With the start of a brand new year upon us and the festivities of Christmas still very much large in our memories, Brits will already be looking how to make the most of their annual leave allowance over the next twelve months.

In 2024, there will be eight public bank holidays, and the average worker who does a five-day week gets at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year.

With careful strategic planning and clever use of timing around bank holidays, workers will be able to take just 27 days of annual leave and bag 50 days of holiday.

It's worth bearing in mind that this only works if you get bank holidays off as part of your contract with your employer, and this technique won't work for those who work on national holidays.

Full list of Bank Holidays in England and Wales in 2024

The first step is familiarising yourself with the Bank Holidays in 2024. Here is a full list.

  • New Year's Day - Monday, January 1
  • Good Friday - Friday, March 29
  • Easter Monday - Monday, April 1
  • Early May bank holiday - Monday, May 6
  • Spring bank holiday - Monday, May 27
  • Summer bank holiday - Monday, August 26
  • Christmas Day – Wednesday, December 25
  • Boxing Day - Thursday, December 26

Days to book off to maximise annual leave in 2024

  • Monday, March 25 to Thursday, March 28 - If you book off these four days around Easter, combined with the four days listed below in April, you will get two weeks off in a row. This is because in 2024, Good Friday falls on March 29 and Easter Monday falls on April 1.
  • Tuesday, April 2 to Friday, April 5 - Booking these dates off with annual leave, combined with the four March dates listed above, will have you relaxing and eating easter chocolate for two weeks straight. However, if you don't want to use eight days at once, you could just book off the four March dates and you would still get ten days off.
  • Tuesday, May 7 to Friday, May 10 - Booking these four days off will give you nine days off, including weekends. You could leave work on the 3rd and not come back until the 13th.
  • Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, May 31 - If nine days off isn't enough for you, you can also book off these days following the May 27 bank holiday to get another 9 consecutive days off.
  • Tuesday, August 27 to Friday, August 30 - When you're trying to squeeze some extra days out of your summer holidays, working around the bank holiday on August 26 will give you nine consecutive days off from only four days of leave.
  • Monday, December 23, Tuesday 24, Friday 27, Monday 30, Tuesday 31- Any remaining annual leave left at the end of 2024 should be used up on these days. In this scenario, you would get 12 days off for the use of five days holiday.
  • Thursday, January 2 to Friday, January 3 - If you add in two extra days off in January from your 2025 allowance, you could be leaving the office on December 20, 2024 and not going back until January 6, 2025 - a massive 16 days off in a row.