Days out
Autumn half-term 2026: the north starts on Saturday, the middle and south a week later
Region North has the autumn holiday first, from 10 to 18 October. Middle and South follow from 17 to 25 October. Which region are you in, and why can your school deviate?
On Saturday, the autumn half-term begins for part of the Netherlands. Region North has the week off from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 October. Region Middle and Region South follow a week later, from Saturday 17 to Sunday 25 October. That is according to the Dutch government website, Rijksoverheid.
Recommended dates, not fixed dates
For the autumn and spring holidays, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science only gives recommended dates, writes the Rijksoverheid. Your school may deviate from them. You can find out when your school is off in the school guide.
Which region are you in?
The division largely follows the provinces, with a number of exceptions per municipality:
- North: all of Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen, Noord-Holland and Overijssel; Flevoland except Zeewolde; in Gelderland, Hattem; in Utrecht, Eemnes and the former municipality of Abcoude.
- Middle: Zuid-Holland and Utrecht (apart from those exceptions), Zeewolde, a large part of Gelderland, including Apeldoorn, Ede, Harderwijk and Zutphen, and in Noord-Brabant, Altena, except the villages of Hank and Dussen.
- South: Limburg, Zeeland and almost all of Noord-Brabant, plus in Gelderland, among others, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Zevenaar and Zaltbommel.
If in doubt, the full list of municipalities is on rijksoverheid.nl.
And after that
The Christmas holiday is the same for the whole country, from 19 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. In 2027 the spring half-term falls from 20 to 28 February for North and Middle, and a week earlier for South, from 13 to 21 February.