How to make the most of your holiday allowance in 2026

The minimum statutory annual leave for full-time workers on a five-day week in the UK is 28 days – 20 days plus the eight bank holidays. The luckiest among us get 25 days plus bank holidays, totalling up to 33 days off per year. Of course, if you use those extra days cunningly, plotting your holidays around any extra time off you can grab onto, you can set your OOO for double that. In 2025, a late-falling Easter meant many workers could stitch the Easter Bank Holidays onto the Early May Bank Holiday for an extra-long trip. While that’s not the case this year, there are a few hacks to be aware of…

January: take 1 day’s leave and be out of the office for 4 days

Extra days to take off:

In 2026, New Year’s Day falls on a Thursday, 1 January. As it’s a bank holiday, skip the back-and-forth, in-and-out of the office and book Friday 2 January off and you’ve got yourself a four-day weekend – ideal if the New Year’s Eve plans are looking especially tiring. Alternatively, make the last week of the year a two-day sprint after Christmas by taking Wednesday 31 December 2025 off, allowing all the more time for pencilling in cliché New Year’s resolutions or escaping further afield.

Top tip: flights are generally pretty affordable if you book a New Year’s Eve ticket. Lean into an extended Christmas break with a snow-sure escape to Europe – think dog-sledging in Lapland or skiing in the Alps. Or escape winter entirely with a sunshiny break to somewhere far, far away – we particularly like Barbados, Brazil and Belize. Read more about where to go on holiday in January.

Lapland, FinlandGetty Images

Easter: take 8 days leave and be out of the office for 16 days

Extra days to take off:

• Monday 30 March – Thursday 2 April 2026
• Tuesday 7 April – Friday 10 April 2026