If you're a fairly organised person, chances are you're already thinking ahead to booking the rest of your time off for 2018.
One of the tricks to maxing out your holiday allowance is booking your annual leave around bank holidays.
If you want to get long stretches of time off, then we've got a list of when you need to book off.
Sadly, 2018 is not as good a year as 2017 for this, when it was possible to get 19 days off using just seven days of holiday, due to the time Easter fell and the day of the week Christmas was on.
Easter is far earlier this year, which means there isn’t a small two week gap between the Easter bank holiday and May Day, ChronicleLive reports.
24 days in May using just 14 days of leave
If you’re lucky enough to have an employer who will let you take more than two weeks off at once, or have your eye on an extended trip away next year, there is a window of opportunity between the May bank holidays, which are just three weeks apart this year.
Monday, May 7 and Monday, May 28 are the two bank holidays that month.
If you book holiday around both you can get 24 days off in a row using 14 days of annual leave.
This can be done by booking May 7 - May 28 (inclusive) off work, so your final day would be Friday May 4, returning to work on Tuesday, May 29. The time off includes weekends.
Another opportunity is one which presents itself every year - the four-day Easter weekend.
Good Friday is on Friday, March 30 with Easter Monday on Monday, April 2.
Over Easter, you can grab 14 days off in a row by using just eight days of holiday, if you book Monday, March 26 to Friday, April 6 off. That includes Good Friday, Easter Monday and weekends. Your first day off would be Saturday, March 24 and you would return to work on Monday, April 9.
Similarly, with Christmas, there is a window to get more consecutive days away
Christmas Day is a Tuesday, December 25 with Boxing Day on the following Wednesday, December 26 and New Year’s Day the Tuesday (January 1) after Christmas. That’s three bank holidays to play with and a weekend in between.
If you book Monday December 24, to Friday January 4 off work, you can get 16 days off in a row using eight days of holiday. Your first day off would be Saturday, December 22 and you would not return until Monday, January 7, 2019. Assuming you get weekends off, that is.
And if you’ve got holiday left to take this year, you can really maximise your time off for Christmas 2017
That’s because Christmas 2017 is on a Monday, which makes December 25, and Boxing Day (Tuesday, December 26) bank holidays, which come immediately after a weekend.
Then the following Monday, January 1, 2018, is also a national day off.
So if you book December 27 to 29 as holidays, you can get 10 consecutive days off work by using only three days of annual leave.
Bank holiday dates in 2017 and 2018
2017 remaining bank holidays:
- Monday, December 25 - Christmas Day
- Tuesday, December 26 - Boxing Day
2018:
- Monday, January 1 - New Year’s Day
- Friday, March 30 - Good Friday
- Monday, April 2 - Easter Monday
- Monday, May 7 - Early May bank holiday
- Monday, May 28 - Spring bank holiday
- Monday, August 27 - Summer bank holiday
- Tuesday, December 25 - Christmas Day
- Wednesday, December 26 - Boxing Day
