Vacaciones

Let's look at how to talk about vacations and holidays in Spanish.

Vacation

To start, remember that the Spanish equivalent of vacation (British English: holiday) is always plural:

• Se fueron de vacaciones. They went on vacation.
• Estar de vacaciones. Be on vacation.
• Tomar (unas) vacaciones. Take a vacation.

Humorously, I've heard vagaciones, a portmanteau of vacaciones and vagar, wander aimlessly, to refer to a relaxing yet unambitious vacation. (Vago is 'bum', 'lazy person'.)

Holiday

For holiday (American English) or bank holiday (British English), you want día feriado or día festivo.

• Lunes es feriado. Monday is a (bank) holiday.
• El 25 de diciembre y otros días festivos. The 25th of December and other (bank) holidays.

More generally, a día inhábil is a non-work day, for example, Sunday. By extension, a business day is día hábil.

• Por cierto, lunes es inhábil. By the way, the office is closed on Monday.
• Cinco días hábiles. Five business days (so Saturday, Sunday and holidays are not counted).

A long holiday weekend is called a puente, literally, a bridge. Hoy es puente. It's a three-day (or four-day) weekend (now). Note that puente is masculine: el puente.

Descansar

To say 'day off', use the verb descansar.

• Descanso el lunes. I'm off on Monday. (Not necessary all Mondays.)
• Descanso los lunes. I'm off on Mondays. Monday is my day off (always).
• Mis días de descanso son lunes y martes. I don't work on Mondays and Tuesdays.