation planning around the bridge days. Anyone who works here can enjoy a whopping 69 days off with 28 vacation days submitted! Don't believe it? Here's the guide:
In January, take six days of vacation (January 2nd, 3rd, 7th–10th) and have twelve days off. In April, take four days of vacation from the 14th to the 17th of the month and enjoy ten days off. In the month of May, employees take two days of vacation, namely for May 2nd and 30th, and have eight days off. Five days of vacation from June 10th to 13th and on June 20th become 13 days off. In August, employees take four days of vacation, from the 11th to the 14th of the month, and have nine days off. In autumn, four days of vacation from September 29th to October 2nd become nine days off. And in December, employees take vacation from December 29th to 31st and have eight days off in a row.
What do travelers need to know right now? You can find all the important news for your vacation at reisereporter .
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