Hack Your Annual Leave in 2025 for More Days Off

Last updated: 10 March 2025

As the return-to-the-office mandate continues to gain momentum, the need for a healthy balance between work and life is more crucial than ever.

If you’ve got itchy feet and ready to go exploring, here’s your guide to maximising your annual leave days to say cheerio to your office crew, and g’day to your passport.

We’re always on the lookout for ways to get more days off work in order to travel more.  Utilising bank holidays and weekends, if you can add in rostered days off then you’re well on your way to discovering more of the world and spending less time in the office.

For 2025, I thought we all deserve a break and figured I’d go a bit deeper and help you swindle a few more days out of the office. By planning ahead then you could feel like you’re getting much more time off for your annual leave than if you leave it until the last minute.

Hack! – Insider Tip

Most workplaces open their leave calendar at the beginning of the year when everyone returns to work. That means it’s time to start planning now, and make this a priority the moment you return to work. 

My suggestion is to go gung-ho and book your entire allowance up front in order to secure the best combinations, and tweak it closer to the time most workplaces allow this. If your work doesn’t allow changes, you need to be more strategic with your bookings. 

Keep scrolling down to discover which dates you need to book off and some ideas for what you can do to make the most of your time off.

Hacking Your Annual Leave in 2025

In the UK, your average 9-to-5 worker gets 8 bank holidays plus 28 days statutory annual leave days.

We practice what we preach, leveraging any opportunity to take extra time off and have a break. Somehow we often manage to hold down full time jobs and still travel 15 trips a year. 

In the past, we have favoured city breaks, Old Town squares, and local restaurants in the backstreets. In 2025, that may be very different. For us, we’re spending more time in Australia with family. For you it might mean half-term and school holidays, opting for road trips, staycations & local adventures, and even exploring the great outdoors with walking trails and rural adventures to keep costs lower.

March/April

Spring is one of the best seasons to travel, because the weather is fantastic across the entire continent and it’s often considered a shoulder season which means better deals on hotels, flights and tours. 

In 2025, Easter comes late with Good Friday coming in on 18 April, and Easter Monday the following Monday.

If you do want to go on an epic trip to say Australia, April is a great time to go. Take the week before Easter for 16 days holiday off using 8 days of leave.  

Trip ideas for March/April:

• Find your zen at this Surf & Yoga retreat in Morocco
  
• Head to South Africa for a safari in search of the Big 5 and the charms of Cape Town 
  
• Discover the highlands of Scotland before sailing across the Norwegian Sea to explore the fjords of Norway

Epic Adventure Ideas:

• Spend three weeks exploring Australia’s East Coast, departing Sydney and ending with you snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage site
  
• Discover 13 countries in Western Europe with a few days on the Greek islands 

May

May is again a brilliant time to travel with shoulder season prices and the weather is spectacular as summer rapidly approaches. In the UK, workers are blessed with not one, but two bank holidays. 

While early May might be a little chilly for jumping off a yacht into the Mediterranean, late May brings even more possibilities. 

Trip ideas for May:

• Spend 9 days exploring the rugged wilderness of Bosnia & Herzegovina on this walking tour
  
• See the best of Sicily, with a stunning coastline and volcanic landscapes, and savour aperitivo and Palermo’s street food scene on this Italian adventure
  
• Head to the wide open spaces of Canada and discover the Heart of the Rockies

Not quite ready for a group tour? That’s ok, here’s some ideas for independent travel:

UK Road Trip: Scotland 

The Scottish Highlands are insanely beautiful all year-round but in May they burst into life. Brightly coloured blooms of wildflowers dot along the landscape and it’s still cool enough to keep those horrid midges away.

Independent European Travel: Georgia 

Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, is a real up and coming destination. At its best when you avoid the summer heat and humidity as well as the freezing temperatures of winter.

May in Georgia is harvest time is well worth a mention, especially around the vineyards of Kakheti, Georgia’s foremost wine region with 4,250 square miles of rolling vineyards.

August

August has to be my least favourite time of year to travel in Europe.  Yes the weather is glorious, but everywhere is heaving with people, flights and hotels are at peak prices, and everything is ridiculously busy. 

For this reason, we don’t travel much in August. It’s a great time to seek adventure in lesser known destinations, avoiding busy cities which will certainly be busy with tourists.

Trip ideas for August:

• Bordering Austria and Switzerland, Trentino in Italy is best known for the beauty of its peaks of the Dolomites. Spend time in an Agriturismo, an italian farm stay, while embracing the great outdoors with hiking in some fresh mountain air amongst spectacular scenery. 

• A road trip through Iceland in summer is simply glorious.  It’s one of the few opportunities throughout the year where you can drive the full ring road which circles the island.  August is also optimal wildlife-viewing opportunities with the migration of puffins & whale watching.

• Like the heat? Head to Jordan as you learn about ancient civilisations, and sleep under the stars in a luxury desert camp and forest cabin. 

December

December means classics of ultra-festive Christmas markets like Nuremberg with the scent of mulled wine and roasted chestnuts in the air, and in parts of Europe there’s flakes of freshly fallen snow flakes floating down from above.

Many companies have a closure period over Christmas and give days off to staff. Note this before booking your leave, you may just end up with a few days left over! 

Despite the ridiculous price hike in airfares at this time of year, Christmas in 2025 is a great opportunity for an extended trip. Christmas Day (25 December) falls on a Thursday, therefore Boxing Day is on a Friday, which means the UK and many other places in the world will look for an extra-long weekend for the festive season.

By taking 22-24, 29, 31 December, and 2 January 2026 you will be left with an extended break from the 25 December through to the 3 January 2122, a whopping 16 days off for the price of 7, not bad at all! If

Bank Holidays: 25 December (Christmas Day) 26 December (Boxing Day), 1 January (New Year’s Day)

Trip ideas for December:

• Ditch the European winter in favour of milder temperature in Nepal with this two week adventure. Hike the Annapurna range, trek through the Himalayas, sleep in mountain lodges and raft through a jungle. Sounds serene right? 

• Have you experienced a really hot Christmas? If not, then head to Australia and spend Christmas day on a beach, catching rays and waves. Drive the north coast of NSW, stopping into some quaint little towns along the way for an independent roadtrip like no other. 

• For epic Christmas festivities, try this route through central Europe, crossing four countries and exploring Europe’s most fascinating cities. 

• Escape the European winter and head to Central America to take in three countries in just two action-packed weeks. From Cuzco’s historic centre to the Salt Flats of Uyuni and the modern metropolis of Santiago, you will get a good taste of the continent and whet your appetite for another visit.

• Once in a lifetime experience is to experience chimpanzee and gorilla trekking in Uganda! December is ideal time where the weather is dry, but the landscapes are lush and green.  Our dear friend Bella has some great content on Uganda. If you’re looking to go, check out her blog for content.

2025 Bank Holidays in England & Wales 

• 1 January – New Year’s Day
• 18 April – Good Friday
• 21 April – Easter Monday
• 5 May – Early May bank holiday
• 26 May – Spring bank holiday
• 25 August – Summer bank holiday
• 25 December – Christmas Day
• 26 December – Boxing Day