Maximise Your Annual Leave
New Year
- Bank holidays
- Friday 1 January
- Leave to book
- Mon 4 – Fri 8 January
- Leave used
- 5 days
- Time off
- Fri 1 – Sun 10 Jan (10 days)
Start the year with a very long weekend and a very short inbox. A Friday bank holiday means you only have to bridge the working week after it, and early January is the quietest week of the year anyway.
Easter Break
- Bank holidays
- Friday 26 March – Monday 29 March
- Leave to book
- Tue 30 March – Fri 2 April
- Leave used
- 4 days
- Time off
- Fri 26 Mar – Sun 4 Apr (10 days)
The most generous bank holiday sandwich in the calendar. Good Friday and Easter Monday arrive as a pair, so all that’s left is the four days that follow.
Early May Bank Holiday
- Bank holidays
- Monday 3 May
- Leave to book
- Tue 4 – Fri 7 May
- Leave used
- 4 days
- Time off
- Sat 1 – Sun 9 May (9 days)
A Monday bank holiday comes with a weekend already attached. Add the four working days after it and you have nine days for the price of four.
Spring Bank Holiday
Quit your job.
- Bank holidays
- Monday 31 May
- Leave to book
- All of it
- Leave used
- 0 days
- Time off
- Sat 29 May – the rest of your life
Hand your notice in on Friday. Smile and wave. Zero days of leave, and as many days off as you like, because the bank holidays no longer matter when every day is one.
Summer Bank Holiday
- Bank holidays
- Monday 30 August
- Leave to book
- None. You are of leisure now, such things are beneath you.
- Leave used
- 0 days
- Time off
- All of it, while the points last
Spend every last air mile. Those air miles and hotel points have been quietly piling up for years, and they all expire long before you’ll next be able to afford a decent holiday. Use them or lose them. Book the long-haul flight you always said you’d save for a special occasion, and consider this the occasion.
Take the room with the view, order the breakfast in bed, and ask whether the lounge does a second helping. Put the whole stay on the loyalty card, and nod politely when the receptionist says “are you travelling for business?”
Christmas & New Year
- Bank holidays
- Monday 27 – Tuesday 28 December
- Leave to book
- None. You are of leisure now, such things are beneath you.
- Leave used
- 0 days
- Time off
- All of it, until the savings object
One last excessive Christmas. Christmas Day lands on a Saturday and the bank holidays follow on the Monday and Tuesday, which is a lot of days to spend at a table with a turkey. Nobody is counting the units now. Pull the crackers, open the good port, and have the third mince pie for breakfast.
This is your last properly excessive Christmas for a while, so treat it as a leaving do that lasts a week. Then comes the quiet bit between the holidays, when you realise nobody is expecting you anywhere on the 4th of January, and you settle into unemployment in a good chair with a blanket and the leftover cheese.
The sum
| Block | Bank holidays | Leave used | Days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year | 1 | 5 | 10 |
| Easter Break | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| Early May Bank Holiday | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| Everything from 29 May | 4 | 0 | 217 |
| Total for 2027 | 8 | 13 | 246 |
And that’s only 2027. From 2028 you’ll have the full year off: 366 days in 2028, the first leap year, so an extra day off for free, and 365 every year after that. It only gets better.
Dates apply to England and Wales. Weekends are included in the days off, as are weekdays, mornings and the whole of November.
Planning from Scotland?
Scotland swaps in a few bank holidays of its own, 4 January and 2 August among them, so shift the first and fifth blocks to match.
Short on leave?
Leave.