Plan your 2025 vacation smartly and maximize your days off! By making strategic use of holidays and bridging days, you can make the most of your valuable free time. In 2025, there are excellent opportunities, especially around Easter and Christmas time, to enjoy a long break with just a few vacation days. Find out when you should plan your vacation days wisely in order to have up to sixteen days off in a row.
These are the bridging days in 2025
Use the bridging days to plan your 2025 vacation to cleverly extend your days off! With clever planning, you can more than double your days off and get the most out of your vacation. Depending on the federal state, there are numerous public holidays available, between which you can optimally use bridging days. Easter and Christmas in particular offer you the opportunity to take up to 16 days off in a row with just a few vacation days:
Public holidays 2025
More free time with less vacation: The best bridging days for 24-day vacation entitlement
With 24 vacation days a year, you can more than double your days off in 2025 through clever use of public holidays and bridging days — provided that you work from Monday to Friday and have the weekends off anyway.
This is how your vacation planning could be for 55 days off appearance:
With this planning, you take advantage of 23 vacation days and get a total of 55 days off. This leaves you with 1 free day of vacation.
Vacation planning 2025: These differences apply per federal state
Depending on which federal state you live or work in, additional holidays and bridging days can significantly influence your planning. Take advantage of regional features to use your vacation days more effectively and get more out of your free time. Here is an overview of regional holidays for each federal state:
These long weekends are worth it in 2025!
For varied vacation planning in 2025, there are not only long vacation periods, but also numerous long weekends. These are perfect for short trips, wellness weekends or city breaks. With just a few vacation days, you can extend the weekends and get the most out of your free time. We have listed all long weekends for you here so that you can optimally plan your plans:
Tool for perfect vacation planning
Vacation planning can often be a challenge, but with the right software, manually completed vacation applications have finally come to an end. With the ZEP module Absences & overtime Keep an eye on the optimal times for your vacation. And: By adding the holiday calendar to the master data, you are guaranteed not to miss any important data. In ZEP, you can also see how much of the unused vacation from the previous year is left. This way, you won't lose any vacation days. And how do you apply for days off?
It's simple: digital! In ZEP, click on the day you would like to have off, enter the reason for your absenteeism (in this case paid vacation) and the vacation request is sent digitally to the person responsible for the approval. There is no need to fill out manual vacation applications, the paperwork has come to an end and you can get your well-deserved vacation faster!
Digital support for planning your vacation in 2025
Software such as ZEP can be very helpful to optimize your 2025 vacation planning and not miss any of the appointments mentioned above. Because: You can easily store the public holidays that are relevant for your federal state in the master data so that you always have an overview of when the best time for vacation is. This setting is per company department and employees are possible individually — depending on where the employee is based or what regulations you have in your company.
In addition, ZEP can also help: Remaining vacation View from the previous year so you don't forget it. After all, as already described, our software makes it easy to submit vacation applications, which involves the entire process of your Vacation planning significantly facilitated.
Conclusion
With well-thought-out vacation planning for 2025, you can maximize your free time and enjoy up to 55 days off with just 24 vacation days. Especially around holidays such as Easter and Christmas, there are great opportunities to extend your time off. Pay attention to the specific public holidays in your federal state to make your planning even more targeted.
You can also use the many long weekends for relaxing short trips or simply to relax. And make planning easier with digital tools like ZEP, which help you never miss a day off and manage your vacation requests efficiently. With these tips, you can ensure that you get the most out of your vacation and make the most of your free time in 2025.
FAQs
Do I have to plan my vacation for the whole year?
It is not absolutely necessary to plan your vacation in advance for the entire year. However, planning early can help secure the best periods for your time off and ensure that you can make the most of your desired bridging days and holidays. In addition: The earlier you plan your vacation planning, the better your employer can do resource planning without disadvantaging a party in the end.
Can My Employer Reject My Vacation Request on a Bridging Day?
Yes, your employer can reject a vacation request on a bridging day if this is necessary for operational reasons or a large number of vacation requests. However, he must do the general Labor law requirements and take into account fair reasons.
