The simple trick to double your days off work in 2025: Explained by annual leave experts Leave Dates

LONDON, July 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The UK has some of the least generous statutory leave allowances compared to its European neighbours, and 28 days of leave each year feels like a drop in the ocean.

Some clever Brits have worked out how to double their time off each year with a trick called 'leave stacking', and this cheat sheet will help workers in England and Wales beat their crafty co-workers to those ideal dates in 2025.

It's not magic, nor does it defy space and time. It's simply using bank holidays and weekends to get more consecutive days off using fewer annual leave days.

When does England and Wales have bank holidays in 2025?

• New Year's Day – Wednesday, 1st January 2025
• Good Friday – Friday, 18th April 2025
• Easter Monday – Monday, 21st April 2025
• Early May Bank Holiday – Monday, 5th May 2025
• Spring Bank Holiday – Monday, 26th May 2025
• Summer Bank Holiday – Monday, 25th August 2025
• Christmas Day – Thursday, 25th December 2025
• Boxing Day – Friday, 26th December 2025 

How to get 58 days off using just 28 days of leave:

To plan annual leave around the 8 bank holidays in 2025, book leave on these dates:

• January 2nd and 3rd for 5 consecutive days off around the new year.
• April 14th-17th and 22nd-25th to maximise the extra bank holidays around Easter. This gives 16 days off for the price of 8 annual leave days.
• May 6th-9th and 27th-30th to receive two sets of 9 consecutive days at each end of the month.
• August 26th-29th for 9 consecutive days off, only using 4 days of leave.
• December 22nd-24th and 29th-31st for 13 days over the Christmas and New Year break. 

Phil Norton is the founder of online annual leave planner leavedates.com, which processes hundreds of thousands of leave requests every year for SMEs across the UK.

"Those who are savvy about leave stacking tend to submit their leave requests up to six months in advance," says Phil.

"Our data shows very high competition for days off around bank holidays." 

About Leave Dates
Leavedates.com is an HR tool designed to manage leave and absence for SMEs in the UK and globally. Launched in 2019, the software is available on desktop, mobile and tablet, offering a flexible leave management solution for modern businesses.

Use of Images
Use of calendar images from the leave stacking article is allowed with attribution to leavedates.com