How I maximise my annual leave for travel in 2025?

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In the UK, most people get 20-25 annual leave days a year on average, plus we usually have 8 bank holidays. By using extra days strategically, you can really maximise your annual leave.

In my corporate job, I get 27 annual leave days, which I’m so grateful for as it means I can travel more. Some companies also offer a salary sacrifice scheme where you can buy extra annual leave, and I take advantage of this—it’s the best way to get extra days off for those trips and maximise your annual leave.

I was lucky and managed to get just over three weeks off over the Christmas period, as you will see from my destination blog posts. We went to Sri Lanka and the Maldives for over three weeks, from 25th December to 19th January.

We were away for 27 days and took 15 days of annual leave to do this trip, thanks to the bank holidays. Using bank holidays and weekends is always the best way to get extra days off.

For Example:

In 2025, Christmas Day is on a Thursday and Boxing Day is on a Friday. This means you’ll enjoy a four-day break without needing to take any additional annual leave, as the two Bank Holidays seamlessly extend into the weekend.

If you take off Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th December, Monday 29th to Wednesday 31st December 2025, and Friday 2nd January 2026, you can use 7 days of leave and be out of the office for 16 days. Additionally, if you take an extra 5 days in January, you could have 21 days off for just 12 days of leave.

You can also do this for Easter bank holidays and for most of the UK bank holidays.