Want to make the most out of your paid leave in 2025? Here’s how to use public holidays in Switzerland to maximise your time off.
Workers in Switzerland are entitled to at least 20 days of paid vacation per year, regardless of whether they work part-time or full-time. Most firms tend to go above the minimum, offering between 20 to 30 days of paid leave a year.
One of the best ways to make sure you are given the longest and most relaxing vacations possible is to strategically take time off around public holidays. It’s important to make the most of your days, as holidays are an integral part of maintaining your health and well-being.
These are the public holidays which are acknowledged in most cantons in Switzerland (holidays with an asterisk are those which are recognised in all cantons):
With each of the 26 Swiss cantons having its own selection of statutory holidays - Ticino offers up to 15 paid holiday days a year! - it’s also worth considering tailoring your paid leave around these days too.
For Switzerland, Easter is the first long holiday since Christmas, and as it is much later in 2025 than in 2024, we will be well deserving of a break by the time it arrives. Luckily for workers across most of the alpine nation, Good Friday is a holiday everywhere except Ticino and Valais, while Easter Monday is only a day of labour in Valais.
With Good Friday falling on April 18 and Easter Monday on April 21, take off Monday, April 14 to Thursday, April 17 (four days annual leave) for a 10-day holiday running from April 12 to 21. The same length of holiday can be achieved by taking four days off after Easter Monday (April 18 to 27), and if combined you could get 16 days off with just eight bridging days (April 12 to 27).
If you live in one of the nine cantons (Zurich, Ticino, Thurgau, Solothurn, Schaffhausen, Neuchatel, Jura, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land) which has Labour Day off, you’ll be able to take an indulgent long weekend with just one bridging day. As May 1 lands on a Thursday in 2025, simply take May 2 off and plan yourself a four-day weekend, or take April 28 to 30 and May 2 off for a nine-day holiday.
The same trick can be done for Ascension Day on May 29, with the universal Swiss holiday also falling on a Thursday. Take May 30 off to enjoy a four-day weekend, or branch out by taking May 26 to 28 and May 30, off, creating a nine-day holiday with just four days of paid leave.
June 9, 2025 will be a holiday in the vast majority of cantons thanks to Whit Monday, while the residents of 14 predominantly Catholic cantons will be given another day off on June 19 thanks to Corpus Christi. Simply combine Whit Monday with four days of paid leave (June 10 to 13) to create a nine-day break (June 7 to 15). The same can be done for Corpus Christi (June 14 to 22).
If you are one of the lucky ones who have both Whit Monday and Corpus Christi off, you can combine the two with eight bridging days (June 10 to 13, June 16 to 18 and June 20) to create a 16-day break (June 7 to 22), perfect for a long getaway.
The same ploy of a nine-day vacation for four days of leave can also be pulled during Swiss National Day on August 1, which in 2025 lands on a Friday. Simply take the preceding week off for nine days of holiday (July 26 to August 3).
Finally, 2025 is set to be the last year for a while when Christmas will fall favourably for holidays. Christmas Day (December 25) and St Stephen’s Day (December 26) will fall on Thursday and Friday respectively, with the former being a holiday across Switzerland and the latter being a day off in all German-speaking cantons.
Take off December 22 to 24, the Monday to Wednesday before Christmas, for a six to nine-day holiday for just three days of annual leave.
New Year’s Day also falls on Thursday, so book off Friday, January 2, 2026, for an extra long weekend to ring in 2026.