Vacation countdown: how many days until vacation?

How many days until vacation?

This vacation countdown answers the question everyone starts asking around the middle of a long stretch at work or school: how long until we leave? Enter your departure date and the tool shows the days, hours, minutes and seconds left, live. It also shows the numbers that matter when you still have a job to go to: work days left, full weekends and sleeps until the big day.

There is no built-in calendar. Spring break, summer vacation, a long weekend or two weeks of PTO: you pick the date. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.

How to use it

1. Fill in "Departure date". "Departure time (optional)" aims at the time of your flight or road trip; without a time, the countdown ends at midnight, at the start of that day.
2. Add a "Trip name (optional)", such as "Family beach week". It appears as the title and in the line "Family beach week: only 34 days to go!".
3. Under "Work days", untick the days you don't work. "Holidays or days off to subtract" takes days off the total.
4. For the progress bar, enter the "End of your last vacation (optional)".
5. "Add to my trips" puts the trip in "My trips", sorted soonest first (up to 10). "Download .ics reminder" creates a calendar event with alerts at D-30, D-7 and D-1. "Copy share link" gives you a link with the date and trip name.

Example: leaving on Saturday, December 19, 2026

Today is Sunday, November 15, 2026, and you leave on Saturday, December 19, 2026. The tool shows:

Work days are counted from today to the day before departure: Monday, November 16 through Friday, December 18 is exactly 5 weeks, so 25 work days, with no public holidays taken off. In the US, Thanksgiving falls on November 26 that year: if you have it off, enter 1 under "Holidays or days off to subtract" and the count drops to 24. A weekend is full when both Saturday and Sunday come before departure: November 21-22 and 28-29, then December 5-6 and 12-13. If your last vacation ended on August 31, 2026, the bar shows 69% of the way there (76 days out of 110).

Milestones: what to do and when

The "Milestones before departure" section gives the date of each step and a short to-do:

• D-30 (here Thursday, November 19): check passport and ID expiry dates and bookings, and find someone to water the plants or feed the cat.
• D-7 (Saturday, December 12): write the packing list, do the laundry, confirm times. The packing list tool is in the related tools at the bottom of the page.
• D-1 (Friday, December 18): close the suitcase, charge phones and power banks, keep tickets handy, empty the fridge.

For a countdown to a holiday or any other event, the general countdown timer fits better; to count business days with public holidays removed, use the working days calculator.

FAQ

Why aren't public holidays taken off?

The tool doesn't know your country or state. Count the holidays before your departure and enter them under "Holidays or days off to subtract".

Does today count as a work day?

Yes, if it is a ticked work day: on a Monday morning, the current day is counted. Departure day never is.

What is in the share link?

The date, the time if you entered one, and the trip name. Anyone who receives the link sees them. The link is only built when you click "Copy share link".

Are my trips stored anywhere?

Only in your browser, if "Remember my trips and settings on this device" is ticked. Unticked, nothing is kept.