Weekends, Bank Holidays and Getaways: Holidays Are Finding a New Rhythm
There was a time when the summer holiday meant August. The car packed to the very last inch, the children in the back seats and the ferry booked months in advance. You left once, stayed away for a long time and came home just as summer was beginning to draw to a close.
That kind of holiday has not disappeared. But today it exists alongside something very different: long weekends, off-season breaks, road trips, campervan holidays and journeys planned months ahead, together with getaways decided much closer to departure.
Looking at the travel habits of Europeans, with a particular focus on Italy, France and Germany, one common trend emerges: the main holiday is still important, but it is becoming shorter, leaving room for more opportunities to travel throughout the year.
Shorter holidays, more frequent trips
In Italy, the change is already clear.
According to Ipsos Doxa's ongoing travel research programme, ahead of summer 2026, 53% of travellers were planning at least one long weekend of up to three nights. At the same time, 39% were planning stays of between four and thirteen nights, while only 14% expected to take a holiday lasting more than two weeks.
These are not necessarily separate groups of travellers: the same person may plan a main summer holiday while also fitting in one or more shorter breaks during the same season.
The travel calendar is becoming broader too. In 2026, 45% of Italians named July as a month in which they planned to travel, compared with 31% for August and 21% for September.
Holidays, in other words, are no longer concentrated within a single period in quite the same way.
The same trend can be seen in France.
In 2026, the average planned length of French summer holidays fell from 2.1 to 1.9 weeks. At the same time, 28% of French travellers were planning more than one break between June and September, while 48% expected to take a single trip.
Here too, the message is clear: the main holiday remains, but it is becoming shorter and leaving more room for other trips.
In Germany, longer holidays are holding their ground, but people are travelling far more often.
The German market makes this shift particularly striking. The main holiday still lasts around 13 days and, in this respect, travel habits have remained relatively stable. What has changed dramatically is the number of trips people take.
In 2025, 44% of Germans took more than one trip during the year. Ten years earlier, that figure stood at just 15%.
In other words, Germans have not necessarily replaced their longer holiday with shorter breaks.
They have simply added more trips.
And perhaps that is the statistic that best captures the transformation taking place across Europe.
Whether travelling on foot with a suitcase, by car or in a campervan, holiday time is increasingly less likely to be concentrated into one big annual trip.
A mode of transport that adapts to the journey
As opportunities to travel increase, the role of the ferry inevitably changes too.
It can simply be the most practical way to reach an island and spend a few days there, as it is for travellers choosing Elba or Amalfi Coast for a weekend, a short break or even a day trip.
It can be the ferry booked months in advance for a family holiday, with everyone and the car on board, heading to Sardinia or Corsica, where the crossing represents the true gateway to the holiday.
Or it can form part of a longer journey, as in Northern Europe, where cars, vans and campervans board ferries to shorten distances before continuing through fjords, scenic roads and new destinations, making the ferry an integral part of the journey itself.
And perhaps it is precisely this versatility that makes ferry travel so well suited to the way we travel today.
