Ontario school breaks for the 2026/27 year
Published October 5, 2026 · HolidayWow editors · Written with AI, numbers checked against our data ·
Ontario students get two main breaks in the 2026/27 school year: Christmas break from December 19, 2026 to January 3, 2027, and March break from March 13 to 21, 2027, both set by the province's official school calendar.
- Christmas / winter break
- Sat, Dec 19 to Sun, Jan 3
- March break
- Sat, Mar 13 to Sun, Mar 21
The two breaks, confirmed
Ontario's 2026/27 school calendar sets two main stretches away from class. Christmas break opens on December 19, 2026 and runs through January 3, 2027, a span that covers both the holiday and the first days of the new year. March break follows on March 13, 2027 and closes on March 21, 2027.
These dates come from the CA-ON official school calendar, published by the province and checked here on October 1, 2026. Boards set the detail within this provincial window, so the specific day your children finish class can sit a day either side; the span above is the one to plan a trip around.
Having both breaks confirmed this early matters for booking: stays and flights tend to move in price as the break approaches, so families who fix a destination and dates in the fall tend to have more stays to choose from than those who wait until the new year.
March break: where families are looking
March break sits in the window families use for a reset before spring, and Vietnam is one place that lines up with it well: in March, days there reach 28°C with nights near 21°C, 6 hours of sunshine and 7 rain days across the month, a useful read if a longer, warmer trip is on the list.
VietnamA trip this far suits families who are building the whole break around one longer destination rather than splitting the days between two shorter trips, since the plan can show the live distance and travel day from your home city as soon as you add it.
The travel day itself is worth planning as its own stretch of the trip: a long outbound leg followed by an easier first day on the ground once everyone has had a night of real sleep.
VietnamWarm-weather ideas worth knowing for other months
Outside the break windows themselves, a few destinations are worth having on your radar for whenever your household's travel dates land. Punta Cana's busiest month by the numbers here is August, with days at 29°C, nights at 28°C, sea at 29°C and 17 rain days; Spain's quieter window shows in January at 11°C by day and 1°C by night.
Portugal
WhistleriPhoto: Iwona Erskine-Kellie from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsPortugal in June runs 21°C by day and 17°C overnight with 11 hours of sun and 3 rain days, one of the driest readings in this set, while the Bahamas in April sits at 25°C by day and 24°C at night. Whistler in September cools to 14°C by day and 5°C overnight, a shoulder-season option for a Canadian trip that skips the flight altogether.
None of these line up with the break weeks themselves, so treat the numbers as a read on each place's character for whichever month your household actually travels; the plan shows live weather for your real dates once they are set.
PortugalWhistleriPhoto: Iwona Erskine-Kellie from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia CommonsAll school break dates 2026/27: Ontario
| Break | From | To | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas / winter break | Sat, Dec 19 | Sun, Jan 32027 | 16 |
| March break | Sat, Mar 132027 | Sun, Mar 212027 | 9 |
Source: CA-ON official school calendar. Individual schools may add their own days off.
School break calendar 2027
- Holiday
- Vacation day in a long weekend
- Weekend
- School breaks
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Turning a break into a longer trip
Ontario's 10 typical annual leave days, combined with either break, stretch further when they're planned around Canada's statutory long weekends. The Long Weekend planner on HolidayWow (ca/long-weekends/2027/) turns public holidays and leave days into longer trips using official holiday data, so a few added days off either side of Christmas break or March break can become a full week away.
A common search pattern among Canadian families is something close to "Cancún for March break"; the planner reads a sentence like that directly, pulling out the place, the month and the group it's for.
Planning the trip once the dates are set
Once you know which break you're building around, the plan itself starts from one sentence or a spoken description, for example naming the destination, the number of travellers and the pace you want. The plan draws every day as a route on the map, with each stop pinned and each leg's travel time shown, so the shape of the week is visible before a single stay is booked.
Three pace settings, relaxed, balanced and packed, cover the range from a slow Christmas break at the cottage to a full, activity-led March break abroad, and either can be set for the whole trip or changed day by day.
Booking and sharing across the household
Stays, tours and transport are shown with real partner prices, through Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Viator, Trip.com and flight partners, or a live price check button rather than an estimate, so the budget conversation happens with real numbers from the start.
A single link opens the same plan for everyone in the family or group, with roles for who can view and who can edit, which matters when grandparents are joining for part of the Christmas break or when another family is tagging along for March break.
Start planning the break
With both break windows confirmed for 2026/27, the next step is naming a place, or a few, and letting the plan take shape on the map. Dates are optional at first; a trip works from a month alone, and the day-by-day detail, weather and prices fill in once dates are added.
A packing list and checklist build themselves from the plan, the month and the climate at the destination, and a document vault keeps passports, boarding passes and hotel confirmations attached to the right trip so nothing is searched for at the airport.
Ontario school breaks for the 2026/27 year: frequently asked questions
When is Christmas break in Ontario for 2026/27?
Ontario's Christmas break for the 2026/27 school year runs from December 19, 2026 to January 3, 2027, according to the official provincial school calendar.
When is March break in Ontario in 2027?
March break in Ontario runs from March 13 to March 21, 2027, set by the CA-ON official school calendar and confirmed as of October 1, 2026.
Do all Ontario boards use the same break dates?
The provincial calendar sets the window boards work within; most follow it closely, though a specific board's first or last day of class can land a day either side of the dates shown here.
How can I turn March break into a longer trip?
Add a few leave days either side of the break and run them through the Long Weekend planner, which lines up Canada's statutory holidays with your dates to find the longest trip for the fewest days off work.
Can the planner handle a trip that starts during Christmas break and runs into the new year?
Yes. A trip is built day by day regardless of which calendar year the days fall in, with weather, pace and bookings carried through the full span once dates are added.
Is HolidayWow free to use for planning a school break trip?
The app is free to download and free to plan with; the plan itself costs nothing, and the live partner prices for stays, tours and flights are what you pay when you choose to book.
