A holiday is a special day for religious or cultural reasons. Christmas, Easter, New Year’s Eve, and culturally significant days like Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico or Saint Patrick’s Day in Ireland are good examples.

There are often extra days that people are allowed not to work which are called public holidays in the U.S and bank holidays in the U.K 

A vacation(American English) is when you take multiple days off from work/school to relax and/or travel. In British English, this is called ”taking holidays”. “To go on a holiday” or “to go on holidays” is specifically for when you travel.

Every employee is also entitled to take other days off which are called “ “vacation days” or “personal days” in the U.S.  Vacation days is time that you can rest or go on a trip. You can use personal days to go to the dentist or doctor. In the U.K and Ireland, it is more common to just say “take a holiday day” or take “holidays” 

Ok, so now we know the differences between holiday and vacation. 

Let’s look at some examples

(American English)

I hope you have a nice vacation!

Have a nice trip!

Enjoy your vacation!

(British English)

Have a great holiday!

Have a nice holiday!

Enjoy your holiday/holidays!

In the final example, holiday and holidays have the same meaning.

But…You can’t say:

Have a nice holidays