the 2026 travel calendar is WILD and nobody is talking about it
okay so I did the math.
and I need everyone to stop what they are doing right now.
because 2026 is quietly one of the most generous years for travel hacking in recent memory and if you do not plan this out in the next few weeks you are going to spend another year watching other people's travel photos and wondering how they afford it.
spoiler: they do not afford it. they just know how the calendar falls.
first. the concept.
a bridge holiday — or a sandwich day, if you prefer your calendar metaphors food-based — is when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday.
take the Monday or Friday off.
suddenly your two-day weekend is a four or five-day escape and you only burned one day of PTO.
this is not a loophole. this is not cheating. this is reading a calendar like an adult who has decided to stop letting their HR department win.
the math that should make you cry a little
here is what 2026 looks like if you actually pay attention:
19 days of PTO.
strategically placed around public holidays.
= 48 days of potential travel.
I will say it again. forty. eight. days.
that is not a gap year. that is not quitting your job. that is just knowing which Mondays and Fridays to request off before your colleagues figure it out.
🐣 THE EASTER MEGA-BLOCK
this one is the crown jewel of 2026 and I need you to sit with it for a moment.
Easter 2026 lands like this:
Good Friday — April 3 (public holiday)
Easter Monday — April 6 (public holiday)
that is already a four-day weekend built into the calendar for free.
but here is where it gets interesting.
take Tuesday April 7, Wednesday April 8, and Thursday April 9 off — that is three days of PTO — and combined with the following weekend you have:
Friday April 3 → Sunday April 12
ten consecutive days off. four days of actual PTO used.
ten days. four days.
read that as many times as you need to.
🇺🇸 the american long weekend stack
if you are US-based, 2026 is stacking up beautifully:
Memorial Day — Monday May 25 already a three-day weekend. zero PTO required. take the Tuesday off and make it four. done.
Independence Day — Saturday July 4 falls on a Saturday which means Friday July 3 is your bridge day. one day of PTO. three-day weekend. go somewhere with good fireworks or go somewhere with no people at all. both are valid.
Thanksgiving — Thursday November 26 the classic. the original bridge holiday. take Friday November 27 off — which, let's be honest, nobody is working anyway — and you have a four-day weekend that with a little creativity becomes a genuinely meaningful trip.
Christmas — Friday December 25 falls on a Friday in 2026. Friday + Saturday + Sunday = three days free. take Monday December 28 off and you have four days leading directly into New Year's. the math on this one is almost too good.
🇬🇧 the UK stack
british people have been sleeping on this and I will not stand for it:
Good Friday April 3 + Easter Monday April 6 — bridge the middle three days and you have ten days for four days of leave. see above. same math. same magic.
Early May Bank Holiday — May 4 — falls on a Monday. already a three-day weekend. take the Tuesday off. four days. one PTO day.
Summer Bank Holiday — August 31 — Monday again. same play. take Tuesday September 1 off. last hurrah of summer, four days, one PTO.
Christmas + Boxing Day — December 25 and 26 — Friday and Saturday. add Monday December 28 off. that is a four-day block that bleeds straight into New Year's. plan accordingly.
the secret weapon for all of this
okay so here is the part where I tell you how I actually map all of this out before I start searching for flights.
because doing this in your head does not work. doing this in a Google Doc does not work. doing this on a random calendar website that loads three ads before you can see January does not work.
what actually works is HolidaysCalendar.net.
here is why I keep coming back to it specifically:
the dark mode is real. not an afterthought. not that slightly-grey-background thing some sites do and call it dark mode. actual dark mode that follows your device settings automatically. when you are hunting for cheap flights at 11pm with your screen brightness turned down, this matters more than you think.
the print styles are genuinely good. I know printing a calendar sounds extremely 2009 but hear me out — having a physical printed calendar on your wall or your vision board, with the bridge day windows highlighted in actual marker, is a completely different planning experience than staring at a screen. you see the whole year at once. you stop forgetting the windows you identified. you actually book the trips instead of just planning to plan them.
it covers 100+ countries. which matters because not everyone is planning around US or UK holidays. if you are coordinating travel with people in India, Japan, Brazil, Australia, or basically anywhere else, the holiday calendars are all there. same interface. same dark mode. same clean print output.
it goes multi-year. I have already looked at 2027. I am not sorry.
no login. no subscription. no newsletter popup blocking the calendar you came to see. just the calendar.
the full 2026 stack if you want to go all in
here is what strategic PTO usage looks like across the whole year: Window PTO Used Days Off Easter Mega-Block (Apr 3–12) 4 days 10 days Memorial Day stretch (May 23–26) 1 day 4 days July 4th weekend (Jul 3–5) 1 day 3 days Summer bridge week (pick one) 3 days 7 days Thanksgiving block (Nov 26–29) 1 day 4 days Christmas–New Year run (Dec 24–Jan 1) 4 days 9 days Total14 days37 days
add a few individual bridge days sprinkled through the year and you are comfortably at 48 days of travel time for 19 days of actual PTO.
this is legal. this is your right. use it.
the only thing left to do
go to holidayscalendar.net, select your country, pull up 2026, and download the PDF.
print it. pin it. highlight every bridge day opportunity in a colour that makes you feel something.
then open a flight search and start with the Easter window because April 3rd is closer than you think and the cheap seats go fast.
your colleagues will ask how you always seem to be travelling. you do not have to tell them.
but you could send them this post.
which window are you going for first? easter mega-block? christmas run? drop it below, I want to know what everyone is planning 👇
