How the optimizer scores trips

The efficiency score

Every trip is scored on one number: total days off divided by the PTO days you spend.

efficiency = total days ÷ max(PTO days, 1)

A 9-day break that costs 4 PTO days scores 2.25. A fully-free stretch (weekends and holidays only, no PTO) divides by 1, so a 3-day holiday weekend scores 3.00. Higher means more time off for each day you spend.

How trips are found

The optimizer considers every start date and every reasonable length across the year, skipping any trip that crosses the year boundary, lands on a blocked date, or spends more PTO than your budget. It then drops trips that another trip beats on both length and efficiency, and returns the survivors ranked by your chosen sort.

Worked example — Germany, Easter 2026

Good Friday (3 Apr) and Easter Monday (6 Apr) are public holidays, with the weekend between them.

• 3–6 Apr — 4 days, 0 PTO → efficiency 4.00.
• 2–6 Apr — add the Thursday: 5 days, 1 PTO → efficiency 5.00. Longer and higher, so it wins on both.
• 1–6 Apr — add the Wednesday too: 6 days, 2 PTO → efficiency 3.00. Longer but lower — offered when you sort by length.

Holidays on a weekend, and bridge days

A public holiday that falls on a weekend is effectively lost — it doesn't reduce the PTO a trip needs — and we flag it. Some countries instead observe a substitute holiday on the next working day; we use whichever your country actually observes. A bridge day is a single working day wedged between a holiday and a weekend: spending it as PTO turns a 3-day stretch into four or more, the highest-leverage day you can spend, and we surface it as a suggestion.

The annual planner

Given a whole-year PTO budget, the planner returns five year plans from the same candidate pool, each applying a different selection rule — best leverage, longest breaks, quarterly spread, even spread, or one big trip. The how-it-works guide explains each plan and budget mode.