Carmen
Travel editor at Reisedrop · 2026-09-19
2027 is a year with two faces: some public holidays annoyingly fall on weekends – but May brings one of the best bridge-day streaks in years. Plan now, request the right four days of leave, and you can turn them into up to nine consecutive days off. Here is the planner for Germany and Austria, including the dates not worth your leave.
Easter in late March: the classic opener
Easter Sunday 2027 falls on 28 March. With Good Friday (26 March) and Easter Monday (29 March) you get the usual four days off in a row – take the four working days before or after and you're at ten. Late March is perfect for city breaks to Lisbon, Seville or Rome: already warm, but still ahead of high-season prices.
May 2027 is pure gold: Ascension, Whitsun, Corpus Christi
Ascension Day falls on Thursday 6 May – a single bridge day (Friday 7 May) turns it into four days off. Just over a week later comes Whit Monday (17 May), and in Austria and the Catholic German states Corpus Christi on Thursday 27 May adds another: one more bridge day, another four days off. The supreme discipline: request the four days between Ascension and Whitsun (10–14 May, minus Whit Monday equals four days of leave) and you're away from 6 to 17 May almost continuously – twelve days for four days of leave.
Autumn: Austria's Fenstertag moment
Austria's National Day 2027 falls on Tuesday 26 October – the Monday before is the perfect Fenstertag: one day of leave, four days off. Right after comes All Saints' Day on Monday 1 November (a holiday in Austria and five German states) – a long weekend with no bridge day at all. Together that's a dream window for autumn sun on the Canaries or a short cruise from Mallorca.
The 2027 dates you can skip
1 May falls on a Saturday, German Unity Day (3 October) on a Sunday – both fizzle out without replacement. Christmas is awkward too: 25 December is a Saturday, the 26th a Sunday. The upside: for the days between the years you only need 27 to 29 December until New Year's Eve (a Friday) – New Year's Day 2028 then falls on a Saturday again. Better to plan your remaining leave for May.