Dutch Public Holidays & Time Off 2026

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What are the Dutch public holidays in 2026?

The Dutch public holidays in 2026 are New Year’s Day (1 January), Good Friday (3 April), Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (5 and 6 April), King’s Day (27 April), Liberation Day (5 May), Ascension Day (14 May), Whit Sunday and Whit Monday (24 and 25 May) and Christmas Day and Boxing Day (25 and 26 December). That is the official list of eleven published by Rijksoverheid (checked 28 September 2026). Rijksoverheid also states that no law gives employees a right to a day off on these days: your employment contract or cao decides.

Here they are with their dates and a short note on what they mean in practice.

Nieuwjaarsdag — 1 January 2026 (Thursday)

New Year’s Day. Everyone is off. The country is extremely quiet. Most Dutch people spent the night watching fireworks, and Nieuwjaarsdag is traditionally spent on the sofa recovering. Because it falls on a Thursday in 2026, you can take Friday 2 January as a vacation day and get a four-day weekend — though many employers simply close the office for the full first week of January.

Goede Vrijdag — 3 April 2026 (Friday)

Good Friday. This is one the British among you will recognise. Rijksoverheid lists Good Friday among the official public holidays, but it is not one of the days named in the General Time Limits Act (Algemene termijnenwet), and as with every Dutch public holiday there is no legal right to the day off. Check your employment contract or cao, because practice varies by company and sector.

Eerste Paasdag — 5 April 2026 (Sunday)

Easter Sunday. Falls on a Sunday, so no extra day off unless your employer makes a specific arrangement.

Tweede Paasdag — 6 April 2026 (Monday)

Easter Monday. This is the official public holiday. Dutch Easter involves a lot of egg-hunting in gardens, large family lunches, and the word “gezellig” being used approximately four hundred times. Retail is open in most municipalities; offices are closed.

Koningsdag — 27 April 2026 (Monday)

King’s Day. One of the most recognisable days in the Dutch calendar — the entire country turns orange. Amsterdam becomes a floating flea market. If you have not yet experienced Koningsdag, read the full guide before you go. Everyone is off. Everything is orange. It is genuinely one of the best public holidays in Europe.

Koningsdag normally falls on 27 April (King Willem-Alexander’s birthday), but when that falls on a Sunday, it moves to 26 April. In 2026, 27 April is a Monday, so you get a genuine long weekend.

Bevrijdingsdag — 5 May 2026 (Tuesday)

Liberation Day, marking the end of the German occupation in 1945. This one confuses many expats. Bevrijdingsdag is an official public holiday, but Rijksoverheid states that not everyone is off: as with every Dutch public holiday, there is no statutory right to the day, and your contract or cao decides. Some cao’s give 5 May off only in lustrum years (every five years); 2025 was the 80th anniversary, so in 2026 whether you get Bevrijdingsdag off depends on your employer and your sector. Schools are usually closed. Check your contract or ask HR.

Hemelvaartsdag — 14 May 2026 (Thursday)

Ascension Day, 39 days after Easter. A Christian holiday celebrating Jesus ascending to heaven. In practice, it is the holiday that Dutch people most commonly use to create a long weekend via a brugdag. Because it always falls on a Thursday, taking Friday 15 May off gives you a four-day weekend. More on this below.

Eerste Pinksterdag — 24 May 2026 (Sunday)

Whit Sunday (Pentecost). Falls on a Sunday in 2026, so no bonus day off.

Tweede Pinksterdag — 25 May 2026 (Monday)

Whit Monday. An official public holiday. By late May, this creates a pleasant rhythm: Hemelvaart on Thursday 14 May, then Tweede Pinksterdag on Monday 25 May. A well-placed brugdag or two and you can have a very leisurely end to May.

Eerste Kerstdag — 25 December 2026 (Friday)

First Christmas Day. Falls on a Friday in 2026, which means the Christmas weekend is naturally long. Dutch Christmas (Eerste and Tweede Kerstdag) is a family affair — quieter than the British version, more food, less commercial frenzy. Most people take the week between Christmas and New Year as vacation.

Tweede Kerstdag — 26 December 2026 (Saturday)

Second Christmas Day. Falls on a Saturday in 2026, so no automatic bonus day. Employers sometimes compensate with an extra day, but this varies.

How Vacation Days Work in the Netherlands

The Legal Minimum

Dutch law (the Burgerlijk Wetboek) sets the minimum vacation entitlement at four times the weekly working hours per year. For someone working five days a week, that is 20 days. For someone working four days a week, that is 16 days. The law is clear and the minimum is enforced.

In practice, the legal minimum is almost never what people actually receive. Most collective labour agreements (CAO’s) and individual employment contracts offer more:

• 20 days: legal minimum, seen in some small companies and short-term contracts
• 25 days: by far the most common standard in the Netherlands
• 26-28 days: typical in larger corporates, public sector, and roles requiring specialist skills
• 30+ days: some companies offer this as a benefit, particularly in tech and finance

When you are negotiating your salary, vacation days are a legitimate and common point of negotiation. If you cannot move the salary, ask for an extra week of vacation. Dutch employers are often more flexible on days off than on base pay.

Wettelijke vs Bovenwettelijke Days

This distinction matters a lot for what happens to your unused days:

Wettelijke vakantiedagen are the legal minimum 20 days. These expire six months after the end of the calendar year — so days accrued in 2026 must be used by 1 July 2027. Your employer is required to remind you to use them before they lapse.

Bovenwettelijke vakantiedagen are anything above the legal minimum. These have a much longer expiry window — typically five years — and the rules are more flexible. Many Dutch employees carry a small surplus of bovenwettelijke days into the new year without concern.

Understanding this distinction matters when your employment ends. When you leave a job, your employer must pay out any unused vacation days. A check of your loonstrook (pay slip) will usually show your current vacation day balance.

Part-Time Calculations

The Netherlands has the highest rate of part-time work in Europe, so understanding the calculation for part-timers is genuinely important here.

The formula is: (number of days worked per week × 4) = annual vacation entitlement

Most contracts express the entitlement in hours rather than days for part-timers, to avoid confusion when individual working days are of different lengths. If you work Thursday and Friday as 8-hour days and Wednesday as a 4-hour day, your entitlement is calculated in total hours per year.

Public holidays work slightly differently for part-timers. If a public holiday falls on a day you do not normally work, you do not automatically get a different day off instead. Some employers offer compensation; many do not. It is worth raising this in your contract negotiation, especially if you work a compressed week.

Vakantiegeld: The May Bonus You Should Not Spend All at Once

Vakantiegeld (holiday allowance) is one of the first things that surprises expats positively about working in the Netherlands. Every May, you receive a lump-sum payment of at least 8% of your gross annual salary.

On a gross salary of EUR 3,500 per month:

• Annual gross: EUR 42,000
• Vakantiegeld: 8% × EUR 42,000 = EUR 3,360 gross

After tax, this is typically around EUR 2,000–2,400 net, depending on your bracket. It is taxed at your normal income tax rate — there is no reduced rate for vakantiegeld.

A few practical notes:

When it is paid: Most employers pay vakantiegeld in May, typically in the last week. Some pay it in June. Your contract specifies the month. You will see it listed separately on your loonstrook.

What it is for: Officially, it is meant to help you afford a summer holiday. In practice, Dutch people use it for everything from actual holidays to paying off debts, renovating the bathroom, or building savings. There is no restriction on what you do with it.

If you leave mid-year: You receive a pro-rated amount. If you started in September and your employer pays vakantiegeld in May, you get 8/12ths of the annual amount (for the eight months September–April).

Some employers spread it: Rather than a May lump sum, some employers include a 1/12th vakantiegeld amount in each monthly salary. This is less common but legal. Check your contract to know which arrangement applies to you.

Vakantiegeld is separate from your vacation days. Receiving it does not mean you have taken any time off — it is an additional financial payment on top of your paid leave.

Brugdagen: The Dutch Art of the Four-Day Weekend

If there is one time-off concept that Dutch people have genuinely mastered, it is the brugdag (plural: brugdagen).

A brugdag (literally “bridge day”) is a working day that sits between a public holiday and the weekend, which employees take off — effectively “bridging” the gap into a long weekend. Because Hemelvaartsdag always falls on a Thursday, the Friday after it (in 2026: 15 May) is the classic brugdag candidate.

The key 2026 brugdag opportunities:

Nieuwjaarsdag (Thursday 1 January): Take Friday 2 January off → four-day weekend from 1–4 January

Hemelvaartsdag (Thursday 14 May): Take Friday 15 May off → four-day weekend from 14–17 May

Bevrijdingsdag (Tuesday 5 May, if you have it off): Take Monday 4 May off → five-day weekend from 2–7 May (though Bevrijdingsdag status varies by employer in 2026)

Christmas (Friday 25 December): Christmas naturally extends into a long weekend, and many take the week between Christmas and New Year as vacation.

How brugdagen work in practice: In some companies, brugdagen are pre-planned and included in the company calendar — you simply have them off without using a vacation day. In other companies, you need to use a vacation day to take the brugdag. Ask HR or your manager at the start of the year: “Zijn de brugdagen dit jaar inclusief?” (Are the bridge days included this year?)

Planning your brugdagen is a real skill. If you time your 25 vacation days well around the 2026 public holiday calendar, you can turn those 25 days into significantly more actual time off — sometimes getting 35+ days away from the office.

Bouwvak: The August Construction Holiday

Bouwvak is not a public holiday, but it affects the Netherlands so visibly that expats need to know about it.

Bouwvak is the annual summer shutdown in the construction industry, traditionally three weeks in July and August. In 2026, the national Bouwvak period is:

• Noord-Nederland: 20 July – 7 August
• Midden-Nederland: 27 July – 14 August
• Zuid-Nederland: 3 August – 21 August

During Bouwvak, construction sites go quiet, hardware stores run skeleton staff, and — this is the part that affects everyone — major roads are temporarily closed for maintenance. The Dutch government traditionally uses Bouwvak to resurface motorways and do infrastructure work that would otherwise cause chaos.

If you are driving anywhere in August, check the ANWB road closure calendar. The A10, A2, and various other major arteries go through resurfacing and closure cycles during this period.

For office workers, Bouwvak is not a mandatory holiday. But the de facto result is that August is the Dutch summer holiday month: schools are off, many Dutch families take two to three weeks off, and offices operate with skeleton staff. New projects rarely launch in August; major decisions are quietly deferred until September. If you need something approved by a Dutch colleague in August, set expectations accordingly.

Comparing with Other Countries

To understand how the Netherlands fits in globally, here is an honest comparison.

A few things stand out from this comparison:

The US baseline is startling. There is no federal law mandating paid vacation in the United States. None. US employers are completely free to offer zero paid leave. The average US worker gets about 10 days after their first year. Coming from an American background, the Dutch system will feel like a revelation.

The UK’s 28 days include bank holidays. So while the headline number looks high, UK workers are often “using” 8 of those days on bank holidays. The Dutch 25 days are on top of the 11 public holidays.

Germany’s minimum is the same as the Netherlands, but the absence of vakantiegeld means the financial cushion is not there. Dutch employees consistently report higher satisfaction with their time-off packages than their German counterparts in surveys.

France’s 25-day minimum beats the Netherlands on paper — but France has more restrictive rules around when you must take holidays, and the lack of a vakantiegeld equivalent means less financial flexibility.

The Dutch package — 25 days + 11 public holidays + 8% vakantiegeld — is genuinely one of the stronger setups in Europe. When you add the brugdag culture and the widespread acceptance of part-time work, the work-life balance on offer here is difficult to match.

Understanding Dutch work culture more broadly will help you make the most of these benefits without feeling out of step with your Dutch colleagues. Beyond public holidays, there are other forms of leave worth understanding — including maternity and paternity leave, which interact with the holiday entitlement system in specific ways. The maternity and paternity leave guide for the Netherlands covers how parental leave works alongside your regular vacation days and what happens to vakantiegeld accrual during leave periods.

How to Plan Your Time Off Strategically

Here is a practical framework for making the most of your 2026 vacation days.

Step 1: Map the public holidays first

Start with the eleven public holidays and mark which ones create natural long weekend opportunities with a brugdag:

• 1 Jan (Thu): Take 2 Jan → 4-day weekend ✓
• 14 May (Thu): Take 15 May → 4-day weekend ✓
• 25 Dec (Fri): Natural long weekend ✓

Step 2: Book the summer block early

Dutch companies often have informal rules about vacation in August: many operate on first-come, first-served for summer bookings. Some have explicit CAO rules about how many people from a team can be away simultaneously. Book your August vacation early — January is not too early for a popular August week.

Step 3: Use the Kerstvakantie week efficiently

The week between Christmas and New Year (28 December to 1 January in 2026) typically costs you three vacation days (Monday 28, Tuesday 29, Wednesday 30 December) since 25 and 26 December are public holidays and 1 January is Nieuwjaarsdag. This is excellent value: three vacation days for a full week off.

Step 4: Track your balance quarterly

Dutch employers are legally required to show your vacation balance on your pay slip or provide it on request. Check it quarterly so you are not facing a “use it or lose it” scramble in December for your wettelijke days.

Step 5: Understand your company’s brugdag policy

Ask at the start of the year: which brugdagen are the company giving for free, and which require a vacation day? Some companies publish a full “company calendar” in January showing all official closures. Get this document and plan around it.

Public Holidays and Dutch Culture: What You Are Actually Celebrating

For expats, the public holidays are not just days off — they are windows into Dutch history, religion, and identity. A brief context for each:

Pasen (Easter) matters here because the Netherlands is nominally Christian in its holiday calendar, even as it is one of the most secular countries in Europe. You do not need to be religious to enjoy Pasen, but understanding that Goede Vrijdag and Tweede Paasdag are rooted in the Christian calendar explains why some shops and offices have stricter closures on these days than on, say, Hemelvaartsdag.

Koningsdag is genuinely Dutch in a way no other holiday is. It celebrates the monarch, yes, but more fundamentally it celebrates Dutch identity: pragmatic, anti-pompous, orange-clad, economically minded (the free market on boats and pavements), and deeply communal. If you want to understand the Dutch, Koningsdag is the best single day for it. The Dutch holidays and traditions guide covers all the cultural context you need.

Bevrijdingsdag carries real historical weight. The Netherlands was occupied from May 1940 to May 1945, and the liberation on 5 May 1945 is remembered with genuine gravity. The evening before, 4 May, is Dodenherdenking — a two-minute silence at 20:00 observed across the entire country, including on television, radio, and in public spaces. It is not a public holiday but it is observed with more solemnity than many official ones.

Sinterklaas, while not a public holiday, falls on 5 December and is in many ways the most distinctly Dutch celebration of the year. If you are in the Netherlands with children, or simply want to understand why your Dutch colleagues disappear into a flurry of rhyme-writing and gift-wrapping in early December, the Sinterklaas guide for expats is worth reading.

Kerst (Christmas) in the Netherlands is family-focused and relatively low-key compared to the UK or US. There are no Boxing Day sales in the Dutch sense. Second Christmas Day (26 December) is traditionally for visits to extended family, and the mood is relaxed. Many Dutch families have already done their major gifting on 5 December (Sinterklaas), so Christmas is less commercially intense.

Practical Tips for Expats Specifically

A few things that catch expats out specifically — not Dutch workers who grew up in the system:

Your contract may list fewer holidays than your colleagues get. If you are on an international or expat contract rather than a standard Dutch CAO contract, your vacation entitlement might be lower. Check the terms and, if necessary, request alignment with the standard Dutch package when you negotiate your employment contract.

The 8% vakantiegeld is taxed. Some expats are surprised that the May payment is not a net bonus — it is taxed at your normal marginal rate. Build this expectation into your annual budget planning.

The 30% ruling and time off are separate. If you are on the 30% ruling (the Dutch tax facility for highly skilled migrants), this affects your tax but has no impact on your vacation day entitlement or vakantiegeld calculation. The 8% is applied to your full gross salary.

You accrue days during sick leave. This is worth knowing. If you are long-term sick in the Netherlands, you continue to accrue vacation days at the normal rate. Days accrued during illness are treated the same as any other vacation days.

Unused days must be paid out when you leave. If you resign or are made redundant with unused vacation days remaining, your employer must pay these out at your current daily salary rate. This is enforceable. Keep a record of your balance throughout the year.

Dutch holiday culture values actual disconnection. In some countries, taking two weeks off means you are still reachable by email. In the Netherlands, an “afwezig” (out of office) message genuinely means out of office. Do not email Dutch colleagues during their vacation and expect a reply. They will not reply, and they will not feel bad about it. This is healthy — embrace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many public holidays are there in the Netherlands in 2026?

There are 11 official public holidays in 2026, counting both days of Easter, Whitsun and Christmas, according to Rijksoverheid. No Dutch law gives employees a right to a day off on those days; your employment contract or cao decides. Bevrijdingsdag (Liberation Day, 5 May) is the one that differs most between employers, because some cao’s only give it off in lustrum years, and 2025 was the last of those.

How many vacation days are Dutch employees entitled to by law?

The legal minimum in the Netherlands is 20 vacation days per year, based on a 5-day working week (4 times the weekly working hours). In practice, most companies offer 25 days, and many offer 26-30 days. Part-time workers receive a proportional amount based on their contracted hours.

What is vakantiegeld and when is it paid?

Vakantiegeld (holiday allowance) is a mandatory 8% bonus on top of your gross annual salary, paid out as a lump sum each May. On a gross salary of EUR 4,000 per month, that is roughly EUR 3,840 gross in a single May payment. It is separate from your vacation days — it is extra money to help you pay for your holiday, not a substitute for paid leave.

What is a brugdag in the Netherlands?

A brugdag (bridge day) is a working day between a public holiday and the weekend that most Dutch employees take off, effectively creating a 4-day weekend. For example, if Hemelvaart (Ascension Day) falls on Thursday, many employers give employees Friday off as a brugdag too. Some companies include brugdagen automatically in the calendar; others require you to use a vacation day.

What happens to unused vacation days in the Netherlands?

Wettelijke vakantiedagen (statutory days — the legal 20) expire 6 months after the calendar year ends, so by 1 July of the following year. Bovenwettelijke vakantiedagen (extra days above the legal minimum) typically expire after 5 years. Unused days should be used, paid out at the end of your contract, or officially carried over — your employer cannot simply cancel them.

Do I get vacation days during probation in the Netherlands?

Yes. You accrue vacation days from your very first day of employment, including during the proeftijd (probation period). You typically cannot take vacation during probation without employer agreement, but you are building up your entitlement from day one.

The Bottom Line

The Dutch time-off system is well-constructed. The combination of 25 vacation days, 11 public holidays, 8% vakantiegeld, and a genuine cultural acceptance of taking time off properly puts the Netherlands near the top of Europe for employee wellbeing.

The things to get right as an expat:

1. Know your vacation day total and whether your brugdagen are included or cost extra days
2. Book summer vacation early — before February if possible
3. Track your wettelijke days and use them before 1 July of the following year
4. Expect your May salary to look unusually large — that is vakantiegeld, and it is taxed
5. Disconnect properly when you are on holiday — your Dutch colleagues will, and they will respect you more for doing the same

For a broader picture of working life here, the Dutch work culture guide covers everything from direct feedback to office borrels to the hierarchy-flattening culture that makes Dutch workplaces unlike most others in Europe.

The Netherlands does not do everything right. But public holidays and time off? They have figured this one out.

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