How to Plan Your 2026 Vacation Calendar in 5 Minutes
A step-by-step walkthrough for building your optimal 2026 leave plan using bridge days, public holidays, and calendar export.
Step 1: Check Your Country's Holiday Calendar
Start by opening the 2026 planner page for your country on GetBridgeDay. You will see every national public holiday laid out on a visual calendar alongside weekends. This overview is the foundation for your entire leave plan — you need to see where holidays fall before deciding which vacation days to spend.
Pay attention to mid-week holidays. A holiday on a Wednesday creates potential bridges on both sides (Monday-Tuesday or Thursday-Friday). Holidays on Mondays or Fridays are nice but they already create long weekends without needing extra leave.
Step 2: Identify the Best Bridge Windows
The planner highlights suggested bridge days — the working days that, when combined with adjacent holidays and weekends, produce the longest breaks. Review these suggestions and decide which ones align with your personal schedule.
Not every bridge window will work for everyone. School holidays, team schedules, and personal preferences all play a role. The goal is not to take every possible bridge day but to find the three or four windows that give you the best return on your vacation days.
Step 3: Select and Customize Your Days
Click to select the bridge days you want. You can also add extra vacation days manually if you want a longer break in a particular period. The planner updates the total leave cost in real time so you can see exactly how many vacation days you are spending.
If you share planning responsibilities with a partner or family, this is where coordination happens. Open the planner on two devices, compare windows, and settle on dates that work for everyone before either of you submits leave requests.
Step 4: Export to Your Calendar
Once you are satisfied with your plan, export it as an ICS file. This standard format works with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, and virtually every other calendar application. The exported events include the dates you selected, so you have a clear record of your planned vacation days.
Import the ICS file, review the events in your calendar, and submit your leave request to your employer. The entire process — from first look to final export — takes about five minutes. Doing this in January or February gives you the best chance of securing your preferred dates before colleagues claim the same windows.
Ready to plan your bridge days?
Open the GetBridgeDay planner to find the best bridge-day opportunities for your country and year.
Open planner