As 2025 draws to a close and the new year approaches, some travel enthusiasts might be looking for ways to fit more trips into the coming months.
Fortunately, if you plan ahead and book annual leave in crafty ways it’s possible to get chunks of time off work without using lots of precious paid leave.
The best approach to maximising your annual leave is taking advantage of public holidays.
There are eight bank holidays next year in England and Wales, and they are key to making the most out of your days off and getting to travel around more.
At the start of the year, booking Friday, January 2, 2026 off will bag a four-day break as most employees will have New Year’s Day off.
Easter is another good time to get a chunk of time off work.
If you book March 30 to April 2 as well as Tuesday April 7 to April 10 you only use eight days of leave but will have an impressive 16 days off.
This is due to Good Friday being on April 3 and Easter Monday on April 6.
In May there are two bank holidays – May 4 which is the Early May bank holiday, and May 25, the Spring bank holiday.
If you book the following four days off after each one, you’ll be able to enjoy nine days in a row off on both occasions.
The last bank holiday during the summer months to take advantage of will be August 31, 2026.
Booking the four days after it off will bag another nine days for one final sunny getaway.
As for Christmastime, the big day happens to be on a Friday and Boxing Day will be on a Saturday.
This means the Boxing Day bank holiday will be substituted to Monday December 28.
The timings mean you only need to book seven days off to bag 16 and really enjoy the Christmas period.
Research released earlier this year revealed which week the most people booked off during the summer holidays.
By analysing data of more than 230,000 annual leave requests for summer 2025, a study found the most popular week to book off was the week commencing August 4, with 17.51 per cent of annual leave requests submitted during this time.
The second most popular August date for holidays is the week commencing 18 August, with 16.72 per cent of annual leave requests submitted.
Following in third place is the week commencing 28 July.
And in fourth place, the week commencing 11 August, with 16.55 per cent and 16.53 requests of annual leave put forward respectively.
