Philippine Holidays 2027: Long Weekends and Leave Planner

The 2027 holiday list is out, and it is a year of mixed luck. Five holidays land on a Saturday and give office workers nothing extra, yet Holy Week, Undas and the last week of December all line up neatly with weekends. With a handful of well-placed leave days, 2027 can give you eight proper breaks and two very long ones.

Malacañang set the dates in Proclamation No. 1427, signed on 8 September 2026. Below is the full list, then the long weekends worked out day by day, the leave days that pay off most, and what each break is good for once you factor in weather, crowds and fares.

One thing to keep in mind before you mark the calendar: a special non-working day means "no work, no pay" for private employees unless the company or a contract says otherwise. Check how your employer treats those days, because it changes how much a long weekend really costs you.

The official 2027 holiday list

Regular holidays: New Year's Day (Friday, 1 January), Maundy Thursday (25 March), Good Friday (26 March), Araw ng Kagitingan (Friday, 9 April), Labor Day (Saturday, 1 May), Independence Day (Saturday, 12 June), National Heroes Day (Monday, 30 August), Bonifacio Day (Tuesday, 30 November), Christmas Day (Saturday, 25 December) and Rizal Day (Thursday, 30 December).

Special non-working days: Chinese New Year (Saturday, 6 February), Black Saturday (27 March), Ninoy Aquino Day (Saturday, 21 August), All Saints' Day (Monday, 1 November), All Souls' Day (Tuesday, 2 November), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Wednesday, 8 December), Christmas Eve (Friday, 24 December) and the Last Day of the Year (Friday, 31 December).

Special working day: the EDSA People Power anniversary on Thursday, 25 February. Offices and schools stay open.

Eid'l Fitr and Eid'l Adha are not on the list yet. The government announces them separately once the dates on the Islamic calendar are settled, usually only a week or two ahead. By the lunar calendar, expect Eid'l Fitr around the second week of March and Eid'l Adha around mid-May, and treat both as bonus days you cannot book against until the proclamation comes out.

Every long weekend, with the leave it costs

This assumes a Monday-to-Friday job. "Leave" means the vacation days you would file to stretch a break further.

Two moves stand out. Three leave days in Holy Week turn four days into nine, and three leave days after Christmas join the two December weekends into a ten-day run that ends on Sunday, 2 January 2028. If you only have six leave days to spare all year, those are the six to use. The single day before Bonifacio Day is the cheapest win of all: one form, four days.

The losers are Labor Day, Independence Day, Chinese New Year, Ninoy Aquino Day and Christmas Day, all on Saturdays. A few companies give a weekday in lieu, but most will not, so do not plan trips around them until HR says so.

What each break is good for

New Year, 1 to 3 January

Fares and room rates are still at their December peak, and the return trip on Sunday the 3rd is crowded. Keep this one short and close to home, or skip travel and save the money for later in the month. In Cebu, Sinulog follows two weeks later, with the grand parade on Sunday, 17 January; the dates and what is confirmed so far for Sinulog 2027 are worth checking before you book a January hotel.

Holy Week, 25 to 28 March

This is the break everyone wants, and buses, ferries and beach rooms go first. Seats for the Wednesday before Maundy Thursday are the hardest to get, so book that leg as early as you can, or leave on Thursday morning when most people are already where they are going. March is dry across most of the Visayas, which helps, but popular islands fill up and some towns ban liquor sales on Good Friday. If you want Lenten tradition rather than a beach, the Moriones Festival in Marinduque runs through these same days.

Taking the 22nd to the 24th off means you can set out the weekend before, when seats and rooms are easier to find, and still be home by Easter Sunday.

Araw ng Kagitingan, 9 to 11 April

April is reliably hot and dry, and seas are usually calm, so this is a good weekend for snorkelling and short boat crossings. Three days is tight for anything involving two flights. One base and two day trips works better: Dumaguete with Apo Island one day and the waterfalls of Valencia the next, for example. For more ideas within a few hours of the city, see these Negros Oriental weekend getaways at different budgets.

National Heroes Day, 28 to 30 August

Late August sits in the southwest monsoon and the middle of typhoon season. Long ferry routes and island-hopping can be cancelled at short notice when the coast guard raises a gale warning. Pick trips that still work in the rain: food crawls, museums, cooler towns in the hills, or waterfalls that run strongest in the wet months. Book refundable rooms and watch the weather bulletins the week before.

Undas, 30 October to 2 November

Four free days, but bus terminals and ports are packed with people heading home to visit family graves, and the roads near large cemeteries are slow on the 1st and 2nd. If you are not going home, travel against the flow: leave on Saturday morning rather than Friday night, head somewhere without a big provincial cemetery crowd, and expect the heaviest return traffic on Tuesday afternoon. Filing Wednesday the 3rd lets you come back after the rush clears.

Bonifacio Day and Immaculate Conception

These two late-year breaks are the value picks of 2027. Late November and early December come before the Christmas fare surge, many resorts have not switched to holiday rates yet, and the northeast monsoon is settling in, so seas on west-facing coasts are often calm. Four days for one leave in late November, then five days for two leaves around 8 December, makes a good pair if you would rather travel before the holidays than during them.

Christmas Eve to 2 January

This is the most expensive stretch of the year for flights and ferries, and the one where waiting costs you most. If you want the full ten days, file the 27th to the 29th early, since many offices limit how many people can be off that week. Set fare alerts by September. When flights are sold out, overnight ferries and long-distance buses often still have room, and they let you skip a night's hotel too.

A booking timeline for 2027

File leave as soon as your company opens the 2027 calendar, ideally before the end of this year, for Holy Week and the last week of December. Lock in Holy Week transport and rooms by late January. Check typhoon-season trips for refundable terms in July. Book Undas and the late-November weekend by early October, and December travel no later than September.

Keep two leave days unassigned until the Eid dates are proclaimed. If Eid'l Fitr or Eid'l Adha falls next to a weekend, a single extra day can turn it into a four-day trip, and you will be glad you held something back.

Local holidays also matter. Cities and provinces declare their own non-working days for charter anniversaries and festivals, and these can close offices and clog roads even when the national calendar is quiet. Check the local government's announcements for wherever you are heading before you finalise the dates.

Plan around the anchors and 2027 gives a lot back for very little leave: zero days for Holy Week and Undas, one day for late November, and three for the ten-day year-end run. Print the table, file early, and leave the Saturday holidays as a bonus if your employer offers one.