Bridging days 2024 - longer off with a few days' holiday

First things first: this year, the public holidays are so well placed that only one of them actually falls on a weekend in the whole year. This means that there are plenty of opportunities to use the 2024 bridging days for a great holiday. Let's start with the very first week of January!

There are two public holidays in the first week of January - New Year's Day and Epiphany. The latter is a public holiday on 6 January, at least in Bavaria, Baden Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt - but falls on a Saturday this year anyway. However, you can grab a campervan in the first week of the new year and head to the mountains for a long weekend of hiking, skiing or relaxing.

If you're looking for inspiration for winter camping trips in Germany, read our blog article about New Year's Eve camping. All the information we provide here is of course still valid the following week. There are just no more New Year's Eve parties.

Short and sweet: In Berlin (and unfortunately only there), 8 March is free - International Women's Day is a public holiday. And that's a Friday in 2024 - so all Berliners enjoy a long weekend anyway, but can extend it further with a day or two off.

Good Friday and Easter Monday provide two bridging days that extend the weekend forwards and backwards. This means you can have ten days off in a row with taking four holidays - or you can take the entire Easter period off so that you can travel for 16 days in a row with eight days' holiday.

Good to know: Our automatic long-term discounts apply from eight days, so there's always a 5% discount - without any code. And if you want to travel for 16 days, we'll automatically give you 10% (from 15 days)!

And what's the best thing to do during this time? The great thing is that the period from the end of March/beginning of April is very versatile. Whether it's Austria for hiking in the mountains or on to South Tyrol for a sporty skiing holiday - or you can make the most of the time (and the free kilometres) and head for the sun. For example to Sardinia or to Spain.

If that's still a little too early in the year for you, you have a very similar opportunity to utilise your 2024 bridging days at the beginning of May. Labour Day on 1 May is on a Wednesday, which means you can use two days off for a five-day trip or four days off for a full week off.

Or you can combine this with Ascension Day on 9 May - then you have a total of 16 days off in a row with eight days of holiday used. And May is almost calling out for sunshine. A trip to southern countries is a good idea here - perhaps even as far as Portugal?

And in May 2024, it continues straight away - with Whitsun on 20 May and Corpus Christi on 30 May (reminder: Corpus Christi is a public holiday in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland). This means that the situation is exactly the same again at the end of May: with the use of four to eight bridging days, ten to 16 days off are possible.

Our tips for planning your trip: It's actually getting warmer everywhere here - but the further north you go, the more unlucky you can be with the weather. We think May 2024 is a great time to visit underrated countries such as Albania - in our experience, there will also be more and more tourists there in the coming years.

Looks pretty good so far, doesn't it? Right! However, after months full of well-located bridging days, June and July are completely free of public holidays. If you want to go on holiday here, you can't benefit from existing public holidays.

The Saarland and all Catholic communities in Bavaria can rejoice, as Assumption Day on 15 August is a public holiday for them. This year it falls on a Thursday - with a Friday off, you can enjoy a long weekend of four days. Or you can take the whole week off with four days of leave.

Thuringia is taking 20 September off for World Children's Day. And that works out really well, because in 2024 this day is a Friday. So everyone enjoys a long weekend - whether and how you want to extend it is up to you.

Our tip: August and September are often particularly beautiful here in Germany - you don't have to travel that far. Planning your holiday can therefore be simplified here: Simply enjoy your free time on the long weekends and set off. The We have also listed the most beautiful spots in Germany in a blog article.

On 3 October, the Day of German Unity, the whole of Germany will have a day off. Because a Thursday is taken off, the following Friday can be taken as a bridge day for four days off. And at the end of the month, all employees in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein have Thursday 31 October off - so it's the same game here. Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland have their public holiday on 1 November: a work-free Friday.

Those who work in Saxony can still look forward to the Buß- und Bettag on Wednesday, 20 November.

The Christmas period is once again a good time for bridging days in 2024. Everyone will have a total of three public holidays at Christmas and New Year. Because the Christmas holidays on 25/26 December fall on Wednesday and Thursday, you can enjoy nine days off with just taking three days off. And if you want to take advantage of even more, combine this with 1 January in 2025, which falls on a Wednesday. This will give you 16 consecutive days off with seven bridging days.

Our tip for holiday planning: If you want to experience something really special around Christmas and New Year, you should definitely read our article on New Year's Eve camping. Depending on your preferences and destination, you can go hiking, skiing or tobogganing in winter - and then return to your cosy, warm camper in the evening.

But that's really it. So 2024 offers plenty of bridging days. Get the most out of it!