Easter holidays 2026–27: when it is, and who differs

The usual dates

Councils that break at a different time

A council marked off-peak is on holiday in a week when most of England is still in school. That is a legal, penalty-free, off-peak window if you live there.

The window that moves - and the one worth planning around

• Easter shifts by more than a month between years, and councils split over whether to follow it. That is exactly why this break diverges more than any other, and why it is the best chance of finding a week your schools are off and most others are not.
• An early Easter still has skiing at altitude and a Mediterranean that is too cool for the beach.
• A late Easter is the opposite: most Alpine resorts are closing, and Greece, Spain, Portugal and Turkey are genuinely pleasant without summer prices or summer heat.
• The clocks go forward at the end of March, so a later break gets usefully long evenings.

Guidance, not a price promise — this site holds no pricing or availability data.

Councils using the usual dates