Planning Korean Annual Leave for 2026-2027
The heart of leave planning is the bridge holiday: spending just 1–3 days of leave on the weekdays wedged between public holidays and weekends to stretch a short break into a long one. This planner scans every such combination against the 2026 and 2027 Korean statutory holidays and ranks them by efficiency — total consecutive days off divided by the leave days spent.
2027 is unusually rich in bridge opportunities. The most efficient is Chuseok: taking either Monday September 13 (before the Sep 14–16 holiday) or Friday September 17 (after) yields 6 consecutive days off for a single leave day (6x), and taking both makes a 9-day break (Sat Sep 11 – Sun Sep 19). In early May, one day of leave on Tuesday May 4 bridges Labor Day (Sat May 1), its substitute (Mon May 3), and Children's Day (Wed May 5) into a 5-day break (5x). The Seollal break can reach 9 days (Sat Feb 6 – Sun Feb 14) with 3 leave days on Feb 10–12.
2026 has strong picks too. The Seollal break becomes 9 days (Sat Feb 14 – Sun Feb 22) with just 2 leave days on Feb 19–20 (4.5x); one day of leave on Friday January 2 gives 4 days around New Year; and Monday May 4 yields 4 days through Children's Day. With 3 leave days you can reach 9 days at Chuseok (Sep 21–23 → Sep 19–27) and across the National Foundation Day / Hangeul Day stretch in October (Oct 6–8 → Oct 3–11).
Enter your leave balance, add the recommendations you like, and the tool instantly shows "N leave days → M days off" plus your remaining balance. Overlapping picks are swapped automatically so nothing is double-counted. A year calendar highlights holidays (red) and your planned leave (blue), and you can copy the result as a link or text to share with your team or family. Data follows the official 2026-2027 monthly calendar reports; one-off holidays such as election days are excluded, and company policy may differ — use as a reference.