I often talk about finding ways to live life more adventurously and while taking a sabbatical or career break may not be on the cards for everyone, an easy way to make more time to travel is to maximise your annual leave in 2025.

A common reason I hear about why many people put off travel is lack of time. And look, I get it. Life is busy. Most of us have full-time jobs and may also have children who can only travel during school holidays.

But a simple way to be able to travel more in 2025 is to increase your holiday allowance using this simple hack. 

Look ahead to next year’s calendar and book your annual leave around bank holidays in order to give yourself more days off in a row. I do this every year and I know lots of you do now too. In fact, how to maximise your annual leave in 2024 was one of my most popular posts so far this year!

The examples I’ve given below are for people living in the UK. But you can do the same around public holidays in your own country.

Also, I know that some people do not automatically get bank holidays off. (And I really appreciate how hard our medical professions, emergency services and retail staff work.) If this hack isn’t for you, I have another post about how to travel when you don’t have much time.

Request your 2025 annual leave as soon as possible

In the UK most people who work a full-time job are legally entitled to 28 days of paid holiday leave a year. Most office jobs and public service companies will also give their staff bank holidays off.

The key thing to do if you want to maximise your annual leave in 2025 is to get your requests in asap. Dates around bank holidays are always popular, so try and book the time off now – even if you’re not sure how you’re going to use it yet! 

How to maximise your annual leave in 2025

If you are fortunate enough to get the bank holidays off work, here’s how to maximise your annual leave in 2025:

New Year’s Day – If you want to ease yourself into the year after a busy festive period, book off January 2 and 3. This will give you 5 days off in a row and you won’t need to go back to work until January 6!

Easter break – This year Easter falls in the middle of April. So there will be bank holidays on Good Friday (April 18) and Easter Monday (April 21). If you have children, they will get two weeks off school, so this is a great one to maximise your annual leave with. Book off April 14 – 17 and April 22 – 25 to get a whopping 16 days off (including weekends), for just 8 days of annual leave. 

Early May bank holiday – In the UK we have two bank holidays in May and the first one falls on May 5. If you fancy getting a 9 day break while only using 4 days of your leave, book off May 6 – 9. The school holidays won’t have started yet, so this is a good time to travel if you don’t have children. 

Late May bank holiday – For parents, the second May bank holiday is a winner. This year it falls on May 26. So book off May 27 – 30 to get 9 days off for some half-term adventures with your little ones. 

August bank holiday – This is a great hack to use if you need to maximise your time off in the summer holidays. There’s a bank holiday on August 25. So book off August 26 to 29 to get another 9 days off.

December bank holiday – Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day are bank holidays in the UK. So book off December 22 – 24 and 29 – 31 for 13 days off over the festive period. What a perfect way to end the year! 

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