Bridge Days in United States 2026

What are bridge days?

Bridge days ("Brückentage" in German) are regular working days that fall between a public holiday and a weekend. By taking just one or two vacation days on these "bridge" days, you can turn a scattered holiday into a long stretch of consecutive days off.

For example, if a public holiday falls on a Thursday, the Friday between it and the weekend is a bridge day. Take that single Friday off and you get a four-day weekend — from Thursday through Sunday — using only one vacation day. That's a 4x return on your time off.

The concept is especially popular in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, where strategic use of Brückentage is practically a national sport. Our calculator finds all bridge day opportunities for your country and ranks them by efficiency — the ratio of total days off to vacation days spent.