PublicHolidaysEU

Family Vacation Planner

Enter your country, region, and leave days. We cross-reference public holidays, bridge days, and school holiday dates to find the best weeks for your family trip — whether you want to travel with the kids off school or avoid the crowds.

✓ Based on official public and school holiday data✓ Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands✓ 2025, 2026 and 2027✓ Free — no account needed

Planning the Christmas break? See Christmas and New Year public holidays across Europe.

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How the family planner decides

This planner reads two calendars at once: the public holidays for your country, and the school-holiday dates for the region you pick. For every possible break it then checks whether the dates overlap a school holiday, and sorts the results around the preference you chose.

The preference is a ranking, not a filter. Ask for breaks during the school holidays and the overlapping windows come first, best value at the top — but the others are still listed below them, because a cheap break just outside term dates is often worth seeing. Ask to avoid the school holidays and the order simply reverses.

The region matters more than people expect. German school holidays are set by each Land and deliberately staggered; French dates run on three zones. Picking the wrong region can turn a quiet week into the busiest fortnight of the year, so the overlap is always tested against the exact start and end dates of the break being offered rather than against the month it falls in.

As with the other planners, the total is the count of distinct dates you would be away, not the sum of the windows, and breaks that have already finished are left out. Public holidays here are national ones only; school dates are regional and are the part most likely to be revised, so check your school's own calendar before booking anything you cannot change.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should we travel during the school holidays or just outside them?+
Travelling just outside term dates is cheaper and quieter, but only works if you can take the children out of school, which in most European countries needs permission and is often refused. The planner supports both: it ranks the windows that overlap school holidays first or last depending on which you ask for.
Why do the school holidays differ inside one country?+
Because they are set regionally and staggered on purpose, to spread demand on roads and resorts. Germany sets them per Land and France runs three zones, so two families in the same country can have holidays weeks apart.
Why is the total lower than the windows added up?+
Overlapping breaks share days and a day off is only counted once, so the headline is the number of distinct dates away from work.
How current are the school dates?+
They come from the published regional calendars, which are revised more often than public holidays are. Treat them as accurate for planning and confirm against your own school calendar before booking something non-refundable.

How does the Family Vacation Planner work?

The planner combines official public holiday data, bridge days, and school holiday calendars for your region. You choose whether to prioritise weeks that overlap school holidays — so the whole family can travel together — or weeks that avoid them, for quieter destinations and lower prices.

Which regions are supported?

Austria (9 Bundesländer), France (3 zones), Germany (16 states) and Netherlands (3 regions). More countries will be added as school holiday data becomes available.