Tips for employees
Vacation planning: This is how you can double your vacation days in the next year
On packed suitcases: If the vacation is well planned, you can stay away from home a little longer.
© Roland Weihrauch / Picture Alliance
Have you already planned your vacation for next year? With a little skill, you can even extend your holiday season a little. That’s the trick.
Employees in Germany have an average of 28.3 vacation days per year. But if you are clever, you can take off up to 63 days a year with a little foresighted vacation planning. This is possible through a combination of vacation days and public holidays. Employees in Bavaria can count themselves particularly lucky – there are 13 extra holidays in addition to the vacation days. But planning is also worthwhile for everyone else.
New Year
The first public holiday of the year on January 1st falls on a Saturday of all places. If you still want to start the New Year comfortably, you can take a total of nine days with four vacation days. However, this is only possible in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt. January 6th is the holy three kings there. Those who still have vacation days in these federal states at the turn of the year can even take 16 days off: from December 25 to January 9, 2022.
Easter
A relaxing short holiday at Easter is good – at least for those who don’t shy away from school holidays. This year, Good Friday falls on April 15th, Easter Monday on April 18th. If you plan well in advance, you can travel a total of 16 days with just eight days of vacation. This is possible because employees take four vacation days before Good Friday and four days after Easter Monday. If you don’t want to invest eight vacation days so early in the year, you can organize a total of ten days off in a row with four vacation days after Easter Monday.
Ascension Day and Pentecost
May 1st falls on a Sunday – at the end of the month, with a few cleverly placed vacation days, you can achieve just under one and a half weeks of free time. Ascension Day falls on May 26th, a Thursday. With four vacation days in the corresponding week, a total of nine days off can be achieved.
Whit Monday falls on June 6th this year. Here, too, a total of nine days of vacation can be achieved with just four vacation days. In Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, June 16 is also a public holiday – Corpus Christi. So if you use the week after Whit Monday in these federal states and also invest four days of vacation in the week of June 13, you have an impressive 16 days of vacation in front of your chest.
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Day of German unity
A public holiday in October also gives employees the chance to get more out of their vacation days. German Unity Day on October 3rd falls on a Monday in 2022. Those who take the rest of the week off can go on vacation a total of nine days with just four vacation days.
Christmas
Nine days of vacation with only four days of vacation will not be available again until the end of the year. Boxing Day on December 26, 2022 falls on a Monday. If you take the rest of the week off, you can lengthen the Christmas spirit a little and take a total of nine days off.